VS solution location

[AnasNaz]

Hello, this may sound silly but is there any way to not have the visual studio solution project location be in the same path as build directory when using the hello_imgui_template to build ? I could not find an easy way to move this outside of the build directory as I do not like using filters in visual studio to see my source files. It makes managing my project very cumbersome. Appreciate any help

[pthom]

When you run CMake on Windows, here is how the Solution Explorer looks.

You can see Hello ImGui sources at the top, and your project source at the bottom (hello_world).

I do not understand your remark: "I do not like using filters in visual studio to see my source files".

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If you want more customization, you should consider doing it with CMake. Below are some advice given by ChatGPT:

To address this, you can modify the CMake setup to place the solution/project files in a different directory than the build files. Here’s a general approach to achieve this:

Modify CMakeLists.txt: Specify a different output directory for project files.
Use CMake Options: Utilize CMake's CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, and CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY to control where different types of build artifacts are placed.
Out-of-source Build: Configure CMake to use a separate build directory.

Example CMake Configuration

In your CMakeLists.txt, you can add:

# Set the output directories
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)

# Optionally, specify where to put Visual Studio project files
set(PROJECT_BINARY_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/vs_project)

Running CMake

When you run CMake, specify the build directory:

sh

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -DCMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=../vs_project ..

This approach will separate the build artifacts from the project files, addressing the user's concern.

[AnasNaz]

Thank you for your reply. I have tried that and the visual studio solution is still in the build folder. I guess I am not used to this way of working on a project. So the solution is used to just build the project and I put my source control at the project root path (one root above the build folder) ?

[pthom]

So the solution is used to just build the project and I put my source control at the project root path (one root above the build folder

Absolutely, and add "build/" to your .gitignore.

When using CMake, you should not commit the visual studio solution, it is generated by cmake.

[AnasNaz]

Thank you for your time !