For future application maintenance, studies and simply for next use of application it is necessary to archive solutions and/or projects.

1.      To archive unique modules like sketch files it  is not significant problem because it is easy to zip/unzip source files. The question is how to archive and later retrieve libraries and files shared with other projects plus eventual individual settings of VS&VM environment? I experienced libraries and shared modules that are actualized/modified in the way that the principle of back-compatibility is not kept.  Unfortunately it happens very often. I treat very uncomfortable and risky to force actual ProgramFiles(86)/arduino/libraries or documents/arduino/libraries by old versions due to incompatibility; I am not mentioning setting of environment…

2.      To upload archived application it would be sufficient to use hex file. How to use VS&VM  for this purpose? It should be enough to perform standard upload using Arduino bootloader w/o (for example) “unzipping” of project stored according previous paragraph. Maybe to create apparently dummy project into which to foist needed hex file…?

Advices will be apreciated.

Hi, Tim,
thanks for instant and inspiring answer. I spent a lot of time by “deep search” of the matter.


Tim@Visual Micro wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 6:04pm:

Only one thing found:  https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DataJuggler.SolutionShipper. It is quite new contribution promising among others to “Archive Projects“. I have not tested it yet.

Tim@Visual Micro wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 6:04pm:

I, as user who paid, may use Add/Create New Library.  This is very powerful instrument for archiving purposes of Solutions/projects! I have made careful research regarding Added/Created libraries/files.

The matter of the advantage lies in the fact that Local files take precedence over all other libraries/files of the same name.  This feature will allow to foist the actually outdated or specially modified libraries into a retrieved or old project. 

It is necessary just to take this fact into consideration before archiving. For simplicity and clarity of things, it is appropriate that the files physically lay in Arduino/ProjectName/src/_micro-api/libraries/LibName => Files have to be “Created”.  If you want to “Add” libraries then prefer the addition of libraries copied there in advance. But anyway I do not know how about absolute/relative addresses...

How the VS’s, VM’s and project’s configuration files could be archived/retrieved, I have no idea. It is your turn, Tim.

Tim@Visual Micro wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 6:04pm:

Yes, it is a good idea. I guess it is easy to realize. Actually I needed to upload application from my friend. For this reason I decided to use http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=11638. It really works!
Tim@Visual Micro wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 6:04pm:

If I understand correctly, it shall definitely resolve the archiving problem. BTW: I have activated my non-profit license in October 2016. When will it expire regarding VM actualizations/upgrades? Will emeritus R&D engineer (67.95) see it ? I found none Business Conditions.

I forgot to mention about relative paths.

Visual micro does not use relative paths for paths that it manages because it rebuilds them each time the project is opened. 

For example, the location of the arduino ide or libraries might alter but these paths are recreated when a project is opened so they do not need to be relative.

You should not encounter any other actual paths, all code should be in the project with relative paths. If this is not the case then please report for discussion of confusion or bug.

Thanks