Visual Studio 2017 how to navigate between projects

[Pachuca]

hi, i'm new to Visual Studio 2017. This might seem like a silly question, but would save me time. One thing I find highly annoying is when trying to work with multiple projects. I don't have an easy way to switch between them. For example I might have one project open and want to copy some code from a previous project. To do this I can file >> recent files >> here's my project. That's fine, but when I try to run my current project it seems to think that the older one I opened is now part of the one I'm working on and it doesn't like that giving me errors. I would like to know is there a way to have one project / source open and have visual studio on build solution for that tab while ignoring the other stuff? I literally have to use two different computers so I can work on one project and have another open without it interfering. Let me know if this makes sense or you need further clarification, thank you.

[Pachuca]

might as well add this too. When I finish a project and start a new one visual studio seems to still think i'm working in the old project and gives me errors as well. Do I have to close the source tab for it to function normally and does it save the new project in the new .cpp file or will it overwrite my previous project/.cpp file?

[Daan101]

I don't have that much of experience in it either but what I've found to be the limit is to open multiple projects in separate windows and only run one of them at any given time. Meaning you can look at the code but can't see what it does for all but one project (for me this is always my current one).

 

Hope that helps (probably didn't tho)

I look forward to seeing a proper solution to this...

[zwirek2201]

As much as I know, you cannot have multiple projects open in one window and just choose which one to build. I am often working on multiple projects at a time and I always open multiple instances of Visual Studio. It's easier for me to work because I can switch between them using ALT+TAB. 

 

As for the second part of your question, I rarely create new projects, but I've just tested it and after clicking File -> New -> Project it asks me if I want to save my existing project and just opens new project with no errors. I would imagine that one of the best ways to create a new project would be to create it from the startup window, then you can be sure that it is a new project and that it shouldn't interfere with other projects.

 

I am working on VS 15 though, so that could change some things (but I doubt that).

[Pachuca]

thanks for the replies. I haven't considered opening multiple version of VS17, didn't realize it was possible lol. 

[DXMember]

Have you considered including multiple projects in a single solution and instead of copying the code all the time just reference the modules? That's how the big boys in production do it

[Pachuca]

32 minutes ago, DXMember said:

Have you considered including multiple projects in a single solution and instead of copying the code all the time just reference the modules? That's how the big boys in production do it

no because it's mostly for homework assignments. I have no need for doing that it's easier and cleaner to just copy/paste