APP: Integrating IE ActiveX Controls into a Windows Application

[astangeland]

PTC is a company that makes engineering software to design and model parts. They also have a free browser plug-in called ProductView that allows you to see view a 3D image of an "engineering part" in IE 6 and IE 7. I want to be able to view these same things from a Windows application.

Is it possible to embed the same ActiveX control that was made for Internet Explorer into a C# or VB application? If so, could someone point me in the right direction, I don't even know what I'm looking for.

If thats impossible, then would it be possible to just open up IE in a box inside of the application and just let IE use the ActiveX control?

[Plater]

There's a webbrowser control object that you can embed in your windows form.
It's pretty much just a mini-IE window. That could work, although probably not the most ellegant.

[astangeland]

I think if that's the best solution there is, I can figure out how to write that code. There is plenty of documentation avaliable for embeding IE in an application.

However I also know that people embed ActiveX Controls all the time. And sometimes people write custom ActiveX Controls and embed those. So is it possible to just embed this ProductView control, just like it was my own custom control and it might work in an offline application just like it works in IE?

Is an ActiveX Control that was compiled for Internet Explorer completely incompatible with any application I could write?

If not could someone point me to some documentation on embedding compiled ActiveX Controls (in any language) or at least give me the name of the command/function/method that I'll need to use.

[Plater]

You could try going to add/remove controls (right click on toolbox) and then seeing if you can choose your activex object (might have to hit a browse button)

[astangeland]

That looks like it might work. I can add the control and it adds a white box. So now if I can just figure out how to direct it to a part it might just work.

I think I'll look at the <param> tags they used when they included it in the html and see if I can mimic that.