VS 2013 - SQL Server Projects - Can I Change defaults for SQL Servers to use and the paths to DB-files?

Question

Hi all,
when a create a SQL Server Project using "File > New ...", I find the following settings defaulted:
SQL Server is (local)\Version12.0 and
DefaultDataPath, DefaultFileprefix and the DefaultFilename(s) for MDFs and LDFs point to the Project directory.
Initial settings of file size and increments are also not settable but defaulted.
Because my projects have to verify performance by testing with large volume of data, we have to use a different SQL Server with files stored on that Server. The Project settings have a button to changes DB properties, but these are not part of that
dialog.
So I spent some fruitless hours in vain to find a way to change the project's connection to my development SQL Servers.
How to cope with that?
Thanks in advance.
Regards Uwe

Answer 1

Hi Caillen,
thanks for Your response. I have to apologize for being a little late with my answer. I'll try to clarify my case more precisely:
This is surely a topic related to VS2013 handling new "SQL Server Database Projects". When one clicks "OK" the following steps are executed by VS2013 (surely controlled by standard templates or the like):
VS2013 creates the new project in a selectable directory and uses the projectname as a subdirectory whre the directory elements (*.sqlproj, bin\, obj\) where  later all the *.sql are placed, too. This is normal and expected.
VS2013 creates a new database with its DB-files
and attaches it to "(localdb)\ProjectsV12". The name of the database is the name of the project. The path to the DB-files (*.mdf and ldf) and their sizes are also defaulted to small values. The DB-server and the
path to the DB-files is taken from the registry (!) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\SSDT\LocalDbDatabaseFilePaths. I don't know when and by what tools these values are set.
The path to DB-Files is typically also the path to the projects. The (local)-server places all system database files in the User\<user-ID>\Appdata\.. tree. Which is OK for small databases. The templates extracts some data from the DB-file path and
places it in the deployment SQLs to populate the SQLCMD variables DefaultDataPath, DefaultFileprefix and the DefaultFilename(s) which are generated when pressing "Executed" or "Debug" the project.
My problem is that we have to test database performance with larger volumes of data (e.g. two million rows and more). These cannot be stored in the User-path but must be handled by some kind of professional DB-Manager on various storage devices. When everything
is tested, the publishing function of VS2013 will extract the structure and you are done incl. all the performance taming things.
The dialog from the project properties can change to a different Server, but that server does not know your project database. The server and the DB-Files should be specified by the developer before VS2013 creates the database.
So  the right forum would be a forum, where people developing SQL Server solutions with VS2013 are reading the questions.
Thanks again for your patience.
Regards Uwe