CAD Forum

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:11 pm What software do you use to make VB.NET macros for SolidEdge? Our IT guy said we would have to use Visual Studio which is $45 per month. Is there any other software that can generate VB.NET code?

KennyG wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:26 pm https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/free ... er-offers/

You can use Visual Studio Code for free. It is a single code file editor but has plugins for different code types.

Visual Studio Community (free) can be used if you fit these requirements:

Organizational License. If you are an organization, your users may use the software as follows:

· Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test applications released under Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved open source software licenses.

· Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test extensions to Visual Studio.

· Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test device drivers for the Windows operating system.

· Any number of your users may use the software only for Microsoft SQL Server development when using the SQL Server Data Tools or the extensions “Microsoft Analysis Services Projects”, “Microsoft Reporting Services Projects”, or “SQL Server Integration Services Projects” to develop Microsoft SQL Server database projects or Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Power BI Report Server, or Integration Services projects.

· Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test your applications as part of online or in person classroom training and education, or for performing academic research.

· If none of the above apply, and you are also not an enterprise (defined below), then up to 5 of your individual users can use the software concurrently to develop and test your applications.

· If you are an enterprise, your employees and contractors may not use the software to develop or test your applications, except for: (i) open source; (ii) Visual Studio extensions; (iii) device drivers for the Windows operating system; (iv) SQL Server development; and, (v) education purposes as permitted above.

An “enterprise” is any organization and its affiliates who collectively have either (a) more than 250 PCs or users or (b) one million U.S. dollars (or the equivalent in other currencies) in annual revenues, and “affiliates” means those entities that control (via majority ownership), are controlled by, or are under common control with an organization.

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:18 am Thanks for the info @KennyG!
I installed Visual Studio Code but I can't figure out how to export it to a .dll or .exe. Do I not have the right extension installed or am I missing something else?

KennyG wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:49 pm I mentioned Code because it is completely free. While I have Code installed, I do also have the full Visual Studio product installed and thus never use Code for SE macros/add-ins.

VS Code is just a code file editor and supports many languages and their native file output, so for instance VB can be saved out to .VB, .VBS, .BAS, etc... and C++ can be saved out to .CPP, .C++, etc... It does not have a compiler by default so cannot create EXE or DLL files OOTB, but you can find Extensions do that for some languages like C++ or there are online compiler options like JDOODLE for VB.NET (https://www.jdoodle.com/compile-vb-dot-net-online/). To be honest, using Code is going to be difficult because it lacks the completeness and niceties of full Visual Studio, but if "free" is your only option and you don't qualify for VS Community, not sure what other options you have.

I did find an open source IDE for .NET languages called SharpDevelop (https://github.com/icsharpcode/SharpDevelop). Know nothing about it other that it appears to be recommended as a free option to VS.

Jaylin Hochstetler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:30 pm Do you know of any good resources? I have done a little bit of programming in Python and VBA, just enough to get the gist of it and to get myself in trouble.

SPerman wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 2:44 pm There is a free version of visual studio. Will that not work for some reason? Visual Studio Community:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/