src/help/studio_help/src/topics/t_device-creating_android.dita

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<task xml:lang="en-us" id="t_device-creating_android">
  <title>Creating an Android Virtual Device (AVD)</title>
  <shortdesc>Although MOTODEV Studio for Android recognizes Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) created from the command
    line, it is much simpler to create them from within MOTODEV Studio for Android.</shortdesc>
  <prolog>
    <metadata>
      <keywords>
        <!--<indexterm></indexterm>-->
      </keywords>
    </metadata>
  </prolog>
  <taskbody>
    <steps>
      <step>
        <cmd>Click the <uicontrol>Device Management</uicontrol> tab, if necessary, to bring forward the Device
          Management view.</cmd>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Click the New Device button (<image href="../images/tml-new-instance.png"/>) and select <uicontrol>Android
            Virtual Device</uicontrol>.</cmd>
        <stepresult>The Create a New Device dialog appears.</stepresult>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Supply a name for your device instance and click <uicontrol>Next</uicontrol>. </cmd>
        <info>Note that this name must not be in use by an existing AVD listed in the Device Management view.</info>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Verify or supply the information found on the Main tab: </cmd>
        <substeps>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>AVD Target</uicontrol>: the system image the AVD is to use.</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>AVD Skin</uicontrol>: the screen resolution and orientation. For instance, "HVGA-L" causes
              the AVD to use an HVGA display (480x320 pixels) in landscape orientation. "QVGA-P" indicates a QVGA
              display (320x240 pixels) in portrait orientation. </cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>ABI Type</uicontrol>: Application Binary Interface (ABI) type. For all current
              Android-powered devices, this should be "ARM (armeabi)".</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>AVD Path</uicontrol>: Use this field if you want to specify a non-default location for the
              AVD directory that will be constructed for this virtual device. Leave <uicontrol>Use default</uicontrol>
              selected if the default location is acceptable. Otherwise, clear the <uicontrol>Use default</uicontrol>
              option and specify your desired directory location. </cmd>
            <info>
              <note>Storing your AVD on a remote location on a network file system will result in decreased performance.
                For best results, store your AVDs on the local file system. Note that on Linux hosts your user home
                folder may be on a remote file server; in such cases storing the AVD in your home folder will cause
                performance to suffer.</note>
            </info>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>SD Card</uicontrol>: Allows you to specify whether the emulated device has an emulated SD
              card. Select <uicontrol>None</uicontrol> if you don't need or want the emulated device to have an SD card.
              To use an existing SD card image (a .img file), select <uicontrol>Existing</uicontrol> and then specify
              the path to the card image file. To create a new SD card, select <uicontrol>New</uicontrol>, enter a
              numeric value in the field that follows, and specify the units for that value (KB or MB).</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>Proxy Settings</uicontrol>: Select this option if you want the emulated device to use the
              same network settings that Eclipse is configured to use. If your network requires the use of a proxy, for
              instance, and Eclipse is configured to use that proxy, selecting this option causes the emulated device to
              use that same proxy for its network communications.</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>Snapshot Settings</uicontrol>: Enables the capture and use of a "snapshot"--a copy of the
              emulator's memory--to speed the emulator startup process (subsequent to the first startup; the initial
              startup will proceed at the normal speed, but after a snapshot has been taken subsequent startups can be
              based on that snapshot, bypassing much of the startup process). <uicontrol>Enable Snapshot</uicontrol>
              enables snapshots, and activates the other snapshot options. <uicontrol>Launch emulator from
              snapshot</uicontrol> indicates that the most recent snapshot should be used whenever the emulator is
              launched. <uicontrol>Save to snapshot on exit</uicontrol> takes a snapshot--and thus records the current
              state of the emulator--whenever the emulator is shut down.</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>Internal Emulator Window</uicontrol> (not available on Mac OS X): Leave <uicontrol>Show the
                Native Emulator Window within an Eclipse View (Recommended)</uicontrol> selected unless you know that
              the native option does not work correctly on your development machine (in which case you should select
                <uicontrol>Use VNC to show the Emulator within an Eclipse View</uicontrol>). Note that if necessary you
              can later change this setting for an existing AVD by editing its properties.</cmd>
          </substep>
          <substep>
            <cmd><uicontrol>Timeout (sec)</uicontrol>: Use this field to specify a timeout period after which, if the
              emulator has not finished starting, the emulator should be shut down. Typically this is set to two minutes
              (120 seconds).</cmd>
          </substep>
        </substeps>
        <info>Note that when creating an AVD, the name, target, skin, and path values cannot later be changed.</info>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Click <uicontrol>Finish</uicontrol> if you don't need to further customize the AVD. Otherwise, click
            <uicontrol>Next</uicontrol>.</cmd>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Specify any additional options using the <uicontrol>User Interface</uicontrol>, <uicontrol>Disk
          Images</uicontrol>, <uicontrol>Network</uicontrol>, <uicontrol>System</uicontrol>, and <uicontrol
          >Others</uicontrol> tabs. Note that only the more commonly-used AVD options are presented on these tabs; if
          you need to specify additional options, enter them into the field on the <uicontrol>Others</uicontrol> tab,
          command-line style.</cmd>
        <info>
          <p>For a description of each of the startup options displayed on the various tabs, see <xref
              href="u_new-device-startup_android.dita"/>. For all of the possible command-line arguments, see <xref
              href="http://d.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html#startup-options" format="html"
              scope="external">http://d.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html#startup-options</xref>.</p>
          <p>Except on Mac OS X, to work with the emulator in a separate window simply close the Android Emulator view
            and click <uicontrol>No</uicontrol> when you are asked if running emulator instances should be stopped.
            Opening the Android Emulator view while the emulator is running externally causes the emulator to be shown
            in the view. On Mac OS X, things work somewhat differently: see <xref href="t_emulator-external.dita"/> for
            instructions.</p>
        </info>
      </step>
      <step>
        <cmd>Click <uicontrol>Finish</uicontrol>. </cmd>
      </step>
    </steps>
    <result>The AVD is created and listed under <uicontrol>Android Virtual Device</uicontrol> in the Device Management
      view.</result>
  </taskbody>
</task>