Including ROBOT Plugin/Add-In to ROBOT Add-In Menu Programatically?

[liam_mchale]

Hello,

Is there a method to have Plugins added to the extensions/add-in menu in Robot on installation or with some sort of scripting action?

Similar to how Frame Generator or Autodesk-Revit Integration are available from within ROBOT's  in Add-ins manager without any configuration or user action.

I am looking for the best method to distribute ROBOT plugins to users across a network. 

Thank you and regards,

Liam McHale

[Romanich]

Hi @liam_mchale ,

https://download.autodesk.com/us/media/adn/how-to-create-add-in-extension-final.pdf

[liam_mchale]

Hi @Romanich , thank you for the quick reply.

I would like a bit more information on the two-part step 9 of the linked guide.

____

9. Registration of created add-in .dll file to enable its visibility in Robot
Structure Analysis

Go to the folder where the add-in .dll file is located and register it by commands:
c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\regasm.exe /tlb /codebase
MyAddin.dll
or
c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe /tlb /codebase
MyAddin.dll

____

9. Making new option available in Robot Structure Analysis pull down
menu

Start RSA, select any structure type, then from Add-ins menu start Add-ins Manage and using “…”
button show path to add-in .dll file, then press Add button.

______

Am I correct in understanding the 2nd part of step 9 indicates that for a ROBOT add-in (.dll), it is required to launch ROBOT and using the ROBOT Add-In menu, to manually select the .dll we registered in the 1st part of step 9. 

I am looking for a way to distribute ROBOT PLUGINS to Users ideally without requiring manual intervention to register the plugin on every machine. For example REVIT Plugins may be registered and made available to users through the use of a manifest file. 

https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2023/ENU/?guid=Revit_API_Revit_API_Developers_Guide_Introduction_...

Is there any similar process for ROBOT? 

Thank You,

Liam McHale

[Romanich]

Hi @liam_mchale ,

Frankly speaking, I haven't tried automatically distributing Robot plugins to users across a network. Just thinking aloud - what if we put the plugin file (assuming it's a single .dll or .exe file that doesn't require installation) on a network drive and run a .bat file on each user's machine only once?

[liam_mchale]

Thanks @Romanich ,

With this process where we 'register' our Plugin .dll/.exe file with a .bat 'install' on user machines do you anticipate we still have a final step where we must:

1) open RSA

2) open the Add-In's manager 

3) 'Add' the Plugin by pointing to the location of the .dll file (which we have registered with our .bat install process) 

or do you anticipate we could include these steps by some process in our .bat install routine and have the Plugin immediately referenced, visible in the Add-In's menu and available for use?

Thanks again,

Liam McHale

[Romanich · Accepted solution]

Hi @liam_mchale ,

The .bat should add a record directly to the Windows registry. In this case, these 3 steps should be eliminated. 

[liam_mchale]

That sounds very promising. Thank you for the assistance on this issue @Romanich .

Regards,

Liam McHale

[heau_a]

Hello, 

I was reading the post and I was wondering about the deployment of my add-in for my coworkers. The fact is I tried to do a field-tested version with one of my coworker so I sent him : 

the TLB file generated by me at the beginning of the coding phase, the lastest DLL file, the addin file. 

For the moment a bat file is useless I want at least to make it work on one computer. But the problem is when he points the DLL file on Robot nothings shows up. And I was wondering if I needed to register maybe the TLB file again on the Windows Registery but the problem is that they can't do TYPELIB and value=1 after and doing it with my TLB file erase it totally. 

Btw I was wondering too if I need to do a special my addin file or if they need to have the same assembly paths cause me I have the path of vs code but I don't think it's a big deal. Here is an example of MyAddin.addin file : 

<RobotAddIn>
  <AssemblyPath>C:\Users\GREINERM\source\repos\MyAddin\bin\Release\net48\MyAddin.dll</AssemblyPath>
  <ClassName>MyAddin.EntryPoint</ClassName>
  <AddInName>Créateur de bardages</AddInName>
  <AddInVendor>Matthieu Corp</AddInVendor>
</RobotAddIn>

If it's possible to help me,

Thank you in advance,

M.G