Co-existance with released version

I think its a shame that you can’t have CuraLE 2.6.69 and CuraLE 3.2.11 Alpha both installed at the same time. Is the final release of CuraLE 3.2 intended to be installed in a folder with 2.6 in it’s name?

Despite instruction to the contrary, on Windows it does not appear to be necessary to uninstall CuraLE 2.6.69. Both versions (release and alpha) co-exist nicely.

I may have spoken too soon. CuraLE 3.2 found the printers that were installed in CuraLE 2.6. Is this going to miss changes to printers already defined? I’m happy to add “new” printers with different names in CuraLE 3.2 if that is desired. If the two versions really need to be isolated from each other, I could create a virtual machine.

To minimize variables a clean, stand-alone install would be preferred. It’ll help to avoid potential config & cache collisions.

I have created (and attached) a batch file for Windows that will isolate the two versions. There are two .bat files in the attached .zip the difference being a one line change. The batch file adds a new directory in each of %appdata% and %localappdata% named “cura-switch”. The sub-directories “2.6” and “3.2” are moved between “cura-lulzbot” and “cura-switch” as needed.

If you run the .bat file directly, there will be a command window open on the screen while CuraLE is running. See http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-bat-files-invisibly-without-displaying-command-prompt/ to hide that window.

Note: Be aware that mixing running CuraLE directly (i.e. with the shortcuts created by the install) and running with the .bat file could cause problems by creating too many “2.6” and/or “3.2” directories! This can be fixed manually, Caveat emptor!

Enhancements encouraged and welcome! (one .bat file and two shortcuts with a parameter for the version is the obvious one)
Cura-Switch.zip (966 Bytes)

One .bat file and two shortcuts with a parameter for the version

Attached is my version that does just that. Create two shortcuts to pointing to the .bat file and then add either 3.2 or 2.6 to the end of the string. In the shortcut properties, click on “minimized” in the Run: dropdown as shown below.
CuraLE.zip (489 Bytes)

Picture for the previous reply…

How stable has this co-existence been for you? Thank you for sharing this!

You’re Welcome! IMO, the co-existence batch file and shortcuts are very stable.

Be careful when doing an update to use the batch file for the version you are updating first.

Mixing use of the shortcuts that point to the executables with shortcuts that point to the batch file can cause problems if you aren’t careful. I prevented this problem by hiding (or deleting) the shortcuts that point to the executables.