GstarCAD 2026 .NET Upgrade Guide

Contents

• #1. Introduction
• #2. Programming Environment
• #3. Install GstarCAD SDK
• #4. Visual Studio 2022 C# .NET Program Upgrade Process
  • #4.1. Upgrade Project File
    • #4.1.1. Open C# Project File
    • #4.1.2. Upgrade Project File
• #Step 4: Click Upgrade selection button.
  • #4.2. Change Reference File
    • #4.2.2. Load Reference File
  • #4.3. Modify Project File
  • #4.4. Compile Program
• #5. Visual Studio 2022 VB .NET Program Upgrade Process
  • #5.1. Upgrade Project File
    • #5.1.1. Open VB Project File
    • #5.1.2. Upgrade Project File
  • #5.2. Change Reference File
    • #5.2.1. Add Referenced File
    • #5.2.2. Load Reference File
  • #5.3. Modify Project Files
  • #5.4. Compile Program
• #6. Copyright

1. Introduction

This document illustrates how to upgrade and adapt the .NET project/application to GstarCAD 2026 from old versions of GstarCAD.

2. Programming Environment

• Microsoft® Visual Studio 2022 (version 17.8.0)

• Windows SDK 10.0 (latest installed version)

• CPU:

Basic: 1.6 GHz CPU

Recommended: 3.0 GHz CPU and above

• RAM:

Basic: 2 GB Recommended: 8 GB and above

• Operation System (OS)

Windows 11

Windows 10 (version 1507 and above):

Home, Professional, Education and Enterprise (not support LTSC and Windows 10 S)

Windows 8.1 (with 2919355 update):

Core, Professional and Enterprise

Windows 7 SP1 (with the latest update):

Home, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate

• Monitor Resolution:

1028x800 and above true color display, including 4K (3840x2160) display

• GstarCAD SDK 2026

• GstarCAD 2026

• Microsoft .NET 8.0

3. Install GstarCAD SDK

Download GstarCAD SDK (' GRXSDK.ZIP ' file) from GstarCAD website:

https://www.gstarcad.net/download/

Unzip GRXSDK.ZIP file to the local disk (e.g. 'C:\grxsdk' ) and there will be 5 directories generated (in 'C:\grxsdk' ) which are: arx , inc , inc-x64 , lib-x64 and utils .

arx contains the header files, library files and sample programs used for porting ARX programs to GRX programs. It contains the following directories:

• Inc: Header files used for porting from ARX to GRX

• inc-x64 : Files used by COM and .NET (for 64-bit)

• lib-x64 : GRX libraries (for 64-bit)

• Samples : Sample projects, including Dotnet, fact_dg, HelloADS, HelloA and SimplePalette.

• Dotnet : .NET programming samples

• 1. Addline : .NET programming sample of adding solid lines
• 2. Hello : .NET programming sample of outputting prompt information
• 3. Vbhello : Sample of .NET programming with VB .NET

• fact_dg : Sample of LISP function definition

• HelloADS : Sample of ADS programming

• HelloARX : Sample of GRX programming

• SimplePalette : Programming sample of how to create a set Palette windows

• Utils: Directory contains sub-directories of GRX extended applications, including APIs for extended function development,

e.g. BREP for boundary representation.

Inc: Header files used for programming the GRX

inc-x64 : Files used by COM and .NET (for 64-bit) lib-x64 : GRX libraries (for 64-bit)

Utils : Directory contains subdirectories of GRX extended applications, including APIs for extended function development, e.g. BREP for boundary representation.

4. Visual Studio 2022 C# .NET Program Upgrade Process

The following illustrates the upgrade process by taking the ' Hello ' project as an example, and assumes that the GstarCAD SDK is installed in ' C:\grxsdk '.

4.1. Upgrade Project File

4.1.1. Open C# Project File

In Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Click the File menu and select the Open submenu, then select Open a Project/Solution… , and select the C# project file to be upgraded in the dialog box.

4.1.2. Upgrade Project File

Step 1: In the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio 2022, right-click the project ' Hello ', and select the Upgrade .

Step 2: Select 'In-place project upgrade' from Upgrade project to a newer .NET version drop-down list.

Step 3: Select .Net 8.0 and click Next .

Step 4: Click Upgrade selection button.

Step 5: When the output window shows success, the upgrade is complete.

4.2. Change Reference File

• 4.2.1. Add Referenced File

In Solution Explorer of Visual Studio 2022, right-click on project ' Hello ' and select Add Reference . After the Reference Manager dialog window pops out, click Browse… button as shown below.

4.2.2. Load Reference File

From the installation path of GstarCAD SDK, e.g. ' C:\grxsdk ', select 'GcCoreMgd.dll', 'GcDbMgd.dll' and 'GcMgd.dll' in ' \arx\inc ' and 'GrxCAD.Interop.dll '(or ' acax.tlb ') in ' \arx\inc-x64 ', and add them by clicking Add button.

After adding the files, right-click added ' GcCoreMgd.dll', 'GcDbMgd.dll' and 'GcMgd.dll' files one by one and select Properties at the context menu, the Reference Properties palette pops up. Set the value of Copy Local property to False . The following screenshot shows how to change Copy Local property of ' GcCoreMgd.dll '.

4.3. Modify Project File

Before compiling the project, you need to add the following to the ItemGroup element of the CSPROJ file , as follows :

• <ItemGroup>

<FrameworkReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App">

• </FrameworkReference>

• </ItemGroup>

4.4. Compile Program

In Visual Studio 2022, click Build → Build Solution to regenerate the DLL file in corresponding directory. Run GstarCAD and input

' netload ' at command line, select the relative DLL file from Select .Net Assembly dialog window and click Open button to load it.

5. Visual Studio 2022 VB .NET Program Upgrade Process

The following illustrates the upgrade process by taking the ' vbHello ' project as an example, and assumes that the GstarCAD SDK is installed in ' C:\grxsdk '.

5.1. Upgrade Project File

5.1.1. Open VB Project File

In Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Click the File menu and select the Open submenu, then select Open a Project/Solution… , and select the VB project file to be upgraded in the dialog box.

5.1.2. Upgrade Project File

In the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio 2022, select the project name ' vbHello' , right-click, and select the [Upgrade] menu item.

The following upgrade steps are the same as the C# upgrade steps:

5.2. Change Reference File

5.2.1. Add Referenced File

In Solution Explorer of Visual Studio 2022, right-click on project ' vbHello ' and select Add Reference . After the Reference Manager dialog window pops out, click Browse… button as shown below.

5.2.2. Load Reference File

From the installation path of GstarCAD SDK, e.g. ' C:\grxsdk' , select 'GcCoreMgd.dll', 'GcDbMgd.dll' and 'GcMgd.dll' in ' \arx\inc ' and

' GrxCAD.Interop.dll ' or ' acax.tlb ' in ' \arx\inc-x64 ', and add them by clicking Add button.

After adding the files, right-click added ' GcCoreMgd.dll', 'GcDbMgd.dll' and 'GcMgd.dll' files one by one and select Properties at the context menu, the Reference Properties palette pops up. Set the value of Copy Local property to False . The following screenshot shows how to change Copy Local property of ' GcCoreMgd.dll '.

5.2.3.

5.3. Modify Project Files

Before compiling the project, you need to add the following to the ItemGroup element of the VBPROJ file, as follows:

• <ItemGroup>

<FrameworkReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App">

• </FrameworkReference>

• </ItemGroup>

5.4. Compile Program

In Visual Studio 2022, click Build → Build Solution to regenerate the DLL file in corresponding directory. Run GstarCAD and input

' netload ' at command line, select the relative DLL file from Select .Net Assembly dialog window and click Open button to load it.

6. Copyright

Copyright reserved: Gstarsoft Co.,Ltd

Copying and referencing any part of this document is allowed. No part of this document may be changed without permission. Please keep this statement when copying or referencing this document.