title: SSDT - Database Reference
body: <p>I have a database project in Visual Studio 2012 that requires access to a database not of my design through a linked server.</p>
  
  <p>My initial approach was to script out the access to the database in 4-parts [server].[database].[schema].[table]. This approach throws SQL71562a and SQL71501 warnings/errors.</p>
  
  <p>Through research I note that what I need to do is to create a database reference. My question would revolve around that process. </p>
  
  <p>I thought the right thing to do would be to generate a DACPAC from the other vendor's database as it exists on the server - but I am unable to generate the DACPAC as it fails in SSMS (I think due to encryption).</p>
  
  <p>My next idea would be to create a project that has the schema that I need from that database defined and then reference that (I haven't tried this yet as at first guess it is probably the wrong way).</p>
  
  <p>Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.</p>