The "vMicro" Menu

The following section describes the menu items you can find under the vMicro menu. Many of the functions of these menu items can also be found in the Arduino Boards or Arduino Serial Monitor toolbars.

Main Menu

Ide and Board	Selects the board you want to work with. See Setting up your Board Model and Connection, where board selection is described using the Arduino Boards toolbar.
Visual Micro Explorer	Opens the Visual Micro Explorer
General	See below (1)
Compiler	See below (2)
Uploader	See below (3)
Debugger	See below (4)
Toolbar Auto Visibility	See below (7)
New Arduino Project	Creates an new project (Read more)
Open Existing Arduino Project	Opens an existing project (Read more)
Publish Server Data Files	If set to "true", data files will be uploaded to the board, which the board uses for certain purposes, e.g. HTML and CSS for an Arduino Yun working as a web server. This option works for all board that support data file upload, e.g. Arduino Yun or ESP8266.
Show / Hide Hidden Files	In the Arduino world, libraries and core code exists as source code and, therefore, can be viewed in the editor. As a default, Visual Micro does not show library and core files in the project tree. To make them visible, highlight the project in Solution Explorer and activate "Show / Hide Hidden Files". To hide hidden files again, choose this menu item again.
Project Properties	Opens the Project Properties window
Add Library	Lets you add a library to your project (Read more)
Add Code	Lets you add new source files to your project (Read more))
Build	Builds (compiles) your project, but does not upload it to your board (Read more)
Build & Upload	Builds your project and uploads it to your board (Read more)

"General" Submenu 1

Rescan Toolchains and Libraries	Running this will re-evaluate all libraries and toolchains in all locations, which can be useful if updating libraries / cores via external tools.
Configure Arduino IDE Locations	Open this to change the Arduino IDE Locations, Sketchbook location, and advanced options such as additional JSON URLs for board packages. See our setup page for information on standard settings, and the advanced page for power users.
Auto Select Board/Port When A Device Connects	With this enabled, Visual Micro will change to the board connected when discovered in the IDE for you.
Save Board, Port And Programmer For Each Configuraiton	To save the board options within a configuration, ensure this is checked. This applies to Visual Studio configurations which are for Advanced users, further information here.
Active Code Has Priority Over Solution Explorer	When enabled the currently opened sketch is the target for changes to project options, and if disabled the Solution Explorer View will take priority. For Arduino Users we reccomend this be Enabled, but Visual Studio users may prefer to disable this option.
Monitor Alternative	?????
Global Options	All Global options for Visual Micro configuration are available here, presented in the standard Visual Studio options windows.
Tutorial Mode	If this option is checked, then Visual Micro shows additional message windows that help new users. It also sets and automatic "demo breakpoint" at the start of the "loop() function" as described here.

"Compiler" Submenu 2

Deep Search For Libraries	If enabled, Visual Micro searches for #includes that are necessary for using the libraries you have added to your project. This makes using libraries easier and works the same way as the Arduino IDE. Switching off "Deep Search Include" decreases the compile time, but then it's your responsibility to include all headers that are needed for the libraries you are using in your project.
Verbose	"True" shows detailed compiler output in the Output Window when compiling. Same settings as described under Tools > Options.
High Speed Parallel Builds	Enable this to allow Visual Micro to build code in parallel where possible, making your build times shorter.
Add Path Include (-I) for Project	Automatically add -I include path for the project when compiling. Change not reccomended unless this is understood fully or advised.
Add Path Include (-I) for Shared Projects	Automatically add -I include path for each shared project when compiling. Change not reccomended unless this is understood fully or advised.
Warnings For Project	Show build warnings from project level code when compiling
Warnings For Libraries	Show build warnings from Library level code when compiling
Warnings For Core	Show build warnings from Core level code when compiling
Stop on Error	"True" stops the compilation immediately if core or library compilation return an error, does not continue with compilation of your sketch's source files. This can be useful as source compilations make no much sense until core and library compilations work correctly.
Show Build Folder	If this option is checked, Visual Micro displays the path to the build folder in the Output Window when building the project
Show Build Properties	If this option is checked, Visual Micro displays the build properties in the Output Window when building the project. The build properties are all parameters that governd the build process and that are passed to the build tools by Visual Micro. This setting can be helpful when searching for problems in the build process.
Shared Cache for Cores	If this option is checked, Visual Micro will cache the cores in a central location, and share them between compilations for efficiency.
Always Copy Build Output to Intermediate	When enabled this will copy all build output files to the Intermediate directory within your sketchbook folder.
Always Export Binary	When enabled this will copy the BIN file to the Intermediate directory within your sketchbook folder.
Advanced...	Opens the Project Properties window, where you can change advanced settings. Note: If you have selected the solution in Solution Explorer, then the solution properties will open, not the project properties. In this case, simply click on the project in the solution explorer.

"Uploader" Submenu 3

Port or IP

Selects the Serial Port or IP address to which your board is connected. See Setting up your Board Model and Connection, where port selection is described using the Micro Serial Communications toolbar.

View Port Monitor

Opens the Serial Monitor Window for the serial port you have selected.

Verbose

Shows verbose upload messages, if this option is checked.

Verify

Verifies the correctness of the data in the board after an upload, if this option is checked. Unchecking it will make the upload process faster, because no verification takes place.

Programmer

Programmers are hardware devices that you can use for uploading sketches to your Arduino board (as an alternative to a serial connection) or -more important- to burn a bootloader into the CPU of your board. They are mainly important for users who like to create their own boards with "blank" processors they have bought at a retailer.
The Programmers menu item lets you select the programmer type you have connected to your PC. After selecting a programmer, you can use it to upload sketches or to burn a bootloader.

Always Use Programmer For Upload
(Instead of Port/IP)

This menu item can be checked/unchecked to switch on or off the upload method using your programmer. If you have checked this menu item, then your uploads will be done via the programmer instead of a serial connection.
This method requires that you select the programmer model you are using with the "Programmer" menu item above.

Note:

For Atmel Studio users:

If you have a programmer that is compatible with Atmel Studio, then you can instruct Visual Micro to use it for uploads, so that you don't have to upload manually with Atmel Studio's "Device Programming" menu item.

For this purpose, select the appropriate programmer (whose name begins with "Atmel ...") in the "Programmer" menu item.

Burn Bootloader

After you have selected the programmer model you are using with the "Programmers" menu item above, you can use this menu item to burn a bootloader onto your board's CPU.

WARNING: You can permanently damage your board's CPU if you make mistakes here!
Burning bootloaders is only recommended for experienced users!

"Debugger" Submenu 4

Debug	Selects the which debugger to use, from None, Serial and Hardware. Debugging is explained further here.
Compiler Optimization	Only Applies when the Debug: Hardware option is selected. Allows the optimization of the compiler to be altered to aid Hardware debugging. Please note changing this man increase the size of your sketch beyond your hardware limits in some cases.
Automatic Software Debugging (Release/Debug)	Enables Serial debugging regardless of project properties for all configurations that carry the word "Debug" in their name. Leave this setting switched on at any time, unless you have special requirements for your configurations. For a complete overview of debugging setting read this article.
Trace Only - No Break	Only relevant if Serial debugging is on. If this option is checked, breakpoints do not halt the sketch execution and become "tracepoints". If such a tracepoint is passed, you will see a message in the Debug Trace Window, but your sketch will continue execution.
Full Speed - No Throttle	Only relevant if Serial debugging is on. If this option is checked, no throttling is applied to the debug messages, which is more accurate for timing but can overload your PC Serial Port. Configure the intervals, to prevent the overloading without having to remove the throttle.
Reset Or Delay Board When Debug Starts	Only relevant if Serial debugging is on. If this option is checked, the board will delay when debugging starts, else it will attempt to reset the board via the DTR signal.
Override Local Port	The serial port or IP address the local computer uses for Serial debug. (Read more) Note: Network debug currently requires SSH. Boards like the ESP8266 do not yet support IP terminal mode that works like a serial Monitor. This means that when using ESP8266 network upload users MUST at least set the local debug port to COMn.
Override Local Speed	The serial port speed that the local computer uses to debug. This value can be any valid baud rate. Leave blank for default 115200 baud. (Read more) This value will be ignored when debugging via an IP port.
View Port Monitor	Opens the Serial Monitor Window for the serial port you have selected.
Override Remote Port	The serial port that the board uses to debug. (Read more)
Override Remote Speed	The serial port speed that the remote device uses to debug. This value can be any valid baud rate. Leave blank for default 115200 baud. (Read more)
In-Break Live View	Only applies to the Serial Debugger. When enabled and a breakpoint is hit, the variables in the watch window can be updated
Performance Statistics	Only applies to the Serial Debugger. When enabled the current uptime and time between last tracepoint and current tracepoint is recorded with each Debug Output message. See Performance Monitoring for an example.
Monitor Digital Pins	Only applies to the Serial Debugger. When enabled the digital pins of the board will be displayed on screen visually, with their current state. See Pin Monitoring for an example.
Monitor Analog Pins	Only applies to the Serial Debugger. When enabled the analog pins of the board will be displayed on screen visually, with their current state. See Pin Monitoring for an example.
Monitor Free Memory	Only applies to the Serial Debugger. When enabled the free memory available on the board will be displayed in a chart in Visual Micro. See Pin Monitoring for an example.
Advanced...	Opens the Project Properties window, where you can change advanced settings. Note: If you have selected the solution in Solution Explorer, then the solution properties will open, not the project properties. In this case, simply click on the project in the solution explorer.
Reset These Settings	Clears the settings on this menu so that the local port speed, remote port speed become empty again. Thus the debugger, when active, will use the same port that is used for upload. The default speed is 115000 if empty, unless the code contains a literal value for Serial.begin(), i.e. Serial.begin(9600)

"Add Library" Submenu 5

Add Library

Lets you add a library to your project (Read more)

"Add Code" Submenu 6

Add Code

Lets you add new source files to your project (Read more)

Toolbar Auto Visibility Submenu 7

Auto All

Defaulted to ON to show the Visual Micro Toolbars in Visual Studio when an Arduino Compatible project is loaded for convenience. Read more about this feature and these options here.