- Start 
                  		  Visual COBOL and open a project that contains the COBOL program(s) on which you want to base a record layout file. 
                  		
               
  
               		
               - On the 
                  		  Visual COBOL project COBOL properties page, check 
                  		  Compile for debugging; then save the project. 
                  		
               
  
               		
               - Build the project to generate an 
                  		  .idy file for each program in the project, or build a specific program to generate its 
                  		  .idy file. 
                  		
               
  
               	 
            
 
            	 
            Note: Visual COBOL writes 
               		.idy files to the output directory specified in your project properties.