The Tools menu

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

Tools Menu

Boards
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.
Serial Port
Selects the Serial Port to which your board is connected. See Setting up your Board Model and Connection, where port selection is described using the Arduino Boards toolbar.
Serial Monitor
Opens the Serial Monitor Window for the serial port you have selected.
Other Serial Ports
Opens an additional Serial Monitor Window where you can watch serial communication with a second board or with a second serial connection to the same Arduino board. See Debugging with Different Ports, Pins and Speeds for more information.
Programmers
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.
Upload Using Programmer
This menu item can be checked/unchecked to switch on or off the upload method using your programmer. If you have checked "Upload Using Programmer", 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 "Programmers" 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 "Programmers" 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 WARNING: You can permanently damage your board's CPU if you make mistakes here!
Burning bootloaders is only recommended for experienced users!
Automatic Debugging
Enables debugging regardless of project properties for all configurations names "Debug" or "Release". This is the most convenient way of switching debugging on or off.
For a complete overview of debugging setting read this article.
Debug Trace Only
Only relevant if 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.
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.
Verbose Mode
"True" shows detailed compiler output in the Output Window when compiling.
Same settings as described under Tools > Options.
Compiler Warnings
"True" shows compiler warnings in the Output Window when compiling.
Compiler warnings are very useful and should be taken seriously to avoid coding errors.
Same settings as described under Tools > Options.

Note:

Compiler Warnings often help you in finding hidden bugs in your code.
Example:

    if( counter = 4 )
    {
        counter == 4;
    }

Both these code lines are legal, but probably it is not what you intended: The first line should possibly be a comparison (==), but it is an assignment (=), and the second line should be an assigment, but it is a comparison without any effect.
Both lines are valid C++ but make no sense and indicate a programming mistake.

Compiler warnings can show you such spots.

Reload Toolchains
If you have changed anything in the board or programmer configuration files, then you can reload the compilation/upload tools in order to make the changes effective in Visual Micro. Example: You have changed something in the BOARDS.TXT file that contains board properties and settings. Then you should use "Reload Tool Chains" afterwards, which will cause Visual Micro to reload configurations.
Reset User Interface
Sometimes after installation some Visual Micro menu commands do not appear, or Visual Micro menu/buttons commands appear multiple times. In this case, you can use this menu item to repair menus and buttons.

 Note:

If you have customized Visual Micro related menus or toolbars you will lose these settings, as they will be reset to their defaults by this command.


Configure IDE locations
Opens the Configuration Manager that lets you specify where your original Arduino IDE's files are stored
Platform Explorer
Opens the Micro Explorer window.
Visual Micro Home
Opens your web browser and navigates to the Visual Micro home page
Visual Micro Documentation
Opens your web browser and navigates to the Visual Micro online documentation