Additional requirements for AAX plug-ins.

This document describes aspects of the AAX plug-in format specification that are beyond the scope of the common interface classes and callbacks that the plug-in must implement.

.aaxplugin Directory Structure

AAX uses a bundle packaging format. On OS X, AAX plug-ins are built as standard OS bundles, while on Windows they are simple directories. All AAX plug-in bindles must use the .aaxplugin extension and the following directory structure:

/Contents
- /Resources
  - This directory contains all of the additional resource files that will be needed by the plug-in at run time such as DSP algorithm DLLs, XML page tables, and image files for the plug-in's GUI
- /MacOS
  - Contains the plug-in's OS X binary (Mach-O)^*
- /Win32
  - Contains the plug-in's Windows x86 binary^*
- /x64
  - Contains the plug-in's Windows x64 binary^*
- /Factory Presets (optional)
  - This directory includes built-in plug-in presets. For more information, see Presets and settings management in the Pro Tools Guide documentation
- PkgInfo (OS X only)
  - This file must include the concatenation of the plug-in's CFBundlePackageType (TDMw) and CFBundleSignature (PTul)
- Info.plist (OS X only)
  - The plug-in's property list
desktop.ini (Windows only)
- The .aaxplugin directory's view resource file, used to set its custom icon in Windows Explorer
PlugIn.ico (Windows only)
- Custom plug-in icon file

Host Compatibility Notes:: ^*The plug-in's binary filename must not contain any spaces. There is a bug in Pro Tools that will prevent binaries with spaces from being loaded properly. This is logged as PTSW-189928.

Required Symbols

The following symbols are required in any AAX plug-in and must not be stripped from the binary:

_ACFRegisterPlugin
_ACFRegisterComponent
_ACFGetClassFactory
_ACFCanUnloadNow
_ACFStartup
_ACFShutdown
_ACFGetSDKVersion ^*

Host Compatibility Notes:: ^*_ACFGetSDKVersion is required for 64-bit AAX plug-ins only

Collaboration diagram for AAX Format Specification: