Modelling project gives warnings when Unity is used.

The issue as reported here and copied / summarized below:

I am using Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 and tried to create a layer diagram in order to generate and validate dependencies. But this fails because VS is throwing warnings while building the modeling project:

CurrentVersion.targets(1819,5): warning MSB3268: The primary reference "...\ClassLibrary4\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary4.dll" could not be resolved because it has an indirect dependency on the framework assembly "System.Runtime, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" which could not be resolved in the currently targeted framework. ".NETFramework,Version=v4.0". To resolve this problem, either remove the reference "...\ClassLibrary4\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary4.dll" or retarget your application to a framework version which contains "System.Runtime, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a".

I figured out that if you remove Unity the warnings are gone and dependencies are shown as expected.

What is the reason for this behavior and is there any workaround?

I tried the Unity prerelease package and also another targeting frameworks. No effect at all. The issue is reproducable with a new project after adding a modelling project and using unity in one referenced projects.

The solution that worked for me as well:

The problem that VS2015 was compiling the modelling project using the wrong target framework (4.0):

Task Parameter:TargetFrameworkDirectories=C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NETFramework\v4.0

There is no TargetFrameworkVersion in the project file of the modelling project (*.modelproj). But after adding it to the first property group it is compiling and validating as expected. Without any warnings.

Solution:

1. Unload the modelling project
2. Right Click -> Open *.modelproj
3. Add the following line in between the first PropertyGroup open / close tags.

<TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>

NOTE: Replace v4.5 with your target framework (the target framework for your application)

After your done, your project file will start with something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
    <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
    <SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
    <ProjectGuid>{f60f6f86-e1d5-4d33-b8ed-0bf2172780cf}</ProjectGuid>
    <ArchitectureToolsVersion>2.0.0.0</ArchitectureToolsVersion>
    <Name>ModelingProject1</Name>
    <RootNamespace>ModelingProject1</RootNamespace>
    <SccProjectName>SAK</SccProjectName>
    <SccProvider>SAK</SccProvider>
    <SccAuxPath>SAK</SccAuxPath>
    <SccLocalPath>SAK</SccLocalPath>
    <ValidateArchitecture>true</ValidateArchitecture>
    <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
...