<p>I have been used to working with VS2005 and 2008 - using msbuild, etc, but I have inherited a set of projects that have to remain in vc6.0 for now.  I don't like opening each project in the developer studio and building.  I prefer to build form command line (I am automating the builds).  Is this possible?</p>

<p>I have tried the nmake utility, but I still need to open up the projects and save/export the make file.  This is tedious if the project changes - each time I have to save the make file.  nmake seems to work, but it had a problem when I changed the location of the project in my directory tree (I checked out of svn into a new clean dir to try the build).  It seemed to have hard coded paths in it, but I will have to check on that - it might have been a different problem.</p>

<p>Any alternatives out there?</p>

<p>Eventually I will migrate these to 2008, but for now that is not an option.</p>

We use automated builds at my work place. Essentially just a batch file i fire off from the command line. Let me make sure i am allowed to post some sample code before i go ahead and post it. But yes, it IS possible to automate the build.
Sample Code:
:::::::: CompileSolution :::::::::::::::::::::::::
call X:\BuildTools\bin\BuildVbProj.bat
%COMPONENTNAME% %SOLUTIONDIR%
%PROJFILE% %BUILDOUTPUTFILE%
%PREBUILDFILE% if %ERRORLEVEL% NEQ 0
goto BuildErrors
goto Cleanup
EDIT:
The BuildVbProj.bat file ultimately calls VB6.exe in the Program Files\MS Visual Studio\VB98\ folder. Try calling it with "VB6.exe /?" or "VB6.exe -?" and it will show you a list of options. You can basically automate your process using those options.
There should be a similar exe for VC in the VC98 folder as well.