I updated my community edition of visual studio 2017 to 15.3.0
and I got this new build error
Build Failure. Error: Could not load file or as
Deleting .vs folder worked for me
Disable Lightweight Solution Load
Lightweight load
in the Properties view of the Solution:resoolve it by deleting
".vs" Folder "packages" Folder "obj" Folders and Rebuild Solution
I had a similar experience, but with Enterprise.
The error persisted until I disabled Lightweight Solution Loading, but I'm including the other steps I took in case they were pre-requisites.
I hope this helps.
If you need to keep Lightweight Solution Load enabled, or don't have the option to disable it, then modifying your Visual Studio install to include "Desktop development with C++" will add the missing file and repair the issue.
Source: Microsoft Visual Studio Developer Community