Rider

The Eto.Forms Designer plugin works in JetBrains Rider 2025.1 or newer, with the same features as the VS Code extension.

It isn’t on the JetBrains Marketplace yet. To install it:

1. Download the .zip from the latest release.
2. In Rider, open Settings > Plugins, click ⚙ and choose Install Plugin from Disk.
3. Pick the downloaded .zip and restart Rider.

It needs the .NET 8 runtime or newer. To create a new project, use dotnet new.

The preview

The Eto Preview tool window appears once you open a .xeto, .jeto or .eto.cs file. Open it from its button on the right-hand side, View > Tool Windows, or Open Eto Preview in the editor’s right-click menu. It follows the file you’re editing.

Along with the live preview, the tool window has a Log tab showing the preview’s output, which helps when a view doesn’t draw as expected.

Switching between designer and code

Switch Between Eto Designer and Code in the editor’s right-click menu and the Navigate menu jumps between a view and its code behind. Give it a shortcut in Settings > Keymap.

Settings

Settings > Tools > Eto.Forms Designer has the same options as the VS Code settings: the dotnet executable, the language server and preview host paths, and the folder of the Eto.dll to complete against.

One Eto.Forms version at a time

IntelliSense loads one Eto.Forms version at a time. After switching to a project that uses a different version, run Tools > Restart Eto Language Server.

Running Mac apps

When running an Eto.Mac app, set the startup program to the executable inside the .app bundle, e.g. bin/Debug/net8.0/MyApp.Mac.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp.Mac.