It's frustrating..I can add the IdentityMine.Windows dll without generating errors but as soon as I add the Essentials to actually use the tools I get all messed up and it can no longer use the designer mode.

 I tried this in VS2005 SP1 and Orcas, same error:

Error    1    Invalid XmlnsDeclaration occurs in assembly 'IdentityMine.Windows.Essentials, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6381fa152b90aa01'. XmlnsDeclaration references a namespace 'IdentityMine.Windows.Shapes' that is not in the assembly.

On top of that, I can't quite figure out how to add those controls to my toolbox.  I'm really disappointed in how impossible this is turning out to use.. 

We haven't yet seen this problem so thanks for bringing it up. 

First off we think it may have to do with the way .NET3.5 handles the invalid/not needed XmlnsDeclaration.  I say this as we haven't had these problems in Blend or VS2005 SP1 that has .NET 3.0.

Either way this declaration is not longer needed and we have removed it.  This will be updated in the June CTP which should be available next week.

Apologies that we didn't catch this in the May CTP.

Kurt

After adding them without xmlns declarations I get no errors. I do believe that has solved the issue...

 Now I have one more question that should be simple to answer - how do I add Blendables controls to my toolbox?  I can't go to %program files%\reference assemblies\blendables to get the any controls from the .dll files.  I am not sure how to even use them and I'm feeling pretty silly asking...

OK...sorry for the delay.  We took some time to dig around to ensure we could correctly answer your toolbox question above.

Unfortunately adding custom controls to the VS toolbox is currently not supported in Cider by Microsoft.  Check out the two threads below where this information was confirmed by Microsoft:

 http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1124238&SiteID=1

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=491649&SiteID=1

 Kurt

Thanks for the affirmation, Kurt.  I had briefly read that in MSDN forums but dismissed it because of the near-ancient post date (january of this year).  I cannot wait for Beta 2 of Orcas then, perhaps it will include this support.

 Heck, there are a lot of things I hope to be included in Orcas beta 2 :)

The Shapes reference should now be fixed in the JuneCTP.

Click download now from blendables.com to get to the June CTP.

-Kurt