FTN95 in Visual Studio 2010 under Windows 7 64 Bit

We changed the operating System from XP to Windows 7 64 Bit for the whole company. We installed FTN95 Version 6 and Visual Studio 2010. FTN95 works stand alone. If I try to open a FTN95-project within Visual studio (doesn't matter if it is existing ore new or which type of project) Visual Studio declares 'an external component causes VS to shut down' and it ends. I tried to debug, VS breaks somewhere while allocation memory blocks: res = _heap_alloc(size); At the time we cannot work with any .NET-projects. Is FTN95 incompatible with 64-Bit OS/VS ? Help is needed. Thanks for every answer.

Dear EKrycki,

I experienced the same problem and I reported it to FTN95 support.

On my machine, the problem was mitigated by the Service Pack 1 of visual studio 2010. After installing SP1, the error message still appears but it as no consequences and the IDE doesn't crash.

Anyway, when using FTN95 on a mixed language project don't forget to set 'x32 CPU only' on other .NET language project properties.

The problem here is that although I have seen this problem it refuses to reproduce when we get it in the Visual Studio development debugger. We shall have another try.

Thanks Robert. Might there be any conditional compilation directive which avoid the bug in debug mode?

Now I cannot get it to happen at all. Any suggestions?

That's really strange. On my pc, answering 'no' in the warning dialog, the message will be hidden for subsequent run of the IDE, but the error does still occur. In fact is still reported on the log file (prompting devenv /log). These are the red lines of the log:

241	ERROR	SetSite failed for package [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80070057 - E_INVALIDARG VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:38.007 
242	ERROR	End package load [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80070057 - E_INVALIDARG VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:38.028 
243		Entering function CVsPackageInfo::HrInstantiatePackage {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}  VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:58.703 
244		Begin package load [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}  VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:58.708 
245	ERROR	SetSite failed for package [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80004003 - E_POINTER VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:58.713 
246	ERROR	End package load [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80004003 - E_POINTER VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:58.715 
247		Entering function CVsPackageInfo::HrInstantiatePackage {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}  VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:59.776 
248		Begin package load [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}  VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:59.780 
249	ERROR	SetSite failed for package [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80004003 - E_POINTER VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:59.784 
250	ERROR	End package load [Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package] {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} 80004003 - E_POINTER VisualStudio 2011/07/20 17:43:59.787 
251		Warning Package failed to load; error message suppressed by skip flag {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}  VisualStudio 

Of course this happens only when a FTN95 project is present in the solution. Maybe it is a Microsoft problem...

Finally a good news! This Microsoft update seems to definitively solve the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2635973

Microsoft KB2635973 did not help me.

I have the same log output in the log file (devenv /log) as Emanuele reported above.

My test solution setup that generates the errors with the designer:

1. C# WinForm project set to build for DEBUG and x86 (StartUp Project)
2. FTN95 project set to build for DEBUG and .NET

If I unload the FTN95 project in the solution, exit VS, start VS with 'devenv /log' I get no errors or warnings. It is only when I have the FTN95 .NET project load enabled that the error appears when bringing up the VS designer for the C# winform project which is very annoying. This is repeatable for ANY C# winform project in combination with a FTN95 project in one solution.

In summary, my current workaround, even though it is suboptimal, is to put the FTN95 project in an 'unloaded' state in the solution when needing to use the designer for the C# source. I still need to restart VS before I can use the form designer.

Any help is appreciated.

Output from the designer is listed below:

Value cannot be null. Parameter name: serviceInstance
    
Instances of this error (1)  
 
1.   Hide Call Stack 
 
at System.ComponentModel.Design.ServiceContainer.AddService(Type serviceType, Object serviceInstance, Boolean promote)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.ServiceContainer.AddService(Type serviceType, Object serviceInstance)
at Microsoft.VSDesigner.VSDesignerPackage.VSDesignerPackage.ReplaceServices(IDesignerHost host)
at Microsoft.VSDesigner.VSDesignerPackage.VSDesignerPackage.Designer_LoadComplete(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerHost.OnLoadComplete(EventArgs e)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerHost.System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.IDesignerLoaderHost.EndLoad(String rootClassName, Boolean successful, ICollection errorCollection)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.BasicDesignerLoader.OnEndLoad(Boolean successful, ICollection errors)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomDesignerLoader.OnEndLoad(Boolean successful, ICollection errors)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.BasicDesignerLoader.System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.IDesignerLoaderService.DependentLoadComplete(Boolean successful, ICollection errorCollection)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.BasicDesignerLoader.BeginLoad(IDesignerLoaderHost host)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerHost.BeginLoad(DesignerLoader loader)