Visual Micro is an extension to Visual Studio or Atmel Studio. After a simple installation and configuration, you can start to program your Arduino sketches right away.
- No project conversion necessary
- You can go back to the original Arduino IDE at any time
- You can use all 3rd party code and libraries without modification
- Uses the original Arduino compiler and build system behind the scenes ( Read more)
- Fully compatible with the Arduino IDE, in all version from version 1.0 up to the newest versions, Visual Micro updates will be available shortly after new Arduino IDE have been released
- Easy to setup
Highlights
- Highly configurable user interface (window layout, colors and fonts, toolbars...)
- Intellisense support: Auto-suggests, auto-completes function and class names as you type (Example)
- Just in time syntax check: Detects, highlights and explains syntax errors immediately without compilation
- Support for multiple .ino, .cpp files per project, project subfolders for larger projects
- Supports a wide range of boards: Arduinos and compatibles, Teensy, Sparkfun, Adafruit, Intel,...
- Unique debugger (breakpoints, tracepoints, watch and change variables)
No special hardware required, works with USB or Wifi
- Powerful library manager:
- Board manager: Download support for new boards directly from the IDE, no installation needed
- Work with multiple boards simultaneously
- One-click creation of new Arduino libraries
- Share code from other projects
- Installation base of 10.000s of users
- Support for programmers, burning bootloaders etc.
- Free Services:
- Supports Visual Studio versions 2012, 2013, and 2015
The User Interface
Since Visual Micro integrates into Microsoft Visual Studio, you will have all the benefits of this great IDE. The user interface is optimized for the needs of developers and allows a great variety of customization, like arranging windows as you need them. You can have multiple source windows, a project structure tree, serial monitor windows, compiler output etc. You can also customize fonts, menus, keyboard hotkeys etc.
Intellisense
Intellisense is of great help when programming.
Intellisense autosuggest
Autosuggest looks at what you type and makes suggestions for function calls. You see all functions of a chosen class at a glance, for library code as well as for your own:
Intellisense error reporting
Intellisense observes your code while you write it and identifies errors immediately, just like a spell checker in your word processing program.
You don't have to compile and wade through the compiler's error output. Instead, you see your mistakes immediately, including explanations, and can correct them:
Debugging
Writing code that works is fun, but finding bugs can be time consuming. However, every project beyond a few trivial lines will have bugs that are often hard to find.
The Visual Micro Debugger helps you to track down bugs and to watch how your program works ( Read more). The Visual Micro Debugger works with all boards and does not require any special hardware or JTAG interfaces.
Debugger features
Set breakpoints
Breakpoints help you check how your code executes and comes in handy when you want to change anything to your hardware (sensors, motors...) without the running code disturbing you. You can also set tracepoints that don't stop your code, but tell you which lines of code are passed. You can also specify which text Visual Micro will show when a breakpoint is hit, this makes it easier to interpret the breakpoint messages. The text in the output window can also contain expression values like the 'sensor voltage' in this example:
Watch and change variables
Breakpoints cannot only show static text, but also the values of your variables when the breakpoint was hit. These valuable values will then be displayed in the special expression window:
You can't only watch variables, but also change them. This is a great way to check if your code works correctly and to simulate scenarios (e.g. sensor values) that are hard to create with the "real" hardware.
