Tweaks to build the whole project on Windows with CMake/MSVC 19 in 2026

[twdragon]

• Fixed the PLC port definitions mistakenly left in the BSD section in the test program
• Added CMake tweaks to successfully build the project on Windows natively using git/MSVC/PowerShell
• Implemented TcAdsDll_ROOT CMake variable to let the build system catch the libraries from non-standard locations. Tested on non-native installation in Windows 10.0.19045 and SDK 10.0.26100.0

[juarezr-mvtec]

Hello, I am not the maintainer, but I authored the FindTcAdsDll.cmake file that you are editing. I suggest that you should keep the support for finding TcAdsDll in old TwinCAT versions ? The way you are doing it is correct but will only work for the newest versions.
So instead of changing the variable value just try make it an array :
if (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 8)
set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib/x64" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/x64/lib")
set(TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/x64" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common64")
elseif (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 4)
set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib")
set(TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common32")
endif()

The find_library and find_file PATHS argument take an array anyways.

Additionally, since the default location is no longer C:/TwinCAT/.. in the new version so we can probably change it to something like this:

if (WIN32 AND NOT DEFINED TcAdsDll_ROOT)
# Typical install locations on Windows
set(_TcAdsDll_PATH "$ENV{SystemDrive}/TwinCAT/AdsApi/TcAdsDll")
if( NOT EXISTS ${_TcAdsDll_PATH})
# New TwinCAT 3.5+ default location
set(_TcAdsDll_PATH "$ENV{ProgramFiles(x86)}/Beckhoff/TwinCAT/AdsApi/TcAdsDll")
endif()
else ()

Try them out, tell me if it works.

[twdragon]

@juarezr-mvtec thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, direct introduction of array-like path lists did not work, so I used separate variables.

[twdragon]

@juarezr-mvtec I will also try to fix the Linux pipeline, but I cannot promise to do it now, so likely it will be a separate PR

[juarezr-mvtec]

Hello @twdragon

The problem is that we are passing the variable PATHS with "" like :

find_library(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB
NAMES TcAdsDll.lib
PATHS "${TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR}"
NO_DEFAULT_PATH
)

this makes find_library consider TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR as a single string instead of a list. So removing the "" fixes the issue with passing multiple paths. I tested this on my setup (old version path) and this is working for me:

if (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 8)
    set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib/x64" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/x64/lib")
    set(TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/x64" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common64")
elseif (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 4)
    set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib")
    set(TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}" "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common32")
endif ()
find_library(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB
        NAMES TcAdsDll.lib
        PATHS ${TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR}
        NO_DEFAULT_PATH
)
find_file(TcAdsDll_LIBRARY
        NAMES TcAdsDll.dll
        PATHS ${TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR}
        NO_DEFAULT_PATH
)

I have not personally tested it but linux should work out of the box at least according to the maintainer (see #295).
I have another pull request where I remove some of those "not tested on linux" comments but it is still waiting for a review. #300

[twdragon]

@juarezr-mvtec now it looks like:

if (WIN32 AND NOT DEFINED TcAdsDll_ROOT)
    # Typical install locations on Windows
    list(APPEND _TcAdsDll_PATH
        "$ENV{SystemDrive}/TwinCAT/AdsApi/TcAdsDll" # Old location (TwinCAT < 3.5)
        "$ENV{ProgramFiles(x86)}/Beckhoff/TwinCAT/AdsApi/TcAdsDll" # New location (TwinCAT 3.5+)
    )
else ()
    set(_TcAdsDll_PATH)
endif ()
# Find the include headers

find_path(TcAdsDll_INCLUDE_DIR
        NAMES TcAdsApi.h TcAdsDef.h
        PATHS "${_TcAdsDll_PATH_OLD}" "${_TcAdsDll_PATH_NEW}"
        PATH_SUFFIXES "Include" "include"
)
# Find all related files base on the include files location. This is done
# assuming that the files are ordered as install by TwinCat. If they are
# in some other configuration this will not work.
if (WIN32)
    cmake_path(GET TcAdsDll_INCLUDE_DIR PARENT_PATH TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR)
    if (NOT TcAdsDll_FIND_QUIETLY)
        message(STATUS "Searching TcAdsDll in ROOT ${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}")
    endif ()
    if (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 8)
        set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib/x64")
        list(APPEND TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR 
            "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/x64"
            "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common64"
        )
    elseif (CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 4)
        set(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/Lib")
        list(APPEND TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR 
            "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}"
            "${TcAdsDll_ROOT_DIR}/../../Common32"
        )
    endif ()
    find_library(TcAdsDll_IMPLIB
            NAMES TcAdsDll.lib
            PATHS ${TcAdsDll_IMPLIB_DIR}
            NO_DEFAULT_PATH
    )
    find_file(TcAdsDll_LIBRARY
            NAMES TcAdsDll.dll
            PATHS ${TcAdsDll_DLL_DIR}
            NO_DEFAULT_PATH
    )
else ()
    find_library(TcAdsDll_LIBRARY
            NAMES TcAdsDll
    )
endif ()

Attested to work on Windows. Thanks again!

[twdragon]

Hoping to get attention from @pbruenn. It could also close #275, as it implies usage of the Winsock2 library.

[twdragon]

@juarezr-mvtec I implemented and tested it, thanks again!

[twdragon]

@juarezr-mvtec I unfortunately don't have a different version of TwinCAT libraries on my workstation, so I cannot fully test the setup

[juarezr-mvtec]

Some more changes. With the changes this should work as expected.
I download the latest TwinCAT version and I tested this now with and without setting TcAdsDll_ROOT.

Once the changes are complete I will suggest that you SQUASH all of these changes into a single commit to keep a clean git history. :)

[twdragon]

Once the changes are complete I will suggest that you SQUASH all of these changes into a single commit to keep a clean git history. :)

@juarezr-mvtec I will do)) I have not so much time to work on this repo, so I do quick and dirty