Using the RTX RTDLL Template

RTX provides two templates in the Templates/Visual C++ branch in the supported versions of Microsoft Visual Studio:

RTX Application – creates a project and solution for the development of RTX applications. For more information on this template, see Using the RTX Application Template.
RTX RTDLL – creates a project and solution for the development of RTX Real-Time Dynamic-Link Library (RTDLLs).

The RTX project contains four build configurations: Windows Release, Windows Debug, RTSSRelease, and RTSSDebug. The RTX RTDLL Template sets the project settings for each configuration according to the program and project options that you specify. The template can also provide a basic C/C++ program framework with which to work. This program framework can include RTX program elements, which contain C/C++ code to create RTX objects and demonstrate their use.

NOTE: RTX only supports absolute pathnames.

Sections in this Topic:

Creating an RTX RTDLL
Resulting Configurations

Creating a RTX RTDLL

RTX RTDLL template provides the structure for creating RTX RTDLLs. Use the following procedure to create an RTX project using any RTX RTDLL template in Microsoft Visual Studio.

To create an RTX RTDLL project:

From the Visual Studio menu bar select File > New > Project.

Select Visual C++ from the Templates list.
Select RTX RTDLL from the templates area.
This template is a single-page dialog that displays the default project settings and provides optional application and program settings. To accept the current settings, click Finish. Optionally, you can specify other options and libraries that you want to include in your RTX application project:

Project Type – You can create a project in C or C++. Select the type of project source you want to create. This causes the generation of either .C or .CPP files, and also determines which compiler to use when building your application.
Supported String Convention – Specify Unicode or MultiByte. This determines if the associated pre-processor definitions will be included in the project settings.
Add additional headers and libraries:
RT-TCP/IP Support – adds support for the RT-TCP/IP Stack component within RTSS configurations and Windows socket libraries for Windows configurations.
Microsoft C Runtime Support – adds C/C++ Runtime support. Most programs need support for C Runtime functions.

If these are all the options needed, click Finish to create the project. Otherwise, continue editing program settings for this application.

Provide a program framework – The RTX RTDLL Template can build a basic program framework consisting of source and header files, or it can build an empty project. When Provide a program framework is un-checked, the RTX RTDLL template sets only the project settings and does not include any header or C/C++ files, and all program elements become grayed-out. When Provide a program framework is checked, the RTX RTDLL template inserts into the project C/C++ source files that contain basic program functionality and header files that contain include and define statements. The program framework also contains a code segment for an exported function, exported variable, and an exported class.

When Provide a program framework is checked, you can optionally add elements to the program framework. These code segments show proper usage of Real-time API function calls and can serve as examples of how to set up these elements. Areas in the element code that need to be customized by the user are indicated by "TO DO" comments. You can select more than one type of programming element for a single project. The following table provides the available program elements.

NOTE: When Provide a program framework is un-checked, these options are grayed out.

Element	Description
Periodic timer thread	Transforms the basic Export function already in the program framework into TimerThread Export.

Click Finish. This generates the RTX solution and project according to the options you selected.

Resulting Configurations

Four configurations for creating DLLs are generated in Visual Studio when you create a project using the RTX RTDLL template:

RTSSDebug – Real-time DLL that has debug flags enabled
RTSSRelease – Optimized Real-time DLL that does not include additional debug information
Debug – Windows 32-bit DLL linked to RTX that has debug flags enabled
Release – Windows 32-bit DLL linked to RTX

Compiler and Linker Options

For a complete list, see Compiler and Linker Options for Visual Studio.

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