Opening Visual Studio in ArcGIS

Question

Hey folks....this is probably a really silly question, but...I can't figure it out.

I just installed the .NET SDk for ArcGIS 10. Before it installed, it prompted me to download MS Visual Studio 2008, which I did. I finally got the SDK to install and I want to start playing around. I haven't touched this stuff in about 3 years, so the last I remember in ArcGIS 9.2, you could open ArcMap, Go to the tools menu and there was a drop down that allowed you to open visual studio. I can't seem to find that at all. I went to open a visual studio project from the start menu, and all I see if a folder for and I can't even find the prompt to open Studio (See picture) Can someone point me in the right direction? I'm literally just getting started with developing again....so call me a noob 🙂

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12971[/ATTACH]

Thanks,
Mike

Studio.jpg

JimIsbell · Answer

@Neil,

Thank you SO MUCH. This works PERFECTLY!

ESRI developers can sometimes really confound my sense of consistency. I found in the online documentation an "ArcGIS Explorer Style Guide for Developing Add-ins", in which it explains how the ESRI.ArcGISExplorer.Application namespace returns an IWin32Window reference. EXACTLY THE OBJECT I WOULD NEED for my ArcMap add-in. Except that the ArcMap add-in's My.ArcMap.Application object exposes just the hWnd integer property.

MyForm.Owner = My.ArcMap.Application.Window
How much easier THAT would have been! But I suppose I may find other uses for the ModelessDialog class.

Your help is MUCH appreciated!

-Jim

NeilClemmons_GISinc · Answer

Neil, VBA is available in 10.1.  I have the licenses installed and have run it.

Thanks for the correction.  Looks like ESRI has had a change of plans.

NeilClemmons_GISinc · Answer

Actually, I can get it to open a form, but the form is not "owned" by the application window, so it floats independently and can get hidden behind the application window or other windows if I'm not careful. I have found a grand total of ZERO help or discussion of this topic so far. Try searching the old forums: http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=93 You probably won't find anything specific to add-ins but you'll find plenty of threads on ArcObjects and general programming questions. To display the form so that it floats on top of ArcMap but doesn't go behind it when the user clicks the main ArcMap window you need to call the overloaded Form.Show method and pass in the form's owner. The owner reference must be of type IWin32Window. ArcObjects doesn't expose a reference to the actual window but you can create your own class that implements IWin32Window as shown below. Public Class ModelessDialog Implements System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window Private hwnd As System.IntPtr '''

''' Returns the form handle. '''

''' ''' ''' Public ReadOnly Property Handle() As System.IntPtr Implements System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window.Handle Get Return hwnd End Get End Property '''

''' Constructor. '''

''' The form handle passed as an IntPtr ''' Public Sub New(ByVal handle As System.IntPtr) hwnd = handle End Sub '''

''' Constructor. '''

''' The form handle passed as an integer ''' Public Sub New(ByVal handle As Integer) hwnd = CType(handle, IntPtr) End Sub End Class To show the dialog you create a new instance of this class and pass it in. All you need is a reference to the ArcMap application so that you can pass in its window handle to the class constructor. Dim form As New yourForm form.Show(New ModelessDialog(m_application.hWnd))