Custom Theme creation problems via Visual Studio

[stigzler]

Hi. Having difficulty getting started with this. Not wanting to use the monthly subscription (!!) Community Theme Creator. Know Xaml + WPF so would prefer that. Have created a copy of Default, but all the assemblies are missing and as a result, no design view:

I moved over to CriticalZoneV2 that I found in my themes folder as this has a 'References" folder. I tried copying over the missing dlls from launchbox/core but this didn't resolve the missing dependencies:

Tried importing it manually, only to be greeted with:

I hate to say it, but it's all a bit jank, really. How do I get up and running editing themes in Visual Studio. I've seen Jason's videos from 8 years ago, but these are super outdated now and seemingly irrelevant. 

[stigzler]

17 minutes ago, stigzler said:

Hi. Having difficulty getting started with this. Not wanting to use the monthly subscription (!!) Community Theme Creator. Know Xaml + WPF so would prefer that. Have created a copy of Default, but all the assemblies are missing and as a result, no design view:

I moved over to CriticalZoneV2 that I found in my themes folder as this has a 'References" folder. I tried copying over the missing dlls from launchbox/core but this didn't resolve the missing dependencies:

Tried importing it manually, only to be greeted with:

I hate to say it, but it's all a bit jank, really. How do I get up and running editing themes in Visual Studio. I've seen Jason's videos from 8 years ago, but these are super outdated now and seemingly irrelevant. 

EDIT:

Further investigation seems to imply it's Launchbox dlls that are the issue. Firstly, 3rd party dlls are loaded fine. The refer in .csproj:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro.Platform">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.Platform.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="LaunchBox">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\LaunchBox.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Windows.Interactivity">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\System.Windows.Interactivity.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Unbroken">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows">
      <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>

Caliburn, System dlls are all loaded fine. Seocndly, I deleted and re-added caliburn (via `Add Project Reference`) from the Core folder without any issues. However, when I tried doing this with LB dlls, I get the above error. It feels like unless you're willing to pay a monthly subscription for the Theme Creator app, theming is broken in launchbox?

[JoeViking245]

The referenced dlls that don't attach in Visual Studio are proprietary and closed source.  

You can [temporarily] remove those xmlns lines and comment out the calls to them in the xaml.  This will allow you to visually get a basis for the layout of your theme.  For the lines needing to commented out, you can put a "placeholder" in its place for representation if needed.  Then when ready to implement, add back in the xmlns declarations, the necessary UserControl.Resources, and replace the placeholders.  The beauty of Big Box is, to a degree, you can make changes (spacing , alignment etc.) on-the-fly, without having to close/restart it for [most] every change.