Clion 2016.3: switch to "Release" configuration

For newer versions: Go to File --> Settings --> Build, Execution, Deployment --> CMake. Now click the "+" symbol, this should automatically add a Release profile (and, if you press "+" again, a Release with Debug Information profile).

After this, you can switch between Release and Debug in the Configurations section in the top-right of the window.

CMake workflow changed in 2016.3. Read the linked blog post for details, but in a nutshell CLion no longer builds all 4 CMake configurations to save time and memory. You can configure the CMake configuration type in Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | CMake.

However, understanding that some of the users really used this kind of switch quite often and don't want to change CMake settings (and thus wait for CMake reload) each time, we are going to introduce a reworked ability to add extra CMake configurations. This will be on air together with 2016.3.* update (but not 2016.3.1).

As of CLion 2017.2 you can edit idea/workspace.xml to restore the old workflow.

Add the Release configuration (<configuration CONFIG_NAME="Release" />) in the configurations block so it looks like this:

<component name="CMakeSettings">
  <configurations>
    <configuration CONFIG_NAME="Debug" />
    <configuration CONFIG_NAME="Release" />
  </configurations>
</component>

Now you can switch again.