creating c++/cli for projectwise api call wrapper for use in .net

I'm trying to write a wrapper for the aaApi_login3 api call. I have written many wrappers using pinvoke for projectwise, ones that have structures, array of structures, structures inside structures and have gotten all these to work. but I could not get the aaApi_login3 api call to work when using the bentley IMS to login. see this post for stuff on that..

https://communities.bentley.com/products/programming/projectwise_programming/f/projectwise-programming---forum/156222/c-aaapi_login3-with-federated-ims-accounts-how-to-register-callback

the main problem was with getting the callback to work. So I figured I would try going the c++/cli route. I am new to this and I did a lot of research and found a lot of content to get me started. but I am now stuck on whats probably one of the easiest parts and was hoping someone could help me out. so after I created a c++/cli project I tried to reference the dll that contains the aaApi_login3 function "dmscli.dll" it says it cant add this reference as it is not of the same type or version.

so I feel like this is probably something stupid on my end. I saw something about maybe defining something in the properties > linker > additional dependences but wasn't sure.

I'm using this site as my main reference for creating this wrapper.

https://drthitirat.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/use-c-codes-in-a-c-project-wrapping-native-c-with-a-managed-clr-wrapper/

 any help would be appreciated

thanks

JD