Cannot link to Boost library with MSVC: Cannot open file *.lib - c++

Question

I'm using CLion and CMake to link with Boost and as toolchain I chose the MSVC compiler:
My architecture is configured as amd64 since I'm running a 64-bit system (the default of x86 only tries to find the 32-bit versions of Boost which I don't want).
Furthermore I compiled the 64-bit libraries using this guide. I setup my CMake file respectively:
set(BOOST_ROOT "C:/local/boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3")
set(BOOST_LIBRARYDIR "C:/local/boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3/stage/x64/lib")
set(BOOST_INCLUDEDIR "C:/local/boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3/boost")
My main.cpp compiles just fine but I'm getting a linker error:
====================[ Build | BoostTesting | Debug ]============================
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\JetBrains\Toolbox\apps\CLion\ch-0\183.4284.104\bin\cmake\win\bin\cmake.exe --build D:\Cpp\BoostTesting\cmake-build-debug --target BoostTesting --
[ 50%] Linking CXX executable BoostTesting.exe
LINK Pass 1: command "C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~3\2017\ENTERP~1\VC\Tools\MSVC\1415~1.267\bin\Hostx64\x64\link.exe /nologo #CMakeFiles\BoostTesting.dir\objects1.rsp /out:BoostTesting.exe /implib:BoostTesting.lib /pdb:D:\Cpp\BoostTesting\cmake-build-debug\BoostTesting.pdb /version:0.0 /machine:x64 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console C:\local\boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3\stage\x64\lib\libboost_filesystem-vc141-mt-gd-x64-1_69.lib C:\local\boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3\stage\x64\lib\libboost_system-vc141-mt-x64-1_69.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib /MANIFEST /MANIFESTFILE:CMakeFiles\BoostTesting.dir/intermediate.manifest CMakeFiles\BoostTesting.dir/manifest.res" failed (exit code 1104) with the following output:
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_iostreams-vc141-mt-gd-x64-1_69.lib'
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\JetBrains\Toolbox\apps\CLion\ch-0\183.4284.104\bin\cmake\win\bin\cmake.exe' : return code '0xffffffff'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\bin\HostX64\x64\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\bin\HostX64\x64\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\bin\HostX64\x64\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.
When using x86_amd64 as architecture it also fails to link. The other architectures don't make sense for my PC:
Using the pre-compiled binaries from here also fails to link. How to fix this linking problem?

Answer 1

Just setting BOOST_ROOT in CMakeLists.txt
set(BOOST_ROOT "C:/local/boost_1_69_0_b1_rc3")
and using amd64 as the architecture surprisingly did the trick now. Using MSVC with CMake is better supported with Visual Studio (quite obviously) and linking to Boost was no issue anymore. Now the build also works from CLion but Visual Studio should be preferred until CLion maybe gets better MSVC integration.