Visual Studio: How to arrange the projects inside solution explorer by dependency

Question

Is there any way to manually arrange the projects inside solution explorer of VS 2010+ based on the dependency (dependent project on higher level) ?

Answer 1

No, but when I have a solution with a lot of projects that I want to convey this build flow, I do something that may suit your needs.

Because the Solution Explorer sorts things alphabetically, I put projects into "Solution Folders". I put a prefix on each project folder. So, I might name a folder "A. Helper Assemblies". So, my solution looks like this:

Solution
   A. Helper Assemblies
      Project1.vsproj
      Project2.vsproj
   B. Core Assemblies
      ProjectX.vsproj
      ProjectY.vsproj
   C. UI Assemblies
      ProjectMoe.vsproj
      ProjectLarry.vsproj
      ProjectShemp.vsproj

This doesn't change any project dependencies, though. It's simply a manual effort to ensure that the project build order matches the folder structure.

For exact details on adding a Solution Folder, go here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c6c756s6(v=vs.100).aspx