Overview
An add-in is an extension of an existing application that provides various application features that are not supported by default. Add-ins are distributed as dlls.
Add-ins cannot execute by themselves, they need a host application to load and launch them in the host application's process space.
Examples of existing application from other manufacturers outside ABB that today needs add-ins for their functionality are web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox , or design applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Publisher and CAD design tools such as Autodesk 3d-Studio MAX. Add-ins are available in various forms, some of them are Active-X, Java or .NET components.
There are two main types of extensions that RobotStudio supports:
RobotStudio Add-Ins
An add-in extends the functionality of the RobotStudio user interface. The following link gives an example on how to Create a Robot
Studio Add-in .Smart Components
A Smart Component is an object in a RobotStudio station that has both behaviour and state. It can participate as an actor in a simulation scenario. Smart Components contain other components, for example, RobotStudio base components can be developed with the Smart Component composer in RobotStudio. If a Smart Component becomes too complex or if it requires a functionality that is unavailable in another existing Smart Component, then it is possible to develop a Smart Component with code-behind using Microsoft Visual Studio. It is also possible to reuse a base component from code-behind. A Smart Component extends a RobotStudio station, not the RobotStudio user interface.