Released: Arduino for Visual Studio and Atmel Studio 6.x (Jul 10, 2014)

This download is the latest Arduino plugin for Visual Studio 2008-2013 and Atmel Studio 6.1/6.2. This release supports all Arduino Ide versions including the latest 1.5.7 and 1.0.x versions.

Fixes and additions of note are summarized here

If you have been using a previous beta please click "tools>visual micro>reset user interface" after the upgrade

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1407.10 - Fixes & Additions

• Fix: Contributed/User library compiler error for some users 'The given path's format is not supported Exception' c:\avr
• Support for Arduino versions up to and including 1.5.7
• Support for avrgcc8
• Important debugger usability changes please read this list of the documenation
• Better verbose messages for compiler -I includes and library location discovery
• Verbose compiler messages and/or warnings switches are now available from both "Tools>Visual Micro" and "Tools>Options"
• Debugger break point "Hit Count" "Equal To" will now execute only once.
• Fixed some confusion in the last beta regarding break point "When Hit" handling.
• Compiler error pre-processor offsets + headerCount is now consistently used to resolve .ino/.pde source locations (Previously errors in code towards the end if a .ino file resolved to the wrong .ino/.pde file)
• The correct .ino/.pde source code names and line numbers are automatically resolved (where applicable) for compiler error:- "Error : In function 'void foo()'"
• Ignore obsolete 'options>tool chain locations>avr' for arduno 1.5.x uploads. Entering a location caused an avrdude upload error 'can't open config file "path": Permission denied'
• The Arduino Due gets it's first programmer (beta)!
• Atmel Studio - Support the new ATMEL-ICE programmer for SAM and AVR (beta)
• Closing and then re-opening the same project/solution without re-starting the ide caused visual micro to become temporarily disabled (bug was only in 1406.16 beta)
• Added support for pre-arduino 1.5 libraries that contain the new format Arduino library.properties file
• Change - When debug Trace Mode is Off, Disabled breakpoints will continue to display debugger trace and messages, When Trace Mode is On, messages for disabled breakpoints will not be displayed. (the vs breakpoint dialogs do not provide enough facilities for Visual Micro, so we have tried to find the most useful combination. Feed back welcome as usual)
• Debugger will always break/pause unless in "Trace Only Mode" or a break point has a "When Hit Message/Expression(s)" with "Continue Execution" ticked.
• More reliable notification when the Arduino is stopped at a break point (in Break/Pause waiting for F5)
• Shift+F5 to stop debug or click the blue square icon on the serial ports bar
• F5 can no longer be used to stop debugging. F5 will only step when the debugger is active it will never prompt to build.
• Fixed the debugger failing to start fully when reconnect was Off
• In Automatic Debugging mode any configuration with a name that does not contain the text 'Release' will start the debugger after compile and upload.
• Added "Debugger has been activated" message to the serial window when debugging starts. Previously the serial window just showed the usual "Port Open" which could be confusing for new users
• New users defaults: Trace Only Mode = Off, Tutorial Mode = On, Automatic Debugging = On.
• Trace Only Mode - Replaces the Enable Break/Pause project property. Defaults to Off, allowing breakpoints to break/step
• Fix - Serial window correctly resets after upload
• Fix - Incorrect build output was copied to Atmel Studio configuration build folder
• Fix - Arduino Due debug with Native USB port
• Change - Automatic debugging will only debug when the configuration name does not contain the text "release" (previously all configurations allowed debug including Release, this was confusing and prevented simple non-debug F5 upload)
• New - Stop button (red dot) appears on the Serial Port tool bar when debug starts. The button is a quick way to terminate debug
• Change - Only the F5/Debug command will now "Continue" at a break point. All other "build" and "debug" commands will stop the current debug session (where applicable).
• Fix - A Visual Studio bug caused some menu items to be duplicated for some users. This affected the debug and help menu. The items have been removed or moved.
• Fix - Some optimizations where failing during editing of sketches. This might have impacted slower pc's by causing more cpu usage then needed
• Fix - Status bar highlighting and the "F5 Continue" message disappeared from the status bar too quickly and could be missed by users.
• Fix - Prevent 'Upload via programmer' from resetting the serial terminal (if it is open)
• Updated support for all micro-controller versions
• More intelligent diagnostics with auto-fallback
• Fix - Port discovery error stuck in loop (if a Yun was connected and zero ide application paths where configured)
• Support for lm4f and msp40 in Energia Ide released Mar 2014
• Application locations - Warning if invalid location is specified (forum)
• Application locations - Ensure valid folder provided by user, ignore .exe file name in paths (forum)
• Extended verbose messages during upload
• fix - #includes in comments are ignored
• 'Help>Visual Micro Documentation' menu item with alpha of new help system
• Menu Icons use less memory
• Improved upload error reporting
• Debugger breakpoint/trace throttle delay is now factored by PC Cpu speed
• Bitmap for Atmel new project templates
• Installer configured color syntax for Vs versions in line with Atmel Studio
• Installer prompts for .net 3.5
• Compiler errors in .ino sources displayed incorrect line numbers (drill down into source code was correct)
• Windows wmi database errors are silently ignored until the database is repaired. then it will be used again
• Improved status messages
• Verbose compile reports #included paths
• On-screen warning and additional diagnostics if the Ide application list can not be loaded from the installed Visual Micro files. Usually a virus checker preventing install or access to "micro platforms/applications.txt"
• Users with a corrupted wmi database were unable to load Visual Micro. The windows wmi database should be fixed using advice from Microsoft however we only read from it and we can work without it!
• Arduino versions up to 1.5.6 and 1.0.6
• Atmel Studio 6.1/6.2 and Visual Studio Pro 2008>2013
• Support for #import <LibDir/Header.h>
• Include paths contains root libraries folder
• More intelligent library compiler cache
• Faster compiler
• Faster debugger
• More trace diagnostics reports such as Port and Library discovery
• New icons
• Atmel New project templates (same for vs coming soon)
• Better intellisense and support for custom hardware (1.0.x and 1.5.x)
• Galileo high speed compiler
• More robust syntax color code
• Fix, existing users had to uninstall the previous release and then install 1403.03 before Atmel Studio 6.2 was configured correctly.
• Support for custom boards with bootloader.hex files stored in bootloaders root (sparkfun MegaPro).
• Installer refresh which failed to register Visual Micro for Atmel Studio 6.2
• Support for Atmel Studio 6.2
• Atmel Studio new project templates
• Arduino 1.5.6-2 + all lib formats
• Debugger hit count bug fixes
• TI LaunchPad Stellaris compiler bug fix
• Many other fixes will be posted in the new releases section of the forum
• Atmel Studio options to use Jungo Usb drivers with programmers (JTAG ICE3, AVRISP MkII)
• Large improvements for MpIde, Pic32 and ChipKIT. Intellisense and compiler fixes/additions. Much of the Pic32 lower level sources are now available to intellisense.
• Mpide Arduino and Pic32 will include -l the SketchFolder for both intellisense and compilations. This allows #include <foo.h> from the current sketch folder as an option instead of #include "foo.h" . Mpide supports this but the Arduino Ide does not. So Visual Micro does either depending on the selected Ide.

Tools>Visual Micro - Menu changes and additions

• New items - Quick access to existing global options, some items renamed
• New - "Tools>Visual Micro>Tutorial Mode" places additional messages around the UI to help new users
• New - Verbose compiler and compiler warnings can be enabled via the Tools>Visual Micro menu.

Dis-assembly View

• Added double click Go To source in the dis-assembly view
• Resolve temp folder paths to sketch path
• Resolved sketch.cpp line numbers and file names to the correct .ino/.pde sources
• Resolve gcc format line numbers (:line) to Visual Studio (line)
• Added support for all platforms (including All Arduino, Teensy, SAM, Intel, ChipKIT, LaunchPad, FraunchPad etc)
• Changed default obj-dump switches to include source line numbers -l. The default is now " -h -S -l"
• Tip: Alternative obj-dump switches can be specified in the project properties. -D is useful but might be slower to calculate the report (all)

If need be, Visual Micro can be uninstalled via windows "control panel > add or remove programs > visual micro" and then replaced with the recommended current release.

NOTE: The Apple Bonjour for Windows Service is optional, but required to allow network discovery of the Arduino Yun