Setting up MS Visual Studio to compile/upload?

A CodeBlocks plugin would also be interesting...

Do you mean sample arduino code blocks in Visual Studio, intellisense style?

If so, yes I think you we are on the same track

The ability to "show related code snippet" example(s) for the current code line, with a "click to insert" option?

If not please then please do explain further

In any event keep the ideas coming

Thanks

http://www.visualmicro.com

Or was I just being a bit thick and you were simply talking about being able to expand and collapse functions in the editor.

Yes that's nice too :slight_smile:

Or, you could google CodeBlocks.

I googled it but just get a lot of techy stuff.

I only have so much time spare at the moment so maybe you can explain more

That doesn't sound like a CodeBlocks plugin is around the corner...
Sorry, I was not clear enough.
Here is what I was referring to : http://www.codeblocks.org/

Oh yes, I see what you mean. I had considered a winavr plugin. It would be quite simple, I'll have a play when i get a mo.

What appealed most about visual studio was the intellisense. Does code blocks provide intellisense for all source files included in the project?

Oh and the most important question does code blocks support CTRL/SHIFT+INS for copy paste? Call me old fashioned!!

The free Visual Studio extension for the Arduino IDE was released in beta today by Visual Micro. The addin supports all arduino/avr boards, all libraries and any other source or header files that you might need.

http://www.visualmicro.com/post/2010/04/11/How-to-enable-arduino-Intellisense-in-visual-studio.aspx

If you don't want to use the addin you might find the supporting files useful.

The supporting files include simple .bat files that break up the arduino sketch compilation into obvious chunks. There is also an empty visual studio project file that provides an example of how to configure a visual studio project to compile arduino sketch files

You can read more about how to compile using visual studio here

http://www.visualmicro.com/post/2010/04/11/How-to-compile-an-arduino-sketch-in-visual-studio-using-avr-gcc.aspx

You can find the quick start guide here

http://www.visualmicro.com/post/2010/04/11/Quick-start-guide-to-arduino-programing-in-visual-studio.aspx

Please email beta@visualstudio.com for an unrestricted beta copy of the software

Visual Micro - Arduino in Visual Studio

I think a fair point was made in this board, therefore, I have decided to make the visual studio addin open source.

Initially it is free to all, when I get a moment i will document and publish the code.

Introduction - Open Source Visual Studio for Arduino

I have been a keen arduino hobbyist for some years, but I have not enjoyed using the arduino/processing IDE. My preference is to use Visual Studio to create Arduino projects. This is why I have created the Visual Micro product, an Arduino AddIn for Visual Studio.

You will find information that explains how to use the product on this site. Use the search bar or "tags" list to find what you are looking for. The forum is a place for ideas, suggestions or general comments and feed back.

Initially I thought it right to charge for commercial use of the product but I have now decided that it should be free and also become open source. The reason for this is that, sites such as DIY Drones and Liquidware make some great products but I have also benefited from their code examples. So this is my opportunity to give to the community.

I have said that I developed this product because I want to use Visual Studio to create and maintain arduino projects. I am not the best developer to do this job and I also do not have much spare time. If anyone else would like to develop this product to be all it can be then I will be happy to supply all the information that I have and provide as much advice as I can give.

Currently in beta, please email for a download link

http://www.visualmicro.com

Kudos for converting it to open-source =)

Yes, kudos! I walked through the installation. Pretty straight forward, and I only guessed wrong a few times. :slight_smile:

Ahhhhh...... Intellisense......

This is excellent news, thank you for the post. If you have time I would like to hear about the "wrong guesses" so I can make things more robust.

Any info will be very helpful.

If anyone has any icons for the the buttons it will save me looking. I am very bad at drawing icons!

On guesses:

One I got right - you wanted a file copied to the
You suggested C:\Users\tl\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins
For me it was C:\Documents and Settings\vherm\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins

Ones I am not sure if I got right, but I see some results so I am hopeful:

Aside from setting the Visual Micro Tools>Options (see web site for more info) you should also do two other things
Where is Visual Micro Tools? Dot you mean Visual Studio>Tools>Options>Visual Micro?

On setting up the locations, I am not sure what to put in GCC Application. I have it blank now.

That is all I can think of for now. Did I mention that I had fumbled my way through it? I have not tried compiling and uploading yet. My project is currently disassembled and my brother wants to drink more than he wants to play robots with me. (shucks, I have to have a beer with him) :slight_smile:

Great feedback thanks.

The avr folder should point to the folder that contains the avr-gcc.exe

Mine is set to c:\arduino\arduinoide\tools\avr\bin. (I will put in more effort to discovering the paths)

Can you try this for me please

When you click in the empty gcc location does it auto fill?

Visuual Micro tools options

Yes, "Visuual Micro tools options" refers to Tools>Options>Visual Micro. I'll make that clearer on the site thanks

Compile and Upload

You will need the gcc location and also to set these two options to true

AllowCompile
AllowUpload

Thanks again

Tim

When you click in the empty gcc location does it auto fill?

No autofill clicking on the empty gcc location. I browsed. The closest I could find to your example was this:
C:\ArduinoIDE\hardware\tools\avr\bin

AllowCompile
AllowUpload

Now set true.

My project is disassembled at the moment. I will download a simple blink example this weekend and try uploading it from the Arduine IDE, and then from Visual Studio with your addin.

Vince

Thanks Vince, I will look at the auto fill for everyone else but it looks like you have the correct folder name

Thanks again

To Tim:

Hi Tim,

great ,

would like to try this , am using C# , VS on a daily basis.

Could you mail me the download, ?

thanks,

Pete

sure, if you send an email to beta@visualmicro.com you should get an email back with a link within an hour or two

thanks

VS2010 doesnt have the C/C++ file extension like listed on the site so I am unable to add the arduino file extensions like in the guide. I tried adding to the "extensions to include" but that didnt work. Any ideas?

I'm not sure you will need it. I didn't bother setting it up in 2010 and it seems to work. It certainly doesn't need any VS settings for the compile, so this would only affect intelliense.

...

Do look at the new VC++ Directories (Include Directories) in PROJECT properties. These really bring the intellisense alive. You need to maintain these manually until ms release a VC.10 addin lib. (See my note on the downloads page about this)

or

If you only use 2010 for arduino then you can globally set the intelliense "include directories" using the View>More windows>property pages>win32