How to create 2nd project referencing same BSP and source files?

I tried the following but it is not working. I used the "New Nios II Application" wizard to create a new project named "boot". I specified the existing BSP in the wizard. Then, within the new project, I used the New File wizard to add each source file individually. For each file I selected the Advanced "Link to file in the file system" option and browsed to the existing source file under my "main" project folder. I also right-clicked on each boot project source file in the Project Explorer pane and selected "Add to Nios II Build" because they were not added by default. But when I build the boot project, the builder does not attempt to compile the linked source files. It goes straight to linking as if they were pre-compiled or something. I don't understand this behavior.

Also, I did not find an easy way to copy the project settings from the main project to the boot project. The boot project was created without the MicroC/OS-II related settings because there is no template option through the "New Nios II Application" wizard. I tried exporting the main project settings and importing them into the boot project but that doesn't work. The import fails silently and the exported XML settings file appears to be devoid of actual settings. So I manually copied each include path and symbol from one project to the other. I'm not sure whether there are other important settings that should be copied.