Dealing with Expression Blend's lack of support for C++/CLI projects

Question

I have a WPF C# project that references a C++/CLI mixed mode project. I'm having trouble using the WPF project in Expression Blend 3. I'm new to Blend so perhaps this is obvious, but it won't display the xaml designer properly until it builds the project. In my case it complains that my custom commands are not "recognized or accessible" and the solution is to build the project in Blend. But I can't build the project because it references a C++/CLI mixed mode project which Blend won't load. The WPF project is pure C# it just happens to reference a C++/CLI mixed mode project but I'm not asking Blend to do anything with the mixed-mode assembly. How can I work around this problem?

Edit: I was able to get it to build by removing the reference to the C++/CLI mixed mode project and replacing it with a reference to the actual assembly. However this is not ideal because in my past experience Visual Studio will not always be able to resolve the reference when switching between release and debug configurations.

Answer 1

I would consider setting up a second solution file. One to open in Blend and the other to open in Visual Studio. They would be nearly identical except that the blend version would reference the stated files in their built state. The VS version would reference the project as you prefer to VS.