Visual Studio 2013 (Express)

[peter]

Getting Started,

I currently am running Visual Studio 2013 professional, but much of this code can be developed in the Free Express Version (or other development environments).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40787

You can also download a 90 day trial of Visual Studio 2013 Professional

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40763

Also you can see useful examples for dotnet functions in the ObjectARX SDK download available from Autodesk

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=785550

A great resource for programming vb.net for AutoCAD is Jerry Winters book and his download vb.net template works well for starters.

http://www.vbcad.com/vbcaddownloads.htm

As we get started we should have some template files with instructions on how to set up the configurations posted in this thread.

Peter

[matt.worland]

Are you taking advantage of the editing while debugging in 2013 64Bit?

I really enjoy it so far, with the exception of when Im working with text and it doesnt know what to do with text styles. To me that limitation still out weights not being able to edit my code while debugging.

[peter]

I have not tried it yet... But I am running the free 90 day trial of vs2013 and I like it. I am sure I will pay for it when the trial is up.

P=

[irneb]

I've actually started using ShapDevelop instead of VS. Mainly because I'm doing some stuff for Revit (and Revit comes standard with SD installed as the old VBA used to be inside of ACad). But even the stand-alone version (note it's open source so no need for licsensing fees) of SD works fine with debugging inside of ACad (same principles as per VS Pro / Express). Thus far I've not found any reasons for me "needing" VS, especially not Express.

One nice thing I like about SD is it can use many more languages than VS. Not just VB.Net / C# (and with addon F#), but also stuff like Python, Ruby, Boo, etc. Most of these can be used interchangeably within a single project or translated within SD between two languages. There are even extensions to use other languages. So this helps a lot when you can only find examples in one language but not the one you started your project in, or even more helpful is that some languages are just easier to use for some cases than others - this way you can mix-n-match to derive the most effective coding without wasting the time you'd need to re-implement stuff which are already available in another lang.

[matt.worland]

I've actually started using ShapDevelop instead of VS.

Good to know, I hadnt heard of it before. Thanks for the info.

[peter]

irneb...

Would you mind converting the netload example to c#?

I would like to have templates and examples of as many languages as possible here. (not just vb)

I don't have a template for c# but I can read it.

P=

[irneb]

irneb...

Would you mind converting the netload example to c#?I'd be more than happy to. I assume you mean the one in the NetLoad thread? I'll post the converted code there - so it's all in one place.