title: Is there a way to have one project build another in Visual Studio?
body: <p>We are finally getting a source control system in place at work and I've been in charge of setting it up.  I've read that it's usually good practice to not include binaries in source control so I haven't.  However, we have two all-purpose utility projects (each in their own solution) that generate utility .dll's which are included in almost all of our other projects (all each in their own separate solutions).  We add references to the utility dll from our projects.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to have our solutions set up in such a way that if the reference dll isn't built, the solution will build the dll for itself, much in the same way a make file checks for its dependencies and builds them when they're out of date or missing.</p>
  
  <p>I'm new to build processes with VS so try to keep the answers simple.  Any links to general build process overview tutorials would be great too.  Googleing for VS references returns a bunch of how-to add references links which is not exactly what I want.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Answer:</strong> (3 step process) Add a project reference, not a binary reference by right clicking on the solution, and adding an existing project.  Then under the project tab, select project dependencies and modify the project so that one project depends on another.  Finally, delete any old reference to the binary and re-add the reference using the project tab in the Add references dialog box.</p>