Avalonia-side integration

1. Build and reference the SDK

The repository does not publish a NuGet package yet, so you need to build BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core locally first.

Run this from the repository root:

dotnet build .\src\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core.csproj -c Release --configfile .\NuGet.Config

The build output is placed at:

src\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core\bin\Release\net10.0\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core.dll

Project reference:

<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core\BlenderAvaloniaBridge.Core.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>

You can also reference the built DLL directly.

2. Update the app entry point

Use one shared Program.cs entry point and branch between normal desktop startup and bridge startup.

using Avalonia;
using BlenderAvaloniaBridge;

internal static class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    public static async Task<int> Main(string[] args)
    {
        var launch = BlenderBridgeLauncher.TryParse(args);

        if (launch.IsBridgeMode)
        {
            var options = launch.GetRequiredBridgeOptions();

            if (options.WindowMode == BridgeWindowMode.Desktop)
            {
                DesktopBridgeLaunchContext.Configure(options);
                BuildAvaloniaApp().StartWithClassicDesktopLifetime(launch.AppArgs);
                return 0;
            }

            await BlenderBridgeLauncher.RunBridgeAsync(
                launch,
                createBridgeWindow: () => new MainWindow());
            return 0;
        }

        BuildAvaloniaApp().StartWithClassicDesktopLifetime(launch.AppArgs);
        return 0;
    }

public static AppBuilder BuildAvaloniaApp()
        => AppBuilder.Configure<App>()
            .UsePlatformDetect()
            .LogToTrace();
}

3. C# business-side usage

Once the bridge is connected, your Avalonia app can use the built-in BlenderApi root for Blender data, operators, and watch subscriptions through Rna, Ops, and Observe.

See the API section.

Next step

• Back to Integration Overview
• Continue with Blender-side integration