Modifying dll library

aaron

A former employee created a dll library which we load into bricscad with netload and a registry update.
Our project changed recently and we want to update those tools.
Sadly I've no documentation available and only access to that dll file.

What's the go to documentation on modifying my tools?

Terry Dotson

Since you can't modify the DLL file, the big question now becomes 'who's time and equipment was used to create this software'?

If the former employee did it exclusively on company time, using company computers, and was paid for that time, then it should be determined that the company owns the rights to the software. However, you should have made arrangements from the beginning to ensure that the company would keep a current copy of the source code.

However, if the former employee did all (or the vast majority) of the coding work at home, on their own time, then consider yourself lucky to have a usable DLL file.

Neither programmers nor lawyers are cheap, so your best move forward may be to talk to the former employee about how you can continue to use the software and obtain modifications.

alexey001

@aaron said:
A former employee created a dll library which we load into bricscad with netload and a registry update.
Our project changed recently and we want to update those tools.
Sadly I've no documentation available and only access to that dll file.

What's the go to documentation on modifying my tools?

If there is absolutely no way to contact the developer - you can try to decompile the DLL and make changes. But this is a complex method and it will be difficult to make big changes (in the case .NET, it is much easier , but still there is a lot of work to be done. )...
If you just need to porting to a newer version of the API, then this can really be done.

aaron

@alexey001 said:

@aaron said:
A former employee created a dll library which we load into bricscad with netload and a registry update.
Our project changed recently and we want to update those tools.
Sadly I've no documentation available and only access to that dll file.

What's the go to documentation on modifying my tools?

If there is absolutely no way to contact the developer - you can try to decompile the DLL and make changes. But this is a complex method and it will be difficult to make big changes (in the case .NET, it is much easier , but still there is a lot of work to be done. )...
If you just need to porting to a newer version of the API, then this can really be done.

I was able to decompile it so I could understand what's going on, sadly some information got lost so It's not possible to rebuild it.

alexey001

DLL - native or dotnet? If native - indeed, it is almost never possible to rebuild it after decompilation , but this is not always required.
Also, for a better understanding of the algorithms, it is better to decompile into high-level code (especially if you have little experience)- this can be done, for example IDA Pro (with hexrays (commercial)) , Ghidra decompiler (free , can do "everything out of the box") , RetDec decompiler (free).