Channel 9 Forums - Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.png Channel 9 Forums - Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ to SilverLight – Watch videos and hear about all the cool technologies coming and the people behind them. http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums en Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:16 GMT Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:16 GMT Rev9 7 -7 -1 Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? I am working on a software research project that is entirely in C#, however now we want to have a maya plugin that utilizes some of the functionality from the C# code.

Maya expects an unmanaged dll, which is fine i don't mind writting that.

However, i need to make hooks to the C# code and vice versa, i have no problems accessing my unmanaged dll from C# using InteropServices,  but i do not know how to access the managed code from the unmanaged C++, any hints?

I am sure this is possible, but i have never done it.

If anyone has any suggestions for a purely managed solution, i would be thankful

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/260931#260931 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:23:38 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/260931#260931 Verdant 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Verdant/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? Have you looked into Managed Extensions for C++ at all? I personally have never used it, but it seems to popular way to tie managed and unmanaged code together. The /clr option still compiles it to MSIL, but I'm not sure exactly what Maya's restrictions are.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/19d726ac5ea644228b859dfa00beeed6#19d726ac5ea644228b859dfa00beeed6 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:36:47 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/19d726ac5ea644228b859dfa00beeed6#19d726ac5ea644228b859dfa00beeed6 TimP 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/TimP/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? found this article that seems to describe the process i need to use, ugh looks like a lot of steps

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/75a08d0ad901432ab7b39dfa00beef5d#75a08d0ad901432ab7b39dfa00beef5d Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:49:55 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/75a08d0ad901432ab7b39dfa00beef5d#75a08d0ad901432ab7b39dfa00beef5d Verdant 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Verdant/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one?
Verdant wrote:
found this article that seems to describe the process i need to use, ugh looks like a lot of steps


I've not read the article, but from the date of it, it's old, pre-2005. They changed the way the C++ managed/unmanaged stuff works with 2005. So unless your using 2003 or 2002, then I probably would take too much notice of that article.

Having said that, I've only done trivial Managed C++ stuff,  and did not have to resort to anything spectacular. Though, I did have to create proxies for most things, like data structures, etc.

A few of those proxies were probably unnecessary, as the builtin marshalling stuff is quite extensive. But I found it harder to get up-to-speed with the marshaling stuff than it was to hand-roll my own proxies. You mileage may vary...

After breakfast (and catching up on the new Ch9 videos), I'll see if I have some time, and do a little sleuthing (it's morning over here...)

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/e601c47949524fed87249dfa00beeff2#e601c47949524fed87249dfa00beeff2 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:58:42 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/e601c47949524fed87249dfa00beeff2#e601c47949524fed87249dfa00beeff2 RichardRudek 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/RichardRudek/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? OK. How performant does this need to be ?  How many threads ?

My initial reaction to this is to use COM, mainly because you have the issue of hosting the CLR, and the Managed C++ code (obviously) needs the CLR - I'm presuming that Maya doesn't host the CLR.

So rather than using Managed C++, just bypass C++ altogether, and expose your Manged Code via COM.

Well, you still need to write the Maya DLL, so you probably still need to write that using C++. But these stubs would be interopting via COM.

If you want to write something rapidily (prototype), then depending on the Interfaces Maya expects, you could probably whip up a Native DLL using VB6 - COM is native to VB6, whereas for C++, you probably end up using ATL. Raw COM from C/C++ is ugly...

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/47875cfe75a14a2ab9ad9dfa00bef089#47875cfe75a14a2ab9ad9dfa00bef089 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:12:21 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/47875cfe75a14a2ab9ad9dfa00bef089#47875cfe75a14a2ab9ad9dfa00bef089 RichardRudek 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/RichardRudek/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? performance wise i will need it to be able to pass about 100 3d vector structures (x,y,z) floats a second, which is a pretty low requirement. The data will most likely be fed through in a fifo type queue.

The plugin will take in data from the maya ui (in the form of a text string or a wav file--probably still just a text string), and communicate with the C# code, then feed the result back to maya as new vertex points for parts of the model - the plugin has to interpret this data from a proprietary xml format.

After speaking to the project lead, I think I am first going to ensure i can interact with maya through unmanaged c++, then i will most likely develop a wrapper for managed access.

maya comes with a VS wizard that creates a C++ project for a maya plugin, at this point i am not certain what vector it specifically uses to communicate as that functionality is wrapped in a seperate set of macros.

The other problem is that the project targets .NET 1.1... and i don't have access to 2003 at home, but they might migrate to 2.0... i'll figure it out, but old tutorials are good, for now Smiley


]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/e290e79338374bc2a4119dfa00bef11d#e290e79338374bc2a4119dfa00bef11d Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:19:47 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/e290e79338374bc2a4119dfa00bef11d#e290e79338374bc2a4119dfa00bef11d Verdant 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Verdant/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - using a Managed DLL from an unmanaged one? COM likes to do things in large chunks because the roundtrip (cross process/ cross machine) is expensive. 100 per second might be OK. I think the last time I benched it, I was able to get up to ~1000 calls per second. But my memory may be wrong in this case. I certainly wouldn't try going much beyond 100, at least on a single core system.

The other thing to consider is [hosting the 1.1 CLR]. That is, within your Maya Plugin DLL, you host a CLR domain, and your managed code runs within this isolated environment. Kind of like adding a scripting engine, but the 'scripts' are your managed code.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/a25f9866df92486abb249dfa00bef1b3#a25f9866df92486abb249dfa00bef1b3 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:55:17 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/260931-using-a-Managed-DLL-from-an-unmanaged-one/a25f9866df92486abb249dfa00bef1b3#a25f9866df92486abb249dfa00bef1b3 RichardRudek 7 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/RichardRudek/Discussions/RSS