Environment variables

Before compiling or simulating, several environment variables may be set to provide the functions described in the table below. The variables are in the autoexec.bat file on Windows 95/98 machines, and set through the System control panel on NT machines. For UNIX, the variables are typically found in the .login script. The LM_LICENSE_FILE variable is required, all others are optional.

ModelSim Environment Variables


Variable	Description
DOPATH	used by ModelSim to search for simulator command files (do files); consists of a colonseparated (semi-colon for Windows) list of paths to directories; optional; this variable can be overridden by the DOPATH .tcl file variable
EDITOR	specifies the editor to invoke with the edit command
HOME	used by ModelSim to look for an optional graphical preference file and optional location map file; see: "Preference variables located in INI files" and "Using location mapping"
LM_LICENSE_FILE	used by the ModelSim license file manager to find the location of the license file; may be a colonseparated (semi-colon for Windows) set of paths, including paths to other vendor license files; REQUIRED; see: "Using the FLEXlm License Manager"
MODEL_TECH	set by all ModelSim tools to the directory in which the binary executables reside; YOU SHOULD NOT SET THIS VARIABLE
MODEL_TECH_TCL	used by ModelSim to find Tcl libraries for: Tcl/Tk 8.0, Tix, and vsim; may also be used to specify a startup DO file; defaults to /modeltech/../tcl; may be set to an alternate path
MGC_LOCATION_MAP	used by ModelSim tools to find source files based on easily reallocated "soft" paths; optional; see: "Using location mapping" ; also see the Tcl variables: SourceDir and SourceMap
MODELSIM	used by all ModelSim tools to find the modelsim.ini file; consists of a path including the file name; optional. An alternative use of this variable is to set it to the path of a project file (<Project_Root_Dir>/<Project_Name>.mpf). This allows you to use project settings with command line tools. However, if you do this, the .mpf file will replace modelsim.ini as the initialization file for all ModelSim tools.
MODELSIM_TCL	used by ModelSim to look for an optional graphical preference file; can be a colon-separated (UNIX) or semi-colon (Windows) separated list of file paths
MTI_TF_LIMIT	limits the size of the VSOUT temp file (generated by the ModelSim kernel); the value of the variable is the size of k-bytes; TMPDIR (below) controls the location of this file, STDOUT controls the name; default = 10, 0 = no limit
MTI_USELIB_DIR	specifies the directory into which object libraries are compiled when using the -compile_uselibs argument to the vlog command
PLIOBJS	used by ModelSim to search for PLI object files for loading; consists of a spaceseparated list of file or path names; optional
STDOUT	the VSOUT temp file (generated by the simulator kernel) is deleted when the simulator exits; the file is not deleted if you specify a filename for VSOUT with STDOUT; specifying a name and location (use TMPDIR) for the VSOUT file will also help you locate and delete the file in event of a crash (an unnamed VSOUT file is not deleted after a crash either)
TMPDIR (Unix) TMP (Windows)	specifies the path to a tempnam() generated file (VSOUT) containing all stdout from the simulation kernel; optional