Missing Report Designer in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Development environment

Platform Update 37 (10.0.13) Development environments include an update to Visual Studio 2017. However, when I attempted to create an SSRS report with a precision design, I discovered that the Report Designer was no longer installed by default in the environment. When you select to Edit Using Designer on the precision design, the report will show in XML format.

You also may get a dialog to recommend that you download Microsoft RDLC Report designer from the Marketplace. However, if you click on Yes, it will take you to a site to download a zip file for the report designer but not an obvious way to install it.

I would recommend saying No to this dialog and perform the following steps to install the extension.

1. In Visual Studio 2017, click on Tools | Extensions and Updates…
2. Click into the Online tab on the left and enter RDLC in the search. That will bring up the Microsoft RDLC Report Designer extension.

3. Click on Download. You should see a message at the bottom of the form that your changes will be applied the next time Visual Studio is closed.
4. Close the Extension and Update
5. Close Visual Studio. You should then see an Installer run and ask if you want to install the RDLC extension.
6. Click on Modify to install the extension.

Once the installation is complete, you should now be able to reopen Visual Studio 2017 and reopen your report project. The report designer should now show properly when selecting Edit Using Designer on the Precision design.

You do still have Visual Studio 2015 installed in the environment. However, it will also have the same issue as Visual Studio 2017. The Microsoft RDLC Report extension does not appear to be available for Visual Studio 2015.