HOWTO Create LocalDB File (.mdf) manually in Visual Studio 2015

If you are using LocalDB and want to create an empty database you should perform the following steps.

1. Go to Visual Studio Server Explorer > Data Connections
2. Select Add Connection from the context menu
3. Change Data Source to Microsoft SQL Server Database File (i.e. LocalDB)
4. Set the Database file name by entering a database name and path that corresponds to the name in the web.config/app.config connectionstring. Replace |DataDirectory| with path to the place the database file should be created at (i.e. App_Data)

5. Select Advanced and set the properties according to the following example connection string

    Data Source=(localdb)\v11.0; Initial Catalog=Arbitrary; Integrated Security=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True; AttachDbFilename=C:\PATH\TO\Arbitrary.mdf