[Liblas-devel] setup LibLAS for vb.net 2010 (express)

[Howard Butler]

Lewis,

The first thing is that the compilation directions at <http://liblas.org/compilation.html#using-visual-studio-9-2008-on-windows> are for the unreleased version of libLAS.  You can obtain a copy of the latest source tree at <http://hg.liblas.org/main/archive/tip.zip>, and this should more closely follow what's going on.

The next thing I would ask is what exactly are you trying to do?  libLAS is a c/c++ library, not a .NET library, although there are some unmaintained .NET bindings (these most likely would not work with the unreleased libLAS that has compilation instructions either -- sorry for this catch-22).  If you want to program with libLAS in .NET, you're going to need a libLAS c/c++ dll as well as a libLAS .NET assembly that links .NET to the libLAS DLL (or, alternatively, hand-write your own PInvoke calls directly to the libLAS DLL).  

I'm sorry you're finding things so frustrating, but I'm sensing there might be some confusion about libLAS and where it fits.

Hope this helps,

Howard


On Sep 4, 2010, at 9:47 PM, Lewis Carrol wrote:

> Hi all,
>  
> I am really struggling to set up liblas to use for my development in vb.net.
>  
> Has anyone here setup liblas correctly for vb.net(express) and can that person give me some clear instructions?
>  
> I have downloaded liblas from http://liblas.org/download.html
> Also download and installed OSGeo4W.
> Also downloaded and installed cmake make_gui.
>  
> Normally I can easily follow installation instructions (http://liblas.org/tutorial/vbnet.html , http://liblas.org/compilation.html#using-visual-studio-9-2008-on-windows), I write a whole lot of tools and programs in vb.net without any use of a manual, have 10 years+ experience in programming in a professional environment (vb +vb.express), but this liblas setup only is really giving me a headache, I must have tried at least 6 times during the last couple of weeks, without success.
>  
> Part of the problem is that I (and that may sounds stupid to some of you guys) don't know what I am actually doing during this complex installation.
>  
> I think I am just setting up a reference or link to the liblas.dll to be able to use the instructions compiled in the DLL. I have done that so often with other DLL's, easy, 1 minute job and I am programming. Imports LibLAS, done?
> But now I have to install cmake (done, but what is the reason for this?), install OSGeo4W (done, and I have installed the full set, but why?), run a command prompt from vb.net (done) but then it doesn't work anymore for me. cmake doesn't find the files it needs, vb.net doesn't load the dll, I am not sure how to continue, probably because I don't quite understand the need of all these extra tools to 'set up a reference'...
>  
> Can't I just create a simple reference to the DLL and start programming?
>  
> Has anyone here setup liblas correctly for vb.net(express) and can you give me some clear insructions? That would be very much appreciated.
>  
> Lewis.
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