Makefile VS (VisualStudio Project File)

1. both of them are used to tell how to build a project. Especially, about makefile from wiki:

make is a utility that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called makefiles which specify how to derive the target program. 

2. Makefile is used by make utility to build a project/program, while vs project is used by VS. for make utility, there are many developed by different organizations and corps. MS has its own nmake.

3. For VS, it has Makefile project type, by creating which, the project's building will be organized by a make file which will be used by nmake; while for normal projects, the project file is the configuration file to tell how to build a project. MS MSDN note about project file is: "A Visual C++ project file is an XML file with the extension .vcproj, which contains information needed to build a Visual C++ project. .vcproj files are not compatible with NMAKE." About how to create a nmake project, please see this page on MSDN.

4. If you have a project that you build from the command line with a makefile, then the Visual Studio development environment will not recognize your project. To open and build your project using Visual Studio, first create an empty project containing the appropriate build settings using the Makefile Project Wizard. You can then use this project to build your project from the Visual Studio development environment. So, it means: if you just want to make use of VS to build your makefile based project, above work is enough; but if you want to totally transfer to VS IDE as building system, you need to manually OR by some tools to convert your makefile to be VS project file. On stackoverflow Convert nmake makefile into Visual Studio 2005 project :

"you either need to make a new project file with the make file (and all references to the code are in the make file, it just compiles in the VS IDE), or you need to re-create the functionality of the make file in a new project that functions as a "real" VS project with files and such."

5. CMake, the cross-platform, open-source build system. It's a way to organize files and has the ability to generate platform dependent project files including vcxproj for Windows VS and xcodeproj for Mac Xcode.