<p>I am trying to compile a labview CIN using visual studio 2003.</p>

<p>I have followed the tutorial located <a href="http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3172" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> to the letter, but am getting the following error:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Project : error PRJ0019: A tool returned an error code from "Performing Custom Build Step"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Does anyone know what is causing this? I tried this <a href="http://detritus.blogs.com/lycangeek/2006/03/building_cins_w.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">link</a> found at an expert's exchange <a href="http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/.NET/Visual_CPP/Q_23144843.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">question</a> but it does not seem relevant.</p>

<p>Is there an easier way to build a CIN using visual studio?</p>

Please post the entire error.  It appears that the custom build step defined in your link does not work.
On the Custom Build Step->General page, type:
```
```
"$(CINTOOLS_DIR)\lvsbutil" "$(TargetName)" -d "$(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)"
```
```
in the commandline field and type
```
$(OutDir)$(TargetName).lsb
```
in the output field.
Try pasting that into a commandline and running it. I suspect you have not got the env variables set or they are not pointing to the right places.