Installation
Download the app or the command line for Windows, macOS or Linux. No .NET install and no account needed.
On this page
Download The Sharp Factory App#
The Sharp Factory App runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Download The Sharp Factory. The link takes you to the latest release on GitHub. Download the file for your operating system from the release assets:
Windows: TheSharpFactory-win-x64.zip (or TheSharpFactory-win-arm64.zip on ARM).
macOS: TheSharpFactory-osx-arm64.zip on Apple silicon, TheSharpFactory-osx-x64.zip on Intel.
Linux: TheSharpFactory-linux-x64.tar.gz.
The app is self-contained: you do not need to install .NET to run it.
Unzip And Run#
-
Windows: create a folder where you would like to keep the application, unzip the download there and run TheSharpFactory.exe.
-
macOS: unzip the download and move TheSharpFactory.app to your Applications folder. The app is not signed yet, so the first time you open it, right-click it (or Control-click) and choose Open, then confirm. After that it opens normally, and it also opens .edmj files.
-
Linux: extract the download to a folder of your choice and run TheSharpFactory.
The Command Line#
Each release also has the sharpfactory command line for every operating system (sharpfactory-cli-win-x64.zip, sharpfactory-cli-osx-arm64.tar.gz, sharpfactory-cli-linux-x64.tar.gz and so on). It syncs or generates the code from a saved model file, and updates the model from its database, without opening the app, which is useful in scripts and build pipelines:
sharpfactory sync <model.edmj> <solution.sln|.slnx> [--preview]
sharpfactory generate <model.edmj> <output folder>
sharpfactory update <model.edmj> [--model <name>] [--check]
sharpfactory info <model.edmj>
With --preview, sync lists every change it would make and writes nothing. update reads each model's objects again from its database, as the app's Update does when you keep every object, and saves the file; with --check it saves nothing and exits with 1 when a model would change, so a build can stop when the model is behind the database. info shows each model's connection and object counts.
No Account Needed#
The Sharp Factory App is free and open source. It does not ask for a login or a subscription, and it does not need an internet connection. The only connection it makes is to the SQL Server database you point it at.
Keep It Handy#
Once the application is running you can pin it: on Windows right-click its icon in the taskbar and select "Pin to taskbar", on macOS right-click its icon in the Dock and choose Options > Keep in Dock, and on Linux add it to your desktop's favorites or create a launcher for it.
Next Steps#
Now that you have installed the application you will want to generate your first model. For more information go to Model Generation. There you will find how to create your first model and generate the C# in your solution.