Add-in distribution within your company

[ThomasRambach]

I've read through this article and am wondering how you all distribute add-ins within your company. Users in my company do not always have admin rights to their machines so %PROGRAMFILES%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins isn't an ideal solution.

Using %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins will result in AutoCAD prompting the user "The publisher of this executable could not be verified". I think this will be confusing if I ask them to have to click anything correctly. 

So for AutoCAD, it sounds like the only option is to sign the DLL to distribute it. I read some articles about self singing using powershell which I did but I still get the message in AutoCAD that it is not trusted. How do I know if I created the certificate correctly? Is it really required to purchase a certificate to distribute the DLL internal to my company? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[moogalm]

Hi,

Did you install the certificate in the store ?

May be this can help you

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2015/04/how-to-avoid-trust-this-publisher-dialog.html

[dgorsman]

Users should have consistent rights; there shouldn't be some who are local admins, some who are full admins, and some who are locked down.  If some require local admin rights, then all should be; local admin is usually best for those working with engineering software.

Otherwise, you should see to automated distribution using rights which are separate from those associated with the current user.

Some of that also depends on whether you are distributing actual "bundles" or just DLLs, and whether you install AutoCAD in the default location.

[ThomasRambach]

I don't have control over the permissions they are granted.

I'm following this advice: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net/code-signing/m-p/5567887/highlight/true#M43896

$84/year for a certificate to sign the DLL is reasonable.