MicroStation CE U13 SDK. Cannot find the Bentley C# Project addins. Visual Studio 2017 Professional.

Hi Roald,

I am not sure (because I have not used this feature as I see no reason to do it), but I guess  MicroStation SDK never installed Visual Studio project templates automatically.

On the other hand, there is WIP version of the extension available separately.

With regards,

  Jan

Roald Tvedt said:

Cannot find the Bentley C# Project addins

They are not part of the SDK.  Perhaps in the future they will be included.

Like Jan, I've never found the Viz Studio add-in Wizards particularly useful.  It's quicker to copy one of the projects delivered with the SDK and modify it for your needs.  That way, you have something that works immediately, and you know that if it stops working then it's something you did.  

Sometimes the add-in is misleading, which is the last thing you want when you're starting out with MicroStation development.  In the link that Jan mentions, for example, there's this screenshot...

The framework is incorrect!  That should be .NET Framework 4.6.2 for MicroStation CONNECT Update 13.   It's a work-in-progress, and right now that's a Wizard that casts the wrong spells.

Thank you Jon and Jan.

I have been progarmming in MVBA for many years. Jumping to C#.NET and .NET Framework seems to be a  obstacle course before even getting started.

Threrefore it is quite confusing when documentation is bougus and/or more or less unavailable.

But I will fight on following your recommendations and good advice.

Thank you both for your patience with a "expreienced" greenhorn :)

Hi Roald,

Roald Tvedt said:

Jumping to C#.NET and .NET Framework seems to be a  obstacle course before even getting started.

I do not know details and context, but two different challenges exist there: To start with C# and to start use C# in MicroStation. In general, to try to learn these two things together does not mean it's twice more complicated, but ten times more. How MicroStation addins work is complex topic (and I agree it's not explained well anywhere), so the first step should always be to learn C# to be more than beginner (to know static methods, events and delegates, injection, assembly structure etc.).

Roald Tvedt said:

Threrefore it is quite confusing when documentation is bougus and/or more or less unavailable.

As I wrote, I agree ... funny thing is that this is always existing argument, regardless how good documentation exists. Recently I coded something quite simple for ArcGIS Pro, where API documentation and tutorials are just perfect in my opinion, a huge amount of articles and description exist, and in ESRI forum I found a complain "ESRI should invest more to make the dev documentation better, because it's not good enough" :-)))

But documentation and project template are not the same thing. And in my opinion the "just click" assistants make the learning process even worse at the end, because people know nothing about how it works internally. The project wizard can be great help when it's necessay to create 100% standard project quickly and it makes a good feeling you have something working automatically. That's fine, but it's not the learning itself. I have met some "I think I am developer" guys, who depended fully on clicking different buttons in Visual Studio without any serious knowledge about  compiling, linking etc. Just click a button and miracle will happen.

So to survive hard start can be a challenge, but will turn in easier work in future :-)

Roald Tvedt said:

Thank you both for your patience with a "expreienced" greenhorn :)

Well, in fact we are greenhorns too ... CONNECT Edition provides very new API with new concepts and also jump from quite old NET 3.5 to 4.6 brings new features, new C# versions etc., so it's challenging for everybody.

With regards,

  Jan