Download Visio 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK) RTM

Microsoft has made available for download the software development kit for Visio 2010 RTM. Developers can leverage the resources packaged in the SDK in order to build solutions designed to run on top of the latest iteration of Visio. In this regard, the Visio 2010 SDK brings to the table not only documentation, but also code samples, header files, libraries, and tools, which support creating custom solutions set up to run on top of Visio 2007’s successor. Microsoft underlined that the Visio 2010 SDK was tailored to Visio 2010 RTM, in terms of support.

Visio 2010 was released to manufacturing in April 2010, with the rest of the Office 2010 System. Following the April 15th RTM deadline, Microsoft has started serving the final bits of Office 2010 to developers and IT professionals with MSDN and TechNet subscriptions, and subsequently to Volume License customers with software assurance. As of May 1st, business customers without SA can also buy Office 2010. Home users are next in line to get the Office 2010 RTM bits, with the General Availability deadline set for next month, June 2010.

According to Microsoft, Visio 2010 SDK “contains:

“Code samples

“- Code Samples Library—Provides a database of reusable Visio code samples.
- Flowchart sample application—Shows how to create a Component Object Model (COM) add-in that automates the creation of a flowchart drawing from an Excel spreadsheet.
- TreeView sample application—Shows how to create a hierarchical drawing and its accompanying tree view in Visio.
- Office Plan sample application—Shows how you can use the Visio 2010 Drawing Control to create an application that takes advantage of the drawing features of Visio 2010 in a Microsoft Windows Form.
- VSTO Add-in sample application—Shows how to create an add-in, based on Microsoft Office development tools in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, that includes custom Visio content and is deployed by using ClickOnce installation. (The Office development tools in Visual Studio were known as the Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) in previous versions of Visual Studio.)

“Tools

“- Persistent Events tool—Provides a user interface that lets you add persistent events in an active Visio document and modify existing persistent events.
- Event Monitor tool—Monitors and reports events that are raised by an instance of Visio, so you can debug a solution that handles events.
- Print ShapeSheet tool—Provides a user interface that enables you to print the contents of a ShapeSheet.
- Solution Publishing tool—Lets you add Visio-specific entries to the PublishComponent table of a Windows Installer (.msi) file for publishing custom Visio content.

“Type libraries

“- The Visio SDK provides three type libraries that Visio 2010 exposes. In addition, it provides support files to help C++ developers automate Visio.

“Add-on wizards

“- The Visio SDK installs wizards for creating Visio add-on projects in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

“Documentation

“- The Visio SDK contains the Visio Automation Reference, Save as Web Reference, ShapeSheet Reference, Viewer Reference, and XML Schema Reference.”

Visio 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK) RTM is available for download here.