Step by step instructions for using the Rhino 4.0 Plug-In Wizard.

• Launch Visual C++ 2005.
• From the File menu, select New->Project...
• From the list of Visual Studio templates, select "Rhino Plug-in".

• Provide a project name and a location, then press OK.
• The Rhino Plug-in AppWizard dialog will appear.

• If this is your first plug-in, simply click "Finish". If you want to change settings, click the "Next>" button.
• Give your plug-in a name. Typically, this is the same as the project name.
• Select the type of plug-in you want to create.
• General Utility - you want to add new commands to Rhino.
• File Export - you want to add a plug-in that reads a non-Rhino file format.
• File Import - you want to add a plug-in that writes a non-Rhino file format.
• Custom Rendering - you want to add a new render.
• 3-D Digitizing Interface - you want to add support for a new kind of 3-D digitizing hardware.
• Select any additional features, and press "Finish". If this is your first plug-in, simply press "Finish".
• At this point, your plug-in project is ready to be built.
• The first time you compile your plug-in, you will get a "Developer declarations block is incomplete!" error. Click on the error and you will see a "#error" followed by some macros. Rhino uses the strings in the macros to tell the user about your plug-in.

  #error Developer declarations block is incomplete!
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_ORGANIZATION( L"My Company Name" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_ADDRESS( L"123 Developer Street..." );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_COUNTRY( L"My Country" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_PHONE( L"123.456.7890" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_FAX( L"123.456.7891" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_EMAIL( L"support@mycompany.com" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_DEVELOPER_WEBSITE( L"http://www.mycompany.com" );
  RHINO_PLUG_IN_UPDATE_URL( L"http://www.mycompany.com/support" );

Fill in correct information, delete the "#error" line, and compile again.

• At this point, you should have a Rhino plug-in executable (it has a .rhp file extension). To run the plug-in, start the debugger ( press F5 ) You may see a "No Debugging Information" message box.

This is letting you know that you don't have debugging symbols for Rhino, the execuatble that runs you plug-in. If you see this dialog, simply click "Yes" to continue.

• The Rhino splash screen will show and then Rhino will start. Once Rhino is running, you need to load your plug-in. In Rhino, click on the "Tools->Options..." menu. Expand "Rhino Options->Appearance" and click on "Plug-Ins". Alternatively, you can run the "PlugInManager" command from the command line.

When you see the plug-in manager dialog, click the "Install..." button.

• A "Load Plug-in" file open dialog will start. Open the .rhp file you just compiled and then click OK in the plug-in manager. This loads and automatically registers your plug-in.