That's an easy one - the filename of your DLL in the plugin.xml is incorrect As the message says

Ha, ha, "easy one" ... some how I knew you were going to say that... Ok let me rephrase LOL... I know what's wrong, just not why it's wrong... For the life of me I can't see why the file name (MyFirstPlugIn.dll) is incorrect when that is the name that I have in my plug in folder of the DLL file... Here is my plugin.xml file....

<?xml version="1.0" ?> <PluginV1XML xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <FRIENDLY_NAME>MyFirstPlugin</FRIENDLY_NAME> <DLL_FILENAME >MyFirstPlugIn.dll</DLL_FILENAME> <AUTHOR_NAME>Richard R</AUTHOR_NAME> <LICENSE_URL>https://synthiam.com/tutorials/plugin-license.aspx</LICENSE_URL> <PLUGIN_GUID>233f4787-4d44-4ec7-8b4c-00aace3d1f30</PLUGIN_GUID> <CATEGORY_TYPE>Beta</CATEGORY_TYPE> <DESCRIPTION /> </PluginV1XML>

Maybe it's case sensitive?

*Edit: i'm just waking up and so is my brain. I should have not suggested that. There is no case sensitive in Windows.

Show me a screenshot of your output folder where the plugin.xml is.

I copied and pasted the MyFirstPlugIn.dll file name into the xml file and saved it... Compiled my project again. I then went to my Visual Studio project folder and found the plugin.xml file... copied it and pasted it into the ez robot plugin folder of my unique plugin (with MyFirstPlugIn.dll already being there) GUID... I have done something wrong somewhere.... I guess I could delete the plugin and start over...?

You should not need to delete the plugin and start over.

The files will copy themselves to the build output folder when you build the project (CTRL SHIFT B). You do not need to copy the files manually.

I suspect the path is incorrect - what is the exact path to your output folder? For example...

[feature] C:\Users\Public\Documents\EZ-Builder\Plugins\60db819e-e6ab-4d18-89eb-b253f1bb4183 [/feature]

The output path looks weird even though I navigate to the correct ez robot plugin folder it always defaults to what you see below... the output folder as I enter it before saving...

The exact path is "C:\Users\Public\Documents\EZ-Builder\Plugins\ 233f4787-4d44-4ec7-8b4c-00aace3d1f30"

I see a space in your path Right before the 233 of the GUID. The directory containing your output path has a space in it.

For example, you specified this... [feature] C:\Users\Public\Documents\EZ-Builder\Plugins\ 233f4787-4d44-4ec7-8b4c-00aace3d1f30 [/feature]

The correct path should be this...

[feature] C:\Users\Public\Documents\EZ-Builder\Plugins\233f4787-4d44-4ec7-8b4c-00aace3d1f30" [/feature]

*Note: I highlighted in BOLD where the error is in your OUTPUT PATH declaration. There is a blank space in the directory name of the GUID.

1. Load the properties of the visual studio project

2. Locate OUTPUT PATH

3. Remove the space at the beginning of the GUID

4. Close the properties and save your project

Now that you have corrected the path, the old output folder (the one with the space) will still exist in the PUBLIC Documents folder. You will manually need to delete that folder (the one with the space). Otherwise two plugins will show up and one won't work.

When I compile the xml doesn't get copied (only the dll and pdb files do) to my ez robot plugin folder so I copied it from from my visual studio project folder...

The PLUGIN.XML is not getting copied because you have not executed instruction #8 of STEP #6 of the tutorial. To be more specific, visit this page https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/UserTutorials/146/7

and Look at the instruction #8. You did not specify the PLUGIN.XML to be COPY ALWAYS. That is why the file is not being copied.

We have identified two issues with your plugin project:

1. There is a blank space in the filename of your GUID in the OUTPUT PATH specification

2. The Plugin.XML is not specified to be COPY ALWAYS in the visual studio project

Repair both of those issues and the plugin will work.

Ok it worked dude!... the space was the problem..... I have no idea how the space in the file path got there... I swear I browsed for it... Thanks again... Now I know the process of making plugins maybe I can learn enough C# to make some useful plugins for ARC....

yes, I will go over the install process again and make sure I understand it correctly

Thanks again... :)

Awesome :)

I made a change to ARC which will display more debug information about loading a plugin if there are errors such as you had created.

If you re-download the ARC from this website, it will contain more details to assist in debugging loading plugins. In order to install the ARC, you will have to uninstall the current version. This is because the change is so minor that i did not modify the version number.

1. uninstall ARC from your computer (control panel -> Programs & Features)

2. Install the latest ARC from this website

Now you will have additional debugging information if there are issues with incorrect spelled directories, blank or incorrect guids, or missing DLL files.

Thanks @DJ.... Now I just need to lean C#.... :)

Take a look at my plugins which are released open source. Maybe finish the tic tac toe for me :)

@DJ I would love too... but I think I need this first...

I will look at your code and you never know maybe I can do something.....

Ha, roofers edition! I remember once I was in China and telling the story about your inmoov. I said you were a roofer, and they asked what that was. So I said you fix shingles... Then they thought you were a doctor!

Cool, I am already half way through medical School in China then... Alas, but the reality is now I am just a part time facility maintenance guy for large luggage manufacture....

Anyway, thanks for your help.... I am sure I can do something with the plugins if I put some effort into learning this stuff....