sw2urdf popup flashes and disappears

[ElizabethFoxRobotics]

I have been using the precompiled version of SW2URDF in SolidWorks 2021 and it was working, but recently I downloaded/updated Visual Studio 2022 for another project and this add-in stopped working. I tried re-downloading the precompiled version and from the source but neither helped; the add-in and buttons are visible in Solidworks but just flash the popup that instantly closes.

Visual Studio gives the error:
Error MSB3644
The reference assemblies for .NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2 were not found. To resolve this, install the Developer Pack (SDK/Targeting Pack) for this framework version or retarget your application. You can download .NET Framework Developer Packs at https://aka.ms/msbuild/developerpacks TestRunner C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets 1220

.NETFramework v4.5.2 is not available at the link; Visual Studio asked to update the .sln file to my current .NETFramework, v4.8, but that does not seem to have worked. Do I need to also download VisualStudio 2017?

[brawner]

Oh weird, I've never heard of VS removing old versions of .Net from a machine. It's just a set of utilities for interacting with Windows and dynamically linked to by the add-in.

Try installing it from microsoft directly. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42643.

It sounds like the target framework version could potentially stand to be updated for newer installs.
https://github.com/ros/solidworks_urdf_exporter/blob/master/SW2URDF/SW2URDF.csproj#L40