The Configurator has been discontinued in all VX releases, replaced by the 'Registrator' and 'Release Switcher' programs. Here are the main points to know about on the topic of switching between PCB VX releases (for example: EE VX.1 and PADS VX.0):

  • The 'Release Switcher' is available in the Start Menu at the following location:
    • Mentor Graphics PCB Admin Utilities > The MGC PCB Release Switcher
  • VX releases support "side-by-side" registration, which means you no longer need to switch between releases like you did with the Configurator, for pre-VX versions.
    • There are a couple of exceptions when running the 'Release Switcher' is required, in order to define which VX release is the "active" release:
      • Automation
      • File Associations (for ex: double-clicking a .pcb to open Xpedition and the design in one action)
  • When you first run the 'Release Switcher', it may not know about all of the releases on your system, especially if they are in different install targets. The 'Release Switcher' learns, and in turn populates the list, as you 'Browse' to different releases.
  • In the 'Release Switcher, when browsing for the 'Release', navigate to the product root folder that is under the installation target.
    • Example target locations for releases installed to the default and recommended 'C:\MentorGraphics' target:
      • C:\MentorGraphics\7.9.5EE
      • C:\MentorGraphics\EEVX.1.1
      • C:\MentorGraphics\PADSVX.1
  • Do not attempt to use the 'Configurator' to configure a VX release, or to switch releases.
  • Use the 'Release Switcher' to switch releases, even pre-VX releases (for example, EE 7.9.5 or PADS 9.5).
    • Also works for releases in completely different root target locations (with the Configurator you had to run "Configurator -clean" every time you switched).
  • The Release Switcher is essentially a 'wrapper' program. It sub-invokes the 'Registrator' for any VX releases, and the 'Configurator' for pre-VX releases.