Publishing AutoCAD Plug-in

[ltucker22VY7]

I'm getting to the end of creating a plug-in for AutoCAD that is, as of right now, essentially just a string of commands. This is supposed to be an internal tool, but the thought of having it on the app store makes sense for ease of distribution and also in the chance that someone else finds it helpful. 

I am now struggling to begin the process of getting it onto the app store. My main concern is that this is not a standalone app and I'm unsure where to start. I have registered on the app store so that part is out of the way, the submission form is straightforward, but section to upload the app files makes me unsure of what is needed. When it says the accepted files are .zip ... and .msi, I don't know whether it will be okay if I upload a zipped file that contains only my .cs file. 

Apologies if this seems like a very straight forward answer, but I appreciate all of the help.

[_gile · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You should read this page.

[ltucker22VY7]

So @_gile what I gather from this is you suggest a file share system for an internal plug-in? That makes much more sense to me and I appreciate the input.

I will say I have run into an issue with 'netload'-ing the .dll onto a co-workers machine. They have selected the correct .dll, it loads with no errors, however the command is not recognized. I have also made sure to set the 'copy local' to false for the AutoCAD references in the code. I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the a .NET framework version on their computer, but I am unsure. Am up for any suggestions. 

[Ed.Jobe]

If you set up your plugin as a *.bundle, then to "install" it, all you have to do is copy the bundle to one of the folders where AutoCAD looks for bundles.

As far as your problem with commands not being there is because the dll is failing to load. Usually that is because they don't have something installed on their pc that you have referenced on the dev pc.

[ltucker22VY7]

I believe the problem is that I am targeting .NET 4.8. I suppose you cannot install 4.8 on a machine that already has a newer version of .NET, so my question would be is there a work around to this? To my knowledge, 4.8 is the most recent supported version for plug-in development (although I could be wrong).

[Ed.Jobe]

The version of NET that you target depends on the version of AutoCAD you are developing for. For 2021-2024 you need to target 4.8. For 2019-2020, you need to target 4.7.  And yes you can install a previous version of the framework. You can have multiple versions installed. You probably have 2.0 installed even.

Take a look at your project references and make sure that all of them exist on the other pc's.

[kdub_nz]

@ltucker22VY7 , hi,

It's my understanding that the targeted .NET version is installed(or confirmed) along with AutoCAD install.

Framework 4.81 is available.
regards,

[Ed.Jobe]

@ltucker22VY7  So in addition to what @kdub_nz says, if your clients pc is running a different version than your dev pc (you didn't say what version you or they are using), then you can have problems with the references (not necessarily the framework)

[ltucker22VY7]

First I would like to thank you both for the help @kdub_nz and @Ed.Jobe. We are running AutoCAD 2024, and you were correct, my mistake, we both have the correct framework version as well. I've included a list of my references. I'm unsure if they would need to have anything additional as 'AcCoreMgd', 'AcDbMgd', and 'AcMgd' are all included with AutoCAD (to my understanding). I have made sure to set their 'Copy Local' properties to False and rebuilt the project to no avail.

[Ed.Jobe]

You shouldn't need to reference Microsoft.Csharp. They're not going to have that unless they have visuals studio installed. If your app needs that reference, you can install the vs sdk on their pc.

[ltucker22VY7]

This may be silly but, could it be a permissions related issue? When they were downloading the file from me, Microsoft Defender advised against it, is there any way that it could be blocked? Although one would think that if it were blocked there would be some sort of error message.

[_gile]

Hi all,

Keep in mind the referenced libraries in Visual Studio are only needed by Visual Studio to enable compilation and edit time helpers.

On the client machine these libraries which Copy Local is False are part of the .NET Framework, the GAC (Global Assembly Cache) or the targeted application (AutoCAD in this case). I

If you reference some home made libraries, you have to set their Copy Local property to true and deploy them in the same folder as the projetc DLL.

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@ltucker22VY7  a écrit :
This may be silly but, could it be a permissions related issue? When they were downloading the file from me, Microsoft Defender advised against it, is there any way that it could be blocked? Although one would think that if it were blocked there would be some sort of error message.

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If the DLL have been downloaded, it to be unblocked.

[ltucker22VY7]

Thank you all @_gile, @Ed.Jobe, and @kdub_nz for all of your inputs. Figured out that it was an issue with our security and it was blocking the .dll from executing, thankfully it has been resolved.