Problem with Resgen when building a plugin

Question

Dear all, 
 I am experiencing a problem when I want to build my plugin: I keep getting the following error message: 
 Error 1 Failed to locate ResGen.exe and unable to compile plug-in resource file 'C:\Users\lp50922\documents\visual studio 2013\Projects\EPO_446_CreateStudioProject\EPO_446_CreateStudioProject\PluginResources.resx' EPO_446_CreateStudioProject 
 I know that the Resgen is available and working because it is used in other (non-SDL) projects I am building, e.g. this one, which is also based on .Net Framework 4.0: 
 1>CoreResGen: 
 1> "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Toolsesgen.exe" /useSourcePath /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\Microsoft.CSharp.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\mscorlib.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Core.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Data.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Deployment.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Drawing.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Windows.Forms.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Xml.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.Xml.Linq.dll" /compile Properties\Resources.resx,obj\Debug	estResGen40.Properties.Resources.resources 
 1> Processing resource file "Properties\Resources.resx" into "obj\Debug	estResGen40.Properties.Resources.resources" 
 
 Is there any reference in the plugin template which redirect Visual Studio to another location where it cannot find the Resgen.exe file? 
 Can anyone give me a good hint on this one? I am a bit blocked since I do not know what is going wrong and what prevents me of building my Plugin. 
 
 Thanks in advance for your support. 
 
 Regards, 
 
 Laurent

Romulus Crisan (former member) · Accepted Answer

Hi Laurent, 
 The registry key depends a bit on your os version and machine configuration. In order to properly understand where msbuild is looking and not founding the resgen.exe I suggest to run msbuild directly and not from Visual Studio. For information Visual Studio doesn't build the projects it actually rely on the msbuild tool. To run the project manually you can do the following: 
 
 Open command line 
 run the following command "{PathToMsbuild}/MSBuild.exe {PathToCSProj}/Plugin.csproj -fl -flp:logfile="{PathToLogFile}/error_log.log";verbosity=diagnostic" 
 PathToMbuild can be found using this information- https://github.com/microsoft/vswhere/wiki/Find-MSBuild 
 This should fail with the same error 
 Search for the error_log.log in the location you specified 
 Search for " Failed to locate ResGen.exe " 
 Above you should find the keys msbuild tried to use. 
 Verify each key for the InstallationFolder if it exists or if it does if resgen.exe is actually in there. 
 Replace with a path that has resgen.exe, probably from the 4.7.2 SDK folder.

Eugene Kuchynski · Answer

Hello, got same issue today on new PC. All you need is to install NET Framework 4.6.2 targeting pack in the Visual Studio installer. It solves an issue.

Sorin Irimias · Answer

Hi Laurent, 
 Have you added a new icon in the pluginresources? If so, could you please make sure that the version set for the icon is Version=2.0.0.0 and not 4.0.0.0. To do this, open the PluginResources.resx with a text editor and manually make the change. 
 Sorin

harry.tian · Answer

That is caused by Express version, full version will solve this issue.

Laurent Pierret · Answer

Dear Daniel, 
 Here is the workaround which was suggested by SDL to solve this issue: 
 *************************************************** 
 Create a string value registry key named CurrentInstallFolder in SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows and set the value to the location of the Windows SDK on your hard drive - be sure that the specified folder contains a Bin folder in it &ndash; and which contains all the Microsoft SDK tools are in, including resgen.exe. 
 So for example in your situation the registry key value should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A" and in that folder you should create a new folder named bin in which you should copy all the tools from the folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools" 
 *************************************************** 
 I had to adapt this workaround slightly to make it work. This is what I did: 
 I copied the content of the folder 
 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools 
 Into 
 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\ 
 However, I had to add the registry key under Wow6432Node structure (see below): 
 
 I hope this helps you. 
 Regards, 
 Laurent

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Problem with Resgen when building a plugin

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