Analysis Services Unknown Role that already exists

I was trying to re-deploy a SSAS project using Visual Studio 2010. Every time it deployed, I got the error "the 'role' with 'id' = 'role' doesn't exist in the collection"... Except, we don't have a role called "role".

Googling just led me to things like manually trying to update the .role file and correct it... except WE DON'T HAVE A ROLE CALLED "ROLE"

Desperate times calls for... thinking outside the box!! So I opened the solution in Visual Studio 2013 and deployed... and it worked first time around!!

Not sure why this works, so anyone who sees this post is more than welcome to leave an explanation, but I'll take it as a cheap win, and just say that the problem is fixed :-)

Changing the ID of a cube

So, we decided to do a checkpoint at work, and redeploy the production cubes from 8 months ago. That way, we can run both cubes, and show users what has been improved. however, when trying to deploy the SSAS project, it kept trying to deploy to the production cube. To solve it:

Pre-amble: Assume our cube Database is called JoeSoapSales. 

I changed the name to JoeSoapSales_Feb2014 by renaming it, as well as changing it everywhere I could find in VS. Yet, when I deploy I get a message that the cube "JoeSoapSales" already exists.

Finally, thanks to a lot of googling, I found that, in the solution folder, there is a .database XML file ("JoeSoapSales.Database")... Just change the ID in there using your favourite text editor, and save... Sorted!!