Which project items can i safely remove or alter?

You can remove all project items but you should only edit/alter code items that are NOT contained in folders that begin with an underscore such as _core and _library. Each project physically only contains your source files. Folders with a leading underscore contain links to shared source code created by other people such as arduino core files and libraries.

Warning: If you alter the code in linked source files such as, core or library, then it will alter (or break) all of your arduino projects

Q: What if I remove a linked file by mistake?

You can add the files back into the project manually or use the menus to re-add the items. For example if you have unlinked a vital _core file then use the tool bar to reselect the board, if you have removed a _library item then remove the entire library folder from visual studio and re-add the library using the tool bar.

Q: What happens when i select delete on project items in the solution explorer?

Linked items are unlinked but are not deleted.

If you attempt to delete a source file then Visual Studio will show you a warning. If you click OK then your source file will be permanently deleted!

 

Tips & Bits

Connect two or more arduinos and spy on the serial communication using visual studio and "Serial Echo"

Coming soon! Android and Processing for Visual Studio

How to prevent or remove Visual Studio pch folders

How to configure visual studio color coding for arduino source code

See more Examples

We can use different arduino engines to power our visual studio addin. However, please use the arduino 0022 engine until we have an arduino 1.0 solution.

The new version of Arduino for Visual Studio includes initial suport for the new arduino .ino file extension. You can not yet compile for arduino 1.0 but you can compile sketches containg a mix of .pde and .ino sketches.

Multiple sketch projects and windows projects can co-exist in a single solution. Fully integrated. F5 Compile and upload (startup project). Build Project, Build Solution