Introduction

The instructions in this chapter guide you step-by-step through the process of creating an AutoCAD Map 3D plugin that modifies the AutoCAD Map 3D user interface. For a more detailed description of user interface plugins, see Creating User Interface Plugins.

C# is used in the following example, but all .NET programming languages can be used to create plugins.

In this example, you will create a new document menu item by performing the following tasks:

• Create a new Visual Studio C# project that builds a class library (that is, a file with a “.dll” extension).
• Configure the project so that your plugin and the related files are written to the bin folder in the AutoCAD Map 3D install folder when you build your project.
• Configure the project so that AutoCAD Map 3D is started when you run your plugin from Visual Studio.
• Configure the project with the class references your plugin class needs.
• Review the assembly properties to verify that the default values are valid.
• Add code to the default class.
• Create a AutoCAD Map 3D plugin definition file (identified by the .tbp extension) so that AutoCAD Map 3D knows about your plugin.
• Test your plugin.

The intent of the plugin is to add a menu item to the context menu within the Document Explorer in the AutoCAD Map 3D task pane. Selecting the menu item causes a message box to be displayed with the common “Hello World” text.