Autodesk App Store AutoCAD and AutoCAD vertical

You will be presented with a detailed list of requirements for publishing on the Autodesk App Store when you first register to be a publisher. The information that follows is a summary. If there are any differences, then the online Publisher Agreement takes precedence.

Most of the information we need from you is collected through the web form you complete when submitting your content. This includes gathering information to create an HTML quick-start page that is included with the download of your product and viewable online.

Compatibility 

Your product must be relevant to (and usable with) AutoCAD® 2025 or any of these AutoCAD 2025 vertical products:

AutoCAD® Architecture®, AutoCAD® Electrical®, AutoCAD® Mechanical®, AutoCAD® MEP®, Civil 3D® and must run on all Windows operating systems supported by the AutoCAD 2025 product.

If you indicate compatibility with one or more vertical products, you are responsible for testing your app with those products. You can also indicate compatibility with AutoCAD® 2024 |2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 (or its vertical listed above).

User privileges

The default user privilege for the Store apps is Windows 7/8.1/10/11 Admin User. The installer should have elevated user privileges.

Product stability

Your product should be stable and not behave or alter the behavior of AutoCAD in a way that we deem unsuitable, for example, blocking standard AutoCAD functionality, blocking the functionality of another plug-in, causing data loss, etc.

Your product must include a partial CUIX file to add UI elements for your product to the AutoCAD Ribbon Bar. You can find more information about it in the next sections.

HTML help page

The documentation information you provide when submitting your app will be used to create a standard format HTML page and must allow the user to quickly understand how to use your product. You can reference additional information (for example, additional help files posted on your website) from the standard HTML documentation.

Ready to run

Your product must be ready to go as soon as it’s installed. It must not require the user to manually copy or register files, or manually edit AutoCAD settings (such as support paths). The new autoloader mechanism we describe later can help you avoid this.

If you use a licensing system, then it must allow your product to run as soon as it is installed by the user. This means that your application allows either instant activation (for example, online activation), or allows full functionality with a time-bombed grace period that is long enough for you to send activation information to the customer.

Use the autoloader system

We strongly encourage you to make use of the autoloader mechanism to deploy your plug-in. Information on the required format for autoloader bundles is included in the AutoCAD 2025 help files. Search for Install and Uninstall Plug-in Applications or search the help for “appautoloader”. The DevTV –Autoloader Format Explained video walks through some simple examples for .NET, ObjectARX, LISP, and CUIX plug-ins.

You can also download some of the free plug-ins already available on the Autodesk App Store and study their format (for example, XrefStates).

Follow the Interop Guidelines

There are many ways to ensure your plug-in will work well with other plug-ins a user may install. These are described in detail in the ObjectARX Application Interoperability Guidelines—part of the helpfiles in the ObjectARX SDK (downloadable from ObjectARX download). Although the Interoperability Guidelines is part of the ObjectARX SDK, many of these guidelines apply to all plug-in types. Although these guidelines are not required to design your application, we recommend you take them under consideration when creating or updating projects.

Use demand loading

Unless your ObjectARX or .NET plug-in absolutely has to load as soon as AutoCAD launches, you should design your plug-in to load only when it’s needed—most commonly load on command invocation. This is to minimize the impact of installed plug-ins on AutoCAD startup performance. The autoloader system makes it very easy to setup demand load settings for the various components that make up your plug-in.

Use the ribbon bar

Using a partial CUIX file to add ribbon bar elements for your application is required, but how you do this will depend on your plug-in design. At a minimum, every plug-in or block library must add a panel to the Plug-Ins tab that either invokes the main command defined by the plug-in or displays a help file explaining how to use the block library. The DevTV–Creating a Partial CUI video posted with these guidelines shows how to setup a partial CUIX file to add a panel to a tab already defined in the main CUIX.

Plug-ins that install a single panel should normally add that panel to the Plug-Ins tab.

Plug-ins that create several ribbon bar panels may prefer to create a new tab specific to that plug-in (and normally with the tab name being the name of the plug-in).

You can add any other UI elements to your partial CUIX (for example, menubars and toolbars) as well, but you must still include a basic ribbon bar UI.

There are no additional requirements for products that are not integrated with Revit. Such products might include eBooks, video tutorials, industry-specific calculators, and the like.

The ADN team is here to help you be a successful publisher on the Autodesk App Store. If you have any further questions after reviewing these guidelines and the other documentation on the Autodesk App Store Publisher Center, email us at appsubmissions@autodesk.com for support.