switch the release (14.2-15.7-16.0 and vice versa) error?

Ragesh,

I have had great success using the Cadence Switch Release executable which has been part of the standard Cadence install for some time now (%CDSROOT%\tools\bin\switchversion.exe). This will list all the Allegro releases at the time of installation and you simply select the release and click OK to update all the paths accordingly.

I have 15.5.1, 15.7 and 16.0 loaded on the same PC and I execute the Cadence Switch Release executable from the last loaded release and select the lower version you would like to run.

The only thing that I have to worry about is the location of the PCBENV directory for each of the releases which can be easily controlled by re-targeting your HOME directory to a different location.

New to SPB 16.0, is a Windows environmental variable (ALLEGRO_PCBENV) that gives the ability to re-target your PCBENV
directory to a different location without having to change you HOME directory.

ENV is the file were all of your customer environmental settings are stored included the changes made in the Preferences Editor (Setup > User Preferences) inside of Allegro.

TELENV is an obsolete variable that is still around for compatibility purposes only and should not longer be used.

PCBENV is the directory where all of your GUI settings (window positions / sizes, recent design lists, etc.) including the location for the ENV File.

ALLEGRO_PCBENV is a Windows environmental variable for 16.X which is used to override the default location of the PCBENV directory (%HOME%/pcbenv)

Hope this helps,
Mike Catrambone
UTStarcom, Inc.

I have 13.6 14.2 15.2 15.5 15.5.1 15.7 16.0 16.01 (ouch!) accessible (in fact, located on a remote file server).
I do not use the cadence switch utility: what's about when i work in 13.6: it is not reachable (CDSROOT is in 13.6 installation directory).

Instaed i use batch files (.bat) to set my user environnment variable and it works fine.
I only have to care to not have computer's variable sets for allegro but onky user's variable.
I use microsoft setx command for that.
My company is subcontrator and the same batch file set CDS_SITE variable to set different environnment (libraries, ...) for each customer.

Sorry for all your pain in supporting all those different versions. I would check your PATH statement to see what Cadence directory paths are present which may be your issue. What I have done in the past is to modify the path statement so it does not contain and hard paths to the software but instead uses a variable for the Cadence Install Dir. Here is an example:

If your SPB 16.0 software is installed in C:\Cadence\SPB16.0 the path statement would look like this.

PATH =
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\specctra\bin;
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\pcb\bin;
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\fet\bin;
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\libutil\bin;
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\bin;
C:\Cadence\SPB16.0\tools\Capture

Now to make it more universal I changed my PATH statement to this:
PATH =
%CDSROOT%\tools\specctra\bin;
%CDSROOT%\tools\pcb\bin;
%CDSROOT%\tools\fet\bin;
%CDSROOT%\tools\libutil\bin;
%CDSROOT%\tools\bin;
%CDSROOT%\tools\Capture

What this gives me is the flexibility to change the software version by simple changing one variable " CDSROOT" to the Cadence Install directory of the software version that I would like to use.

CDSROOT = C:\Cadence\SPB16.0

Here again you have to be concerned with the PCBENV folder because the data stored there is much different between versions and I have seen problems when pointing to the same PCBENV folder for multiple versions.

Hope this helps,
Mike Catrambone
UTStarcom, Inc.

i also used microsoft SETX command but I cannot switch to different version due to PATH setting there. I used batch file to control but failed. Can help to advise or not?

Here is my batch file setting

echo Setting environment for Cadence 16.2
cmd /c setx CDSROOT C:\Cadence\SPB_16.2 -m
cmd /c setx CDS_INST_DIR C:\Cadence\SPB_16.2 -m
cmd /c setx CADVER pcbenv_162 -m
cmd /c setx CHDL_LIB_INST_DIR j:\library -m
cmd /c setx HOME c:\pcbenv_162\ -m
cmd /c setx WORKING PSD_Data -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\specctra\bin -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\pcb\bin -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\fet\bin -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\libutil\bin -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\bin -m
cmd /c setx %CDSROOT%\tools\Capture -m