Switching the Xilinx Environment

In order to run any Xilinx implementation or JTAG programming software, including the software contained in the WebPACK, Alliance and Foundation products, your system's environment must be configured to point to the WebPACK installation directory. Specifically, you must have a XILINX environment variable set to the installation directory (C:\Xilinx_CPLD by default for WebPACK), and your PATH variable must include the "bin\nt" directory under the installation directory. The installers for each of these Xilinx software products optionally sets your system environment as required.

If you plan to run WebPACK implementation and JTAG programming software only under the WebPACK Project Navigator user interface, you do not need to update your system environment to point to WebPACK. The Project Navigator creates its own local environment shell in which it runs WebPACK software. In this case, you can switch freely between WebPACK and another CD-based Xilinx software product (Alliance or Foundation) without modifying your system environment.

If you plan to invoke the Xilinx Design Manager (the "CPLD Fitter Tools" icon in the Xilinx CPLD WebPACK program group) or the Device Programming tool provided by WebPACK directly without the Project Navigator, then you must first set your system environment to point to WebPACK. You can do this by checking the box in the installer screen that offers to set your environment variables. In this case, you must manually switch the values of your XILINX and PATH variables in your system environment whenever you switch between using WebPACK and any other Xilinx software product (Alliance or Foundation).

To switch your environment on Windows NT systems:

1. Open the System Properties dialog screen by selecting Start -> Control Panel, then opening the System icon in the Control Panel.
2. Select the Environment tab.
3. Select the XILINX variable in the System Variables window.
4. In the Value box, replace the existing value with the complete directory path of the Xilinx software installation you wish to run, including drive letter. Click Set.
5. Select the PATH variable in the System Variables window.
6. In the Value box, replace the portion of the PATH variable that points to the bin\nt directory under the Xilinx software installation directory. Click Set.
7. Click OK.
8. Either reboot the PC or just log out and log back in again. This may be required for your environment changes to take effect across the entire system.

1. Open the Notepad application.
2. In Notepad, open the Autoexec.bat file in your root C:\ folder.
3. Edit the line beginning with "set XILINX=" and replace the value of the XILINX variable with the complete directory path of the Xilinx software installation you wish to run, including drive letter. For convenience, you may want to take a copy of the original line and comment it out by inserting "rem" in front of the line.
4. Edit the PATH statement (or set statement for the PATH variable) containing the bin\nt directory under the currently used Xilinx software installation directory, and replace it with the bin\nt directory under the Xilinx software installation you wish to run. For convenience, you may want to take a copy of the original line and comment it out by inserting "rem" in front of the line.
5. Save the Autoexec.bat file.
6. Reboot your PC.