Setup AVD - Android Virtual Device / Android Emulator

Hope all the installation mentioned in previous blog "Installation and Configuration of Android SDK and Eclipse" has done successfully. so now we can create AVD.




What is AVD (Android Virtual Device) ?

An AVD is a device configuration for the Android emulator that allows you to model different configurations of Android-powered devices.User can create more then one AVD so Android SDK provides us "AVD Manager" for handling different AVD's and for more detail read this.
Using Android SDK and Eclipse we can create a android application and for testing this application we need a emulator which will act as a android phone and we can test our application.

Setup AVD :

If Android ADT Plug-ins installed successfully then Eclipse will enables you to handle Android AVD Manager.

• Click on "Windows" > "Android Virtual Device Manager" you will get a window like below.

In the above window you can show 3 AVD's those are created by me but in your Android AVD Manager this list will be empty. So, Buttons shown on the right side will be used for creating,editing,deleting,repairing or starting the AVD.

"New.." : Using this button we can create a new AVD. following detail can be filled up after clicking the "New.." button.

• AVD Name : Write name of AVD as you want. (e.g. "MyAVD","MyJelly","AVD1",etc..).
• Device : Here you have to select the device which is actually  the configuration of screen size resolution, screen size, some android's special model's configuration (like wise Nexus) and DPI configuration like ( xhdpi, hdpi, mdpi, ldpi ).
• Target : Select the version of android or api level in which you want to develop application.
• CPU / ABI : Using this option you can select the alternative platform emulator like if you have intel processor then you can choose it from here, but you must downloaded the API for this extra emulator from the "Android SDK Manager".
• Keyboard : In the AVD there is no Computer Key Board support available unless you select this option while creating AVD. In the emulator suppose any one want to type something, he/she must use the mouse and select word from the virtual key board of AVD. But, using this option we can add support the actual hardware keyboard.
• Skin : For rotating the emulator select this option and then you can do skin level changes in emulator.
• Front Camera : for the use of front camera user must select what to do when camera turns on in emulator. Here it gives us mainly 3 option None, Emulated, Webcam0. 
• None : Nothing will display.
• Emulated : Only white will canvas display.
• Webcam0 : Link your webcam to emulator. So, the result of webcam will be directly display in emulator when user click on camera in emulator
• Memory Option : This option is for RAM and VM Heap. Here you can specify the size of RAM and Virtual Memory Heap for your emulator in MegaByte.
• Internal Storage : Here Internal physical memory size will be specified.
• SD Card : Here External physical memory size will be specified or you can give path of perticuler folder for use as the memory card.
• Emulation Option : Here two options mentioned namely 
• Snapshot : Check this option if you want snapshot of the emulated screen of emulator.
• Use Host GPU : This option is for the game developers. if the game application uses the OpenGL then check this option.

Now by clicking "OK" button you created a Android Virtual Device. You also can see this AVD in the AVD Manager window.

You can start AVD from AVD Manager by clicking "Start" button.