consolidating all libraries (user and VS C++ infrastructure ones)

I decided to get adventurous and move my 3 project and template directories from C to D.

D . Libraries . Documents . Visual Studio . Projects. Templates....etc.


However, when I compile, it still puts the obj and exe files in the original location on the C drive. How can I make VS C++ put everything related to my project "System Image" into the same directory structure on my D drive as shown above??


My OLD "test" project shows under solution explorer still. I assume I can delete that (I saved the cpp source elsewhere).

While we're there, I see I have:

Solution "test" - 2 projects ................................................with System Image and test being the 2 projects. Can I control what the solution "test" is called? Should it be named something particular?

System Image

test

Check your project properties. It sounds like you have setup a hardcoded path instead of a relative one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by S_M_A

Check your project properties. It sounds like you have setup a hardcoded path instead of a relative one.

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I looked through every options and project properties screen I could find. Nowhere is C: specified or anything even resembling a full path....

I simply installed VS C++ vanilla.

That shouldn't be neccessary. I've moved projects to other locations as well as other computers with completely other path's and never had that issue.

The C: part of the path might origin from a VS macro or an environment variable.

Since the output tab/window says:

System Image.vcxproj -> C:\Users\Jim\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\test\Release\System Image.exe

It seems maybe this setting resides inside a .vcxproj file or something?

I somehow found a way to pull up an applet of macros. In there:

$(Outputdir) - both point to the old C:\Users\Jim\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects
$(Outputpath)

I created a test project, built it, moved it, and rebuilt it without anything odd happening. The $(OutputDir) was automatically changed to reflect the new path (as it should).

In my test no absolute paths show up in neither the sln nor the vcxproj. Maybe you have hardcoded some project property at some point and that now overrides the normal behaviour?

I never did a thing other than a vanilla install UNTIL I moved the 3 primary libraries (projects and 2 templates) that are movable via the standard option panels.

I guess I have go through every single macro and see which ones point to C:.

Aha. It seems you can NOT change what the macro points to? IOW, there's no way to overtype the right-hand column that shows the definition of the macro.

Have you tried viewing the sln & vcxproj files with a text editor & searching for hard coded paths?

I haven't done that yet. Good point. I've read that there are paths inside those files.

To reiterate: I haven't hardcoded any paths anywhere other then the Project and 2 template paths that one is allowed to change.

Yeah, all of the projects settings are stuck inside those sln/vcproj files. It's easier to search through those text files than searching through all the settings in the IDE.

Also, there are settings for each individual file. You can see them by (IIRC) right clicking a .cpp file & choosing properties.

The macros that you see can be changed, but not in the macro window.

The $(OutDir) macro is changed in the project settings in the Project Properties. As shown here, changing the "Output Directory" will change $(OutDir); changing the "Intermediate Directory" changes $(IntDir), etc.

Hope this helps.

Thanks krmed, I think I get how this macro/panel interaction works now.

Can anyone answer my other question re: Solution explorer?

What makes the most sense? Having a CONSOLE and GUI "tree" in the main Solution Explorer panel? In my case, I think my main initial tree branch is called "test". Can I modify that? Is the intent to always have "all" ones projects showing in the Solution Explorer pane?

You can think of the "solution" as everything needed to build ONE complete application. For instance, if you are building an app called MyApp, and MyApp uses three DLLs and one library that you also created, your solution would contain fiveProjects:
MyApp
Dll1
Dll2
Dll3
Lib

You also then set the Project Dependencies so they are build in the correct order. For instance, if DLL3 requires something from the Lib, and DLL2 requires DLL3, and MyApp requires all of them, you would set the dependencies to indicate that. This guarantees that if you change something in the lib, the lib would be built first, then DLL3 would be re-built as needed, then DLL2, then MyApp.

As for "extra" projects that show in the solution explorer, you can simply delete them from the solution explorer - that removes them from the solution but does not delete the files on your disk.

Hope that helps.

OK. I looked through the sln and vcxproj files (3 of them?) and no C: hardcoded anywhere. I can only come to the conclusion that VS C++ isn't designed to coherently move files around.

krmed, so you're saying that I should have ONE solution per "solution" (project)?

Since I currently have "test" as my top-level "solution" of which BOTH system image and test are underneath that, what should I do to move stuff around and create a coherent view of my projects?