Question

I have a couple of different solutions, in which some projects may depend on output from projects in other solutions. To manage this, I’ve been copying dll files from the /bin/ folder in each project to a shared library location after build, and then copy/reference them from there to the dependent project.

However, as the library solution gets larger, this tends to become unmaintainable. Too much of my time is being spent traversing solution directories in Windows Explorer looking for /bin/ folders, and trying to figure out which one, or which ones, of the dll files from each one I need.

Is there any way to give Visual Studio a hint that I want all projects in a solution to have the same output directory? For example, a /bin/ folder directly under the solution folder, where all projects put their output.

If possible, I’d like to achieve this without hard-coded post-build events that copy the files, since that will fail if a project output changes file name, or adds another file. I’d rather like to change the location of the actual output directory – the location of $(OutDir), if you will.

Answer 1

You can set the output directory in each project properties.

Right click on the project, select Properties

For C#, it is one of the Build property page, under Output, Output directory.

In VB.Net projects, it is on the Compile tab, in the textbox at the top.