How do I start a new CUDA project in Visual Studio 2008?

Asked 2010-01-12T02:04:36.693

This is an incredibly basic question, but how do I start a new CUDA project in Visual Studio 2008? I have found tons and tons of documentation about CUDA related matters, but nothing about how to start a new project. I am working with Windows 7 x64 Visual Studio 2008 C++. I would really like to find some sort of really really basic Hello World app to just get a basic program compiling and running.

Edit:

I tried your steps Tom. I setup a console app. I then deleted the default .cpp it drops in and copied over the three files from the template project just to have something to compile. When I compile that, template_gold.cpp complained about not having stdafx.h included, so i included that. Now the build fails with this:

1>------ Build started: Project: CUDASandbox, Configuration: Debug x64 ------
1>Compiling...
1>template_gold.cpp
1>Linking...
1>LIBCMT.lib(crt0.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol main referenced in function __tmainCRTStartup
1>D:\Stuff\Programming\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\CUDASandbox\x64\Debug\CUDASandbox.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals
1>Build log was saved at "file://d:\Stuff\Programming\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\CUDASandbox\CUDASandbox\x64\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>CUDASandbox - 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

c++ visual-studio cuda

Edit Report

2 Answers

NOTE With the release of version 3.2 of the CUDA Toolkit, NVIDIA now includes the rules file with the Toolkit as opposed to the SDK. Therefore I've split this answer into two halves, use the correct instructions for your version of the Toolkit.

NOTE These instructions are valid for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008. For Visual Studio 2010 see this answer.

CUDA TOOLKIT 3.2 and later

I recommend using the NvCudaRuntimeApi.rules file (or NvCudaDriverApi.rules if using the driver API) provided by NVIDIA, this is released with the toolkit and supports the latest compiler flags in a friendly manner. Personally I would advise against using the VS wizard, but only because I really don't think you need it.

The rules file (installed into the Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\VCProjectDefaults directory) "teaches" Visual Studio how to compile and link any .cu files in your project into your application.

Create a new project using the standard MS wizards (e.g. an empty console project)
Implement your host (serial) code in .c or .cpp files
Implement your wrappers and kernels in .cu files
Add the NvCudaRuntimeApi.rules (right click on the project, Custom Build Rules, tick the relevant box), see note 1
Add the CUDA runtime library (right click on the project and choose Properties, then in Linker -> General add $(CUDA_PATH)\lib\$(PlatformName) to the Additional Library Directories and in Linker -> Input add cudart.lib to the Additional D

answered 2010-01-12T09:31:21.680

3

Install CUDA VS wizard. It will setup VS and add CUDA Project to the "new project" menu.

Make sure that you have x64 compiler installed (must be checked during VS install).

Check if you have x64 libs, includes, nvcc dir and in the search path.

Create new project using CUDA template.

Change project type to x64 and CUDA setting to Native (if you have nv cuda-enabled card) or emulation otherwise.

The template will create custom build rules that compile .cu files with nvcc and other files with default compiler.

if, vs is trying to compile .cu files with C/C++ compiler, click on that file in solution explorer and disable compilation for that files (red dot on file's icon)

Additional info about installing CUDA wizard on VS2008 can be found here and here

[edit]
If you don't want to use wizard you have to setup CUDA lib/include/nvcc paths manually and add custom build rules to each new CUDA program. For additional info how to do it take a look at Tom's Answer.

answered 2010-01-12T07:55:15.043

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