Cannot reference dependency assemblies in T4 template when using TransformOnBuild

Question

We\'re trying to use T4 with Visual Studio 2010 (SP1) to build scripts for another language that are based upon some of our existing C# classes. I\'m hoping for the followin

Answer 1

My understanding is that Visual Studio 2013 will finally solve this problem, but that doesn't do me much good as I'm still on Visual Studio 2012. After a lot of effort I finally ran across a solution.

In the project that has the template you wish to run, add the following as a pre-build step on the Build Events tab of the project properties page.

set textTransformPath="%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\$(VisualStudioVersion)\TextTransform.exe"
if %textTransformPath%=="\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\$(VisualStudioVersion)\TextTransform.exe" set textTransformPath="%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\$(VisualStudioVersion)\TextTransform.exe"
set ProjectDir=$(ProjectDir)
%textTransformPath% "%ProjectDir%StringGenerator.tt"

The first two lines take care of the differences between locating TextTransform.exe on 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The third line is the key. I need the path to the project location inside my template, so I set a local environment variable equal to the value of the build's $(ProjectDir) property. Inside my template, just use the following:

var projectDir = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProjectDir");

This has solved my issue.