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Debug standard running PDM add-in

Question asked by David Watkins on Jan 27, 2021
Latest reply on Jan 27, 2021 by David Watkins

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I know how to run and debug an add-in using the right click add-ins>Debug add-in. I use the Attach to Process in VS to attach to Explorer. The add-in is working fine when testing in Debug but when I add it as a standard add-in there is an error for one of the events. I tried to attach to the explorer process and set a breakpoint but I get the "This breakpoint will not currently be hit" message. Does anyone know how to debug a standard running add-in?

I don't think it is relevant but just in case, here is the error

Artem Taturevych Jan 27, 2021 4:38 PM

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Yes, this is described here: Fix 'Class ID could not be found in the registry' PDM add-in error

The difference between those two scenarios is Debug add-in is loaded on your machine only, while when you add add-in it is added to a server and I believe there is a dll conflict with the server components (error might be just misleading and it does not reflect the actual problem).

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Jim Sculley Jan 27, 2021 11:31 AM
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Attach to Process should work. If you right click your breakpoint and select 'Conditions', is the breakpoint set to require matching source:

If so, click the blue text and check the checkbox to allow the source to be different:

If the debugger now breaks at that point, then everything is working in 'Attach to process', but there is something out of sync between your source and the running code. It may be OK, but stepping though the code might go awry at some point.
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- David Watkins @ Jim Sculley on Jan 27, 2021 12:03 PM
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  Thanks for the help, Jim.
  
  As I was going to try out your suggestion, this time I did not get the "This breakpoint will not currently be hit" message and everything looked normal. but it's not hitting any breakpoints.
  
  Then I made a change to the source code, got the message as before, changed it to allow the source code to be different and still not hitting any breakpoints. Any other ideas?
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  - Jim Sculley @ David Watkins on Jan 27, 2021 12:18 PM
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    When you attach to process, and look at the Modules tab, is the correct version of your DLL file listed? Here's one of mine:
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    - David Watkins @ Jim Sculley on Jan 27, 2021 1:40 PM
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      Alright, now some things are starting to make sense. From your screenshot, I saw that my code was Optimized and the symbols would not load. After reading Understanding symbol files and Visual Studio’s symbol settings | Azure DevOps Blog (microsoft.com) I understand what that is. I also found out the setting for optimized is off for debug builds and on for released builds, so that is why sometimes I saw the message and sometimes I did not. I must have used a debug build one time so the symbols loaded.
      
      So now the optimized, symbols and version all match.
      
      But it is still not hitting the breakpoints?
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Artem Taturevych Jan 27, 2021 3:23 PM
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Make sure you add all files from your build directory to the add-in (this is different when you do Debug adding where you only select your add-in file dll). If this is the case - move all your code from the OnCmd into a different function which you call from OnCmd and add try-catch block in OnCmd - this will allow handling the exception of missing dll so you can see which one is failing. Also try to use Fuslogvw.exe (Assembly Binding Log Viewer) from Windows SDK to see the binding errors.

Also see the following 2 articles for the reference:

How to create SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional (EPDM) add-in
Debugging SOLIDWORKS PDM Add-In - Best Practices
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- David Watkins @ Artem Taturevych on Jan 27, 2021 3:58 PM
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  Thanks, Artem.
  
  I tried adding all the dlls for the other packages I am using and got the error below. I am not really using those packages for much right now so after I removed them and re-added the other dlls everything is working.
  
  So do you have any idea what the error is about? When I run it as a debug add-in calling for dapper everything works, what am I missing between running as a debug add-in and just add-in?
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  - Artem Taturevych @ David Watkins on Jan 27, 2021 4:38 PM
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    Yes, this is described here: Fix 'Class ID could not be found in the registry' PDM add-in error
    
    The difference between those two scenarios is Debug add-in is loaded on your machine only, while when you add add-in it is added to a server and I believe there is a dll conflict with the server components (error might be just misleading and it does not reflect the actual problem).
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    - David Watkins @ Artem Taturevych on Jan 27, 2021 5:41 PM
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      Thanks, Artem and Jim, you have been very helpful!
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Debug standard running PDM add-in

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