There is Copy to Output Directory property for files in C# projects. But in VC++ projects it is absent. I know, that I can use Build events in VC++ and write there something like
xcopy /y /d %(FullPath) $(OutDir)
Is there a way to avoid the use of CMD (and other scripting methods)? Can msbuild do something to help in this case?
It depends on what version of Visual Studio you are using. Format of VC++ project file in Visual Studio 2008 is not MSBuild and so using xcopy in PostBuildStep is a good choice.
VC++ project in Visual Studio 2010 has MSBuild format. Thus, there is functionality of MSBuild Copy task.
Below is a sample:
If the destination directory does not exist, it is created automatically
An MSDN Copy task reference is here