Foundation 4.2 and Impact 6.1 compatibility problems

carrera608 · ‎06-07-2012

I have been successfully running these 2 programs on a Windows XP machine. A number of years ago an employee who is no longer here wrote a batch file? or something to allow me to run both programs. I believe it changed the environment variables for each program.

My hard drive crashed and I lost this batch file. I need Foundation only for working with the Spartan XL and I need 6.1 for programming some devices that 4.1 does not support and each can run as separate programs. I tried reinstalling both programs and it causes parts of 4.1 not to work. I'm also not sure if they need to be installed in the same or seperate folders. I don't use Foundation very often so it would be ok if I had to change the variables by hand but I don't know where to change this or what needs to be typed.

BTW, the newer Impact is Webpack 6.1

Thanks in advance for any help.

gszakacs · ‎08-14-2007

I'm running 4.1 in my machine along with 6.1, and many newer versions. You should always

use a separate installation folder for each version.

Normally you only need to change the XILINX environment variable to switch between

4.1i and 6.1i, but that assumes that your other system variables like PATH use the

XILINX variable rather than full path names. For example in my PATH variable is

this:

... %XILINX%\bin\nt;%XILINX%\lib\nt ...

You can use "Rapid Environment Editor" (Google for it) to easily edit your environment

variables when changing back and forth.

If you want to make a batch file, you could export the environment part of your registry when the system is

working properly for 4.1i and again when you have it working properly with 6.1i. Then you can apply these

exported registry files from the batch file. I would not recommend this unless you know your way around

Windows better than the average Joe.

As far as Impact goes, I don't think you ever need to use an older version of Impact once you already

have the files you need for configuration.

-- Gabor

carrera608 · ‎06-07-2012

Thanks for the great information Gabor. I just uninstalled everything (uggg...not very clean at all) and I will start fresh with 6.1 Impact in a seperate folder. I will try your path sample and if I can't make it work I will check out the program that you mentioned. Do I answer yes to the update path and Xilinx variable in both programs upon reinstall?

Thanks again!

gszakacs · ‎08-14-2007

If you answer "yes" to the update path, etc. then after each install look through your environment,

you should see what needs to change to switch back and forth. As I said, this is a bit easier

if you have Rapid Environment Editor to view your settings.

-- Gabor

carrera608 · ‎06-07-2012

I finally got both programs loaded back on the computer and everything is working great. Thanks for the idea of looking at my variables as it only involves a folder name change, Xilinx=folder name.

For some reason Foundation 4.2 would stop responding during the Aldec part of the install and I had to start all over many many times. I then decided to install Webpack 6.1 first and Foundation installed ok after that. Strange??

Thanks again for your valuable help Gabor!