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Installation

Requirements

  • ArcGIS Pro 3.6 or later (the add-in manifest targets desktopVersion="3.6.0").
  • ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET installed (adds the Visual Studio project templates and the Esri.ProApp.SDK.Desktop.targets build integration this project relies on).
  • Visual Studio, with the ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET extension installed.

No separate PDAL install is needed -- the convert (and optional clip) step runs PDAL through ArcGIS Pro's own bundled conda Python environment (arcgispro-py3), which already ships it.

Download pre-built add-in

Downloads

Prefer not to build from source? Grab the compiled .esriAddinX matching your installed ArcGIS Pro version from the latest release:

(The source is also always on main at AddInX-Files/ if you'd rather fetch the latest build directly, without going through a release.)

Both are built from the same source, at the same commit -- the only difference is which .NET version they target, matching whichever .NET runtime that Pro release hosts (Pro 3.6.x hosts .NET 8, Pro 3.7+ hosts .NET 10; a build targeting the wrong one won't load). Download the one matching your Pro version, then double-click it (or copy it to %LocalAppData%\ESRI\ArcGISPro\AssemblyCache) to install it through ArcGIS Pro's normal Add-In Manager flow.

Build from source

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/ianhorn/kylidar-addin.git
cd kylidar-addin

  2. Open kylidar-addin.slnx in Visual Studio.

  3. Build the KylidarAddin project (Debug or Release). The ArcGIS Pro SDK's build targets package the compiled assembly, Config.daml, and the toolbar images into an .esriAddinX file and register it with ArcGIS Pro automatically.
  4. Press F5 (or Start) to launch ArcGIS Pro with the add-in already loaded, or just open ArcGIS Pro normally -- once built, the add-in stays registered.

Bundled downloader exe

The add-in packages a pre-built KylidarDownloader.exe (the stand-alone downloader behind Export Script's Executable option) from tools\KylidarDownloader\bin\publish-win-x64\. It's committed to the repo, so a normal build just works. Only rebuild it if you change that project's source: in tools\KylidarDownloader, run dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 -o bin\publish-win-x64.

Build with Visual Studio's MSBuild, not dotnet build

The ArcGIS Pro SDK's packaging step uses CodeTaskFactory, which the .NET (Core) MSBuild used by dotnet build doesn't support. From the command line, build with:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" KylidarAddin.csproj -t:Build -p:Configuration=Debug

No Visual Studio?

You only need the compiled .esriAddinX file to use the add-in. Copy it to %LocalAppData%\ESRI\ArcGISPro\AssemblyCache (or double-click it) and ArcGIS Pro will install it through its normal Add-In Manager flow.

Upgrading to a new ArcGIS Pro version

Project references use HintPaths pointing at C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\... rather than versioned NuGet packages. Since ArcGIS Pro upgrades in place (same install directory), moving to a new Pro release normally just means installing it and rebuilding -- no project changes required unless the add-in starts using APIs introduced in the newer release.

The project file itself always targets net8.0-windows (matching whatever Pro version is currently installed for day-to-day development), but the two AddInX-Files/ downloads above are both built from that same, single .csproj -- the 3.7.x one just overrides the target framework on the command line, without needing Pro 3.7 actually installed (the HintPath references only need some Pro install to compile against, and CopyLocal is off, so nothing about the referenced assembly's version ships in the built add-in):

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" KylidarAddin.csproj -t:Restore -p:Configuration=Release -p:TargetFramework=net10.0-windows
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" KylidarAddin.csproj -p:Configuration=Release -p:TargetFramework=net10.0-windows

Publishing a rebuilt download

The two .esriAddinX files are committed to AddInX-Files/ on every rebuild (so main always has the latest build), but the Download pre-built add-in links above point at a GitHub release instead, since only release assets get a tracked download count. After rebuilding, also publish a release with the two files attached (gh release create v<version> AddInX-Files/KylidarAddin-3.6.x.esriAddinX AddInX-Files/KylidarAddin-3.7.x.esriAddinX) so the /releases/latest/download/... links serve the new build.

Bump <Version> in KylidarAddin.csproj to match the tag first (e.g. 1.1.0 for v1.1.0) and rebuild: the pane's Check version button compares the installed build's version with the latest release's tag, so a release built without the bump would report itself as out of date.

Verifying the install

Open ArcGIS Pro and look for the Kylidar ribbon tab with a Kylidar button. Clicking it should open the dockable Kylidar pane (see Getting Started). If the tab is missing, confirm the build succeeded with no errors and that ArcGIS Pro was restarted after the first build.