You can access a chained (child) build project from the parent by:
1) View | Shell | Launch on the menu (Ctrl+Shift+L)
or
2) Opening the step properties dialog (Enter/double-click), switching to the Project tab (if not already there), and clicking Shell -> Launch.
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/st...logbuttons.htm
So just leaving your structure as it is may be fine.
You could also convert some or all of your child projects to global and/or project subroutines and call them rather than child projects. While it is possible to automate this via the object model, it may be better to do the conversion manually one step at a time (you may be able to refactor some duplicate steps into a single subroutine, etc.).
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/objectmodel.htm
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/scriptsample.htm
As far as boot-strapping the loading of global subroutine steps, a few ways you could do that:
1) Use a Run Script step at the start of the project to load alternate/additional global subroutine steps, using VBScript code of
Application.Steps.Load "c:\path\to\filename.steps"
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/macrosloadmethod.htm
2) Create a build project that retrieves config data from source control (or a network path) to the default config file path (%VISBUILD_CONFIG_DIR%). Run this build once on each build box to prep for future builds.
3) As part of the initial setup of a build box, create a ConfigFilesPath registry key to point to an alternate location for configuration files.
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/co...ationfiles.htm
4) Launch builds from the command-line, using either the /configpath (to load all config files from an alternate location) or /steps flags (to just load alternate global sub steps)
http://www.visualbuild.com/Manual/command_linegui.htm