Getting started with Mako in C#

Introduction

On Windows, we recommend the use of Visual Studio 2019 and the SWIG C# NuGet package. The following steps describe how to do this, using the makoconvertercsharp.cs source that is located alongside the NuGet package, in the SWIG folder of the Mako distribution.

Brief

Create a C# console application in Visual Studio
Load the NuGet package
Set the platform target to x64
Paste all the code from makoconverter.cs into the console application, replacing what was there
Build the solution

Create a C# console application

Simply choose from the available .NET templates. We recommend .NET Core as it supports later versions of C#, but .NET Framework is also supported.

This is from VS2019:

Give it a name of your choice. I've called mine MyMakoProject and it looks like this in the Solution Explorer:

Load the NuGet package into the project

Obtain the NuGet package

These are found in the Mako SDK release folder, accessible via your dedicated Global Graphics FTP account.

(NOTE: Currently these packages are not available from a NuGet-compatible online source. Use the following instructions to use them with Visual Studio.)

To install it from a local source, refer to the C++ NuGet instructions to find out how. Otherwise, open the package manager by choosing "Manage NuGet Packages" after right-clicking MyMakoProject or Dependencies below it.

You can now browse for the NuGet package you wish to install. For example:

To install, select a package and click Install.

Set the target platform to x64

The underlying libraries that support the C# interface to Mako are x64 DLLs. This means the default platform target for a managed project, AnyCPU, is not suitable. (You can build, but an exception is thrown unless you have unchecked Prefer 32-bit.) We recommend you set the platform target to x64 explicitly.

To do this, set the Platform target in the project properties to x64, as seen here:

Alternatively, you can add an x64 configuration as described here.

Paste in some code

Using your favorite text editor, find some C# sample code and copy it.
Open the source file in your new project, and replace its contents (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-V).

Build

Finally, build the solution (Ctrl-Shift-B). The runtime component (jawsmakoIF_csharp.dll) is copied automatically to the output folder.

Downloads

For sample code that you can use with the C#, see the Samples section.