DependencyGraph

Draws your solution's project-to-project reference graph in a dockable tool window — laid out properly, inside the IDE.

Useful when you are working out what a project actually drags in, why a build takes so long, whether a reference can be removed, or where a circular reference crept in.

The tool window

Works in Community and Professional

Visual Studio's built-in Code Map needs the Enterprise edition to create or edit a graph — Community and Professional can only open one someone else made. This does the job in any edition.

No setup either. You do not need Graphviz, and you do not need the DGML editor. The graph is drawn in the IDE. Graphviz is only involved if you explicitly pick the Graphviz SVG or PNG export.

Open it from Tools → Show Dependency Graph, or right-click a project in Solution Explorer. The window docks in the document area and the rest of the IDE stays usable while it is open.

What you see

One box per project, one arrow per reference, pointing from the project that has the reference to the project it depends on. The project you are looking at is the root, in olive green.

The graph opens at 100% zoom so the labels stay crisp; Fit puts the whole graph in view. The status bar shows the node and connection counts, the current zoom, and the selected project's reference counts and path.

Five views

Deepest references only — one arrow per project, giving a clean tree. The quickest way to read the shape of a dependency chain.
All references — every reference of every project. The honest picture, and busier.
Project references only — the selected project and its direct references, nothing transitive.
Referenced by (impact) — turned around: everything that depends on this project, directly or transitively. The "what breaks if I change this?" view.
Entire solution — every project and every reference between them, with no root. The other four start at one project and only reach what it reaches; this shows a solution with several entry points whole.

The impact view

The whole solution

Finding your way around a big solution

Three levers, which matter once a solution runs to hundreds of projects:

Depth — All, which follows references to the end, or stop after 1 to 6 levels. A number cuts whole levels cleanly, so you never get an arrow pointing at a project that was left out.
Focus — Ctrl+click several projects, then draw only those and the references between them.
Group — draw a box around each solution folder, with the folder's name across the top. Click the chevron beside a name to collapse that folder to a single node, with its references aggregated onto it; click the node to expand it again.

Grouping and the legend

Plus an Excluded projects setting for the test and benchmark projects that reference half the solution, and four layout Directions: top to bottom, left to right, bottom to top, right to left.

Move things where you want them

Automatic layout is a starting point. Drag a node, or a whole folder box, to where the graph reads better — its references follow it and nothing else moves.

What you dragged is remembered per solution: through a rebuild, so changing view, direction or depth does not throw your arrangement away, and on disk, so it is still there after you close the solution and after you close Visual Studio. Reset layout puts everything back.

Target frameworks

Each project's target framework is in its tooltip, and in the status bar for the selected project. A setting puts it in the graph itself, under each project's name, for when that is what you are looking for.

External references

A project that is referenced but is not part of the solution is drawn with a dashed border and labelled (external) - its own references were never scanned, so the graph below it is incomplete by definition rather than by accident.

Circular references

A reference that closes a cycle is drawn in red and labelled. Visual Studio will not let you create one through the UI, but a hand-edited project file can, and the build error does not name the projects involved. This points straight at them.

Getting around

Hover a node for its solution folder, its reference counts and its path. Drag to pan, wheel to zoom. Click a node to select it. Double-click to re-root the graph on that project. Right-click for highlighting — everything that references this project, or everything it references directly.

Exporting

Save the graph on screen as PNG (the whole graph, not just the visible part), DGML for Visual Studio's directed-graph editor, or Graphviz DOT. If Graphviz is available, SVG and PNG through dot too. Save Solution Graph does the same for every project at once.

Settings

Tools → Options → DependencyGraph → General: the view, direction and depth the window opens with, node label font size, excluded project patterns, and a direct path to dot.exe if you would rather not put Graphviz on your PATH.

Themes

Follows your Visual Studio theme, light or dark, and re-colours itself if you switch theme while the window is open.

Requirements

Visual Studio 2022 (17.x) or 2026 (18.x), amd64. Project references are read through the C#/VB/F# project system; C++ and other project kinds appear but have no readable references.

Lokesh Govindu