Opening and Closing Projects

A project is either open or closed. When a project is closed, it cannot be changed in the Workbench. The resources of a closed project will not appear in the Project Explorer view, but the resources still reside on the local file system. When a project is open, the structure of the project can be changed, you will see the contents in the Project Explorer view, and the Workbench search facilities will be able to find matches within project files.

To open or close a project, select the project folder in the Project Explorer view and select Open Project or Close Project from the Project menu or the Project Explorer context menu.

By default, IDL adds directories that contain open projects to the !PATH system variable; as a result, IDL's automatic compilation feature can locate files contained in an open project. If you prefer to manage !PATH yourself, uncheck the Update IDL path when project is opened or closed checkbox on the IDL Project Properties page of the Project Properties dialog.