ArcObjects for .NET Destop Add-Ins

[LeonGosslin]

I am trying to create an ArcCatalog Add-In tool, and everything sets up correctly and I can import it into ArcCatalog and it works.  The problems is that I need to use ArcObjects in the program, and I can't figure out how to get access to the ArcObject libraries.  I have tried to do an add reference and there are no ESRI.ArcObjects in the list.  I have installed the entire ArcObjects SDK for the Microsoft .NET Framework, but no luck.

Can you use ArcObjects in an Add-In tool, or do I have to use an "Extending ArcObjects" type project?  If so, where are the ArcObject libraries located to reference from a .NET app?

Thanks.

[NeilClemmons]

What version of Visual Studio are you using?  If you are using a version that is not supported by the ESRI SDK then you will have to add the references manually by browsing to the assembly files.  These files are in the DotNet folder under the folder where you installed ArcGIS Desktop.  Also, make sure your project in Visual Studio is set to target the correct version of the .NET Framework (which for ArcGIS 10 should be .NET 3.5).  If you are targeting the .NET 4.0 Framework then I don't think the assemblies show up in the References dialog on the .NET tab.

[LeonGosslin]

Hey Neil, thanks for your response.  I am using Arc 10 and Visual Studio 2008 targeting framework 3.5.  I found the DotNet folder under the DeveloperKit10.0 directory that had all the ESRI dll's in them, and there is a bunch of dll's such as ESRI.ArcGIS.3DAnalyst.dll, ESRI.ArcGIS.3DAnalystUI.dll, ESRI.ArcGIS.ADF.Connection.Core.dll, etc., but nothing in there with ArcObjects.  From looking on Google, it looks like there should be dll's called ESRI.ArcObjects.whatever in there, but I can't find them.  I tried reinstalling the ArcObjects SDK for Microsoft .NET Framework, but that didn't do anything new. 

Not sure where to go from here.  Are the ArcObject dll's suposed to be installed with the DotNet Developer kit?

Thanks.

[NeilClemmons]

Those are the dlls you need.  All of the ArcObjects classes are in the ESRI.ArcGIS namespace.  If you're looking at something that refers to the ESRI.ArcObjects namespace then that's probably about 10 years or so out of date.  Here's a link to the current ArcGIS 10 Developer Help:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/ao_home.html

The API reference is a tab at the top of the page.  It also includes several other help topics that you may find useful.

[LeonGosslin]

oic...I have been out of the ArcObjects stuff for a while...thanks for your help man...