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Add or remove a reference

You can add a reference to any .NET Framework 3.0 assembly or compatible COM library to your Microsoft® Expression Blend™ project. For example, you might add a reference for any of the following reasons:

• Add a reference to a custom control or user control that you can draw on the artboard. For an example, see Create a user control.
• Add a reference to a CLR object data source. For an example, see Create a CLR object data source.
• Add a reference to a compatible COM library. For more information about COM interoperability with .NET Framework 3.0, see the Interoperability topics in the .NET Framework section of MSDN.

If you want to add a reference to another project (for example, if you want to be able to work on two projects within a single instance of Expression Blend), you need to use Visual Studio 2005 to add the reference to the second project. Expression Blend will honor the reference when opening and building the project.

To add a reference

1. On the Project menu, click Add Reference, if you want to add an assembly (.dll or .exe) to your project.
2. In the Add Reference dialog box, browse to the location of the assembly or COM library that you want to add to the current project, select that item, and then click Open.
   The item is not added to your project, but a reference to it is added in the References node under Files in the Project panel.
3. Build your project to incorporate the referenced item and to make any new controls available from the Asset Library .
   If the referenced item is updated externally, you will need to rebuild in Expression Blend to pick up the changes.

To remove an reference

• In the References node under Files in the Project panel, right-click the reference that you want to remove, and then click Remove from project.

Using the Remove from project option only removes the reference from the project; it does not delete the referenced item from your computer.