diff --git a/Source/cmGeneratorTarget.h b/Source/cmGeneratorTarget.h
index 2bfc0374e..b083ba1af 100644
--- a/Source/cmGeneratorTarget.h
+++ b/Source/cmGeneratorTarget.h
@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ public:
   std::map<cmSourceFile const*, std::string> Objects;
   std::set<cmSourceFile const*> ExplicitObjectName;
 
+  /** Full path with trailing slash to the top-level directory
+      holding object files for this target.  Includes the build
+      time config name placeholder if needed for the generator.  */
+  std::string ObjectDirectory;
+
 private:
   void ClassifySources();
 
diff --git a/Source/cmGlobalUnixMakefileGenerator3.cxx b/Source/cmGlobalUnixMakefileGenerator3.cxx
index 059692ed1..9d8a02cb8 100644
--- a/Source/cmGlobalUnixMakefileGenerator3.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGlobalUnixMakefileGenerator3.cxx
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ cmGlobalUnixMakefileGenerator3
   dir_max += "/";
   dir_max += gt->LocalGenerator->GetTargetDirectory(*target);
   dir_max += "/";
+  gt->ObjectDirectory = dir_max;
 
   // Compute the name of each object file.
   for(std::vector<cmSourceFile*>::iterator
diff --git a/Source/cmGlobalVisualStudioGenerator.cxx b/Source/cmGlobalVisualStudioGenerator.cxx
index e5a978459..4b9e48791 100644
--- a/Source/cmGlobalVisualStudioGenerator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGlobalVisualStudioGenerator.cxx
@@ -139,6 +139,22 @@ cmGlobalVisualStudioGenerator
       }
     gt->Objects[sf] = objectName;
     }
+
+  std::string dir = gt->Makefile->GetCurrentOutputDirectory();
+  dir += "/";
+  std::string tgtDir = lg->GetTargetDirectory(*gt->Target);
+  if(!tgtDir.empty())
+    {
+    dir += tgtDir;
+    dir += "/";
+    }
+  const char* cd = this->GetCMakeCFGIntDir();
+  if(cd && *cd)
+    {
+    dir += cd;
+    dir += "/";
+    }
+  gt->ObjectDirectory = dir;
 }
 
 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------