Adding x86 vs. x64 Leadtools.Multimedia.dll in WinForms Toolbox issue

The form inside MainFrm designer of "ConcatSameSizeDemo_x64_2010" project was inaccessible due broken 'Leadtools.Multimedia.ConvertCtrl' type reference. While reproducing the issue, we discovered that the actual cause is the Leadtools.Multimedia.dll from the Win32folder used within Toolbox and the fact that project is targeting x64 platform (same case for 'Any CPU' option) - this also requires the 32-bit version of Multimedia DLL reference. Ignoring this and accessing the designer whatsoever, leads to all sorts of annoying issues in the runtime and general inaccessibility of Multimedia components. While adding the supposed correct DLL from x64 folder, VS responds with 'not valid' message - which is not the case for x86 version DLL.

Apparently, there is a "known issue" that Visual Studio has issues with x64 controls. Is there any way we can use x64-compatible components for x64 Windows Forms Application?

This unfortunately is a limitation of the Visual Studio IDE itself.
The LEADTOOLS Multimedia controls are native 64-bit, and like you pointed out is a known issue with the Visual Studio IDE.

As for any type of workaround, I am afraid there is not currently one.
This does not mean that you cannot use the controls.
As you can see in many of our demos, these controls work and function properly.
The issue lies in the inability of the designer to load them at design time.

Thanks for the response.

As our concerns are mostly about fast video concatenation, the "ConcatSameSizeDemo_x64_2010" example showed to be useful and also quite efficient. However, the example is largely based on the mentioned designer components, ConvertCtrl (after all, it is a WinForms application).
We would like to implement a generic video processing library on our side that is not solely dependent on the project type (WinForms, Web, Console...). Is there any usable code example, demo project or how-to, more or less robust like the one mentioned, that satisfies that condition i.e. doesn't use VS designer's ConvertCtrl but project type independent interops?

We do not have any examples, that I am aware of, in our download or in our LEADTOOLS Online Documentation that meets the criteria that you are wanting and does not utilize the VS (Visual Studio) IDE controls.

However, when you do go into the demos, for example ConcatSameSizeDemo_x64_2010 that you mentioned, then you can view the VS designer controls by choosing to Ignore and Continue from the design view in the MainFrm.cs[Design].




Once you by-pass the Visual Studio Designer exception screen then the interaction with the controls should be fine to work with

As I said, if you ignore the designer errors, the designer is put in an unstable state - which is evident in absence of ConvertCtrl components in designer (they are draggable, but designer simply ignores them - what is worse, they are ignored on ALL designer forms) and the fact that their corresponding properties are NULL during runtime.

Thinking about it, we could perhaps instantiate the ConvertCtrl's on global level and use them like so, without dragging components on the form...

In order to by-pass Visual Studio from having issue with the ConvertCtrl's, you could run this as a x86 application during your development.
Then, prior to deployment, you can switch it back over to x64 bit.

For the issue to not display as a x86 bit application as well though, you will need to open the project from Visual Studio itself after _rightClicking and choosing the option "Run as administrator"