I need some help to know if this is normal behavior before spending any time to fix it. Using Visual Micro Pro, Visual Studio 14, Arduino IDE 1.6.7. If I open an .ino file created elsewhere, sometimes Visual Studio asks if I want to create a project file. Answering yes does that and all is well. Tool bar all there.

Other times opening a .ino file VS14 does not ask if I want to create a project and imports the ino, but the toolbar for Visual Micro is mostly blank, no board selection, no debugger, build and upload icons greyed out. Workaround is to open a new project using the Arduino project template, add an existing item (the ino to open), then removing the blank new ino created with the new project. If normal then fine but a nuisance.

Basic question is do you have to have a project associated with the .ino file for Visual Micro to function in Visual Studio?

Sorry if this is more of a Visual Studio thing but have to start somewhere.

Much thanks for any guidance.

Hey,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I found the two options under window menu, both about auto hide for the tool bar. You were right about it having to have project recognized as and Arduino project to get the toolbar. The mistake I was making was going file, open, file, then selecting .ino file. Correct way is to go file, open, open Arduino project, then select .ino file.  Kind of a dumb mistake but I just didn't connect there was a difference.

Thanks much again, I'm on my way now.