Visual Studio - Where to define custom path macros?

Question

I just opened someone else\'s Visual Studio project and in their build properties they have a few custom path macro\'s they are using for their include and lib directories.

Answer 1

Here the approach is described with pictures: https://sites.google.com/site/pinyotae/Home/visual-studio-visual-c/create-user-defined-environment-variables-macros

In Visual Studio you need to:

1. Click in the main menu "View", then "Property Manager"
2. Right-click in the empty space of "Property Manager" window and in the pop-up menu click "Add New Project Property Sheet"
3. After adding the property sheet, double click it in the Property Manager window and in the tree on the left select property page "User Macros"
4. Then you can click "Add Macro" button

Here is a tutorial on Project Property Sheets: http://www.dorodnic.com/blog/2014/03/20/visual-studio-macros/

Answer 2

Re: hmm.. I dont seem to have the "User Macros" option under "Common Properties". I am using VS 2010 Pro

The User Macros option doesn't show up if you open the property dialog for a proj file, as you do in the normal Files view. You have to switch to the Propery view, expand some project, and choose a Property Page (*.props) that you added for the purpose. The User Macros show up there.

Or, you can just edit the XML directly. Macros work just fine if defined in a .*proj file, but making it a "User Macro" is pointless if there's no edit page. So just make it a plain property in a <PropertyGroup>.

As pointed out earlier, it also pulls in Environment Variables. However, you have to be sure to set them in a context where the Devenv will see them! Do that in a command shell and then run DEVENV from that same command prompt. When I had that situation, I made a batch file to set the proper variables and launch DEVENV, and put that bat file icon on the desktop.

Answer 3

Try the other way without the hassle adding to each Property Sheet

Go to Windows OS System Properties > Environment Variables, just New and input the Variable e.g.: MY_PATH and value e.g.: D:\Dev_Path\

after that you have to restart your Visual Studio, you should be able to have ${MY_PATH} in macro list

p/s: just notice Jason Williams answered above is the OS Environment Variables method

Answer 4

Same answer as to @Serge Rogatch, except that I was not able to find "Property Manager" in View.

Visual steps for quick navigation:

Answer 5

The way for the latest visual studio versions (2015+) Is as follows:

To create a user-defined macro:

1. In the Property Manager window (on the menu bar, choose View, Property Manager), open the shortcut menu for a property sheet (its name ends in .user) and then choose Properties.
2. The Property Pages dialog box for that property sheet opens. In the left pane of the dialog box, select User Macros. In the right pane, choose the Add Macro button to open the Add User Macro dialog box.
3. In the dialog box, specify a name and value for the macro. Optionally, select the Set this macro as an environment variable in the build environment check box.

Source

Answer 6

You can just define them as os environment variables, which is probably what the original author did.