Hi,
I continue to have trouble with shared code.  I have a main job (call it sketch1)that is self-contained apart from Arduino libraries.  I have two other subsidiary jobs (sketch2 and sketch3) that interface via One Wire to sketch1, so naturally a lot of the data structures and so on are common.  I got the solution for sketch2 to work satisfactorily using a shared code project (SCP1) containing items from sketch1.  sketch3 is very similar to sketch2, and I am attempting to set up its solution by adding SCP1, plus another (SCP2) that includes items from sketch2.  I hope that's clear.

What I am seeing seems odd to me.  I will attach part of the compiler output illustrating my issue.

There is a file (base_UICLass.cpp) created for sketch2 that #includes base_UICLass.h.  This header file #includes  UI_structs.h from sketch1, which is contained in SCP1.  So far, so good, sketch2 builds fine.  For sketch3's solution, I added SCP1 to the solution and created another project SCP2 which contains base_UICLass.cpp and base_UICLass.h.

When VS/VM is compiling a sketch3 file (Sem_main.cpp), it finds both base_UICLass.h and  and UI_structs.h in SCP1 just fine (as did sketch2); when it compiles base_UICLass.cpp from SCP2, it finds base_UICLass.h, but not UI_structs.h.

I notice that the compiler command lines place Sem_main.cpp in the VMbuilds folder, but base_UICLass.cpp is placed in the Arduino sketchbook folder; this seems to be the only difference, and no doubt explains the above behaviour.  From my reading, this looks wrong.  I quote from the web page:
".... To share code just as if it has been added directly to the project as opposed to using a seperate library.
....
#include linked code as if it exists in the project folder (without path qualifier).
....
Note: When the project is compiled any linked sources are copied into the hidden build folder along with the other project sources."

My question is why, in this case, is base_UICLass.cpp not compiled out of the build folder?  (It is copied there, I noticed.)  Any thoughts about why this did not happen here?  I have noticed a tendency for VS projects to get muddled, requiring deletion and redefinition, but I have tried that without success.

I noticed that SCP1 has only .h files, no .cpp files.  As a test, I added a file Test.cpp to SCP1, which #includes UI_structs.h.  This compiled fine in sketch2, where the compiler command line looks for Test.cpp in the VMBuilds folder.  However, when I compiled sketch3 with this changed SCP1, the compiler command line now looks in the sketch2 sketchbook folder (which is where it is), not the VMBuilds folder, and it now cannot find  UI_structs.h.  So this looks like that is my problem.  But I still don't know why or how to fix it.

Thanks for your support,
Jed

Thanks for sending the files. There isn't only one solution (sln) in the file and it shows a lot more projects than you zip contained so it is difficult to easily see what you are doing.

The files you sent also show some confusion with locations of sources which might confuse things. 

The files show three attempted projects. 2 x arduino sketch projects which look good and also a folder called SmrtHeads which I guess should be a shared project but it is not.

The project file of SrchLightHead shows links to a variety of shared projects (either code of libraries) but the locations are not great and also the physical files are not provided in your zip.

I suggest we step back a little and clean up the code folder structure. That will also make things simpler and more obvious for you. Keep in mind that an arduino sketch project is a final application, the code can not also be a shared project. There are ways so share code between application projects but is will confuse even more.

An important note is that the visual studio .sln, .vcxproj and .vcxitems files are simple text files that contain paths to the files and shared projects you have referenced. You can edit them with a text editor if need be.

1)

You SrchLightHead project shows you have configured many shared project references. Please clear the list down and exclude all standard arduino libraries from your project and solution. (I have changed the paths slightly to protect names)

<ImportGroup Label="Shared">
    <Import Project="..\libraries\Adafruit_NeoPixel\Adafruit_NeoPixel.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import tems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import 21\libraries\EEPROM\EEPROM.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import Project="..\libraries\onewirearduinoslave\onewirearduinoslave.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import Project="..\libraries\OneWire-master\OneWire-master.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import " Label="Shared" />
    <Import Project="..\libraries\SerialPort\SerialPort.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import Project="..\SmrtHeads\SharedCode\SharedCode.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
    <Import Project="..\SmrtHeads\SharedCodeRS\SharedCodeRS.vcxitems" Label="Shared" />
  </ImportGroup>
 

2)

Do NOT put libraries or code below the _micro-api folder of a project. This facility is an older way of working with shared external code and libraries prior to the release of support for shared projects (vcxitems). Shared projects allows us to organize code in a cleaner way. See the next point

3)

I recommend creating a folder for the .sln file at the root of any "projects" structure and then create more obvious places to locate arduino sketch code versus shared code.

For example this folder structure:-

MyProjects
 MyProjects\MyProjects.sln

 MyProjects\SharedCode

 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project1
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project1\Project1.vcxitems
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project1\foo.h
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project1\foo.cpp

 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project2
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project2\Project2.vcxitems
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project2\foo.h
 MyProjects\SharedCode\Project2\foo.cpp

 MyProjects\SharedLibraries

 MyProjects\SharedLibraries\SharedLib1
 MyProjects\SharedLibraries\SharedLib1\SharedLib1.vcxitems
 MyProjects\SharedLibraries\SharedLib1\library.properties
 MyProjects\SharedLibraries\SharedLib1\foo.h
 MyProjects\SharedLibraries\SharedLib1\foo.cpp

 MyProjects\Projects

 MyProjects\Projects\Project1
 MyProjects\Projects\Project1\Project1.vcproj
 MyProjects\Projects\Project1\Project1.ino

 MyProjects\Projects\Project2
 MyProjects\Projects\Project2\Project2.vcproj
 MyProjects\Projects\Project2\Project2.ino 

Tim,
Thanks for the response.  I was a little skeptical that your suggestion to move files around would help, as the whole point is to allow code to be located "anywhere".  Further, I found the problem also occurred with just one main project and two shared code projects. But I tried your scheme, except the files for the second shared project were left in a different Arduino sketchbook folder rather than with the .vcxitems file.  The only significant different from my layout was that the location of the two projects' unique files.

However, it does work that way.  I also learned that Arduino allows .ino file to be in subfolders of the Sketchbook/<sketch> folder, which I did not know.

So thank you for the help, though I'm still mystified why the original problem occurred; put it down to a Visual Studio vagary?

Regards,
Jed

I take your point on the subfolders.  I opened the Arduino IDE and saw a pull-out on the sketchbook menu ("Projects"), which further pulled out to the two included sketches.  That is what was new to me. The sketches would open in the IDE, but the file tabs only had the local files for each sketch, and compiling did not find any of the shared code.  The build folder did not have the shared files. 

So Arduino compatibility would require some work, which does not bother me too much.  For development, there is now no way I will abandon VS/VM/Intellisense.  It would drive me mad to have to use the Arduino IDE.

I did take the time to reorganize the local libraries as you suggested, though the project they are borrowed from is not very active.  As you say, a much cleaner approach.

Thanks again.