Two cRIOs with the same code in 1 project

Question

I have a project that contains two cRIOs that run the same exact
program.  The only difference is the IP address in the ni-rt.ini file. 
I would like to create a project that represents the actual targets but
uses the same vis.  In doing this I found the FPGA targets must have a
different name and therefore a different bit file.  Also, the DMA FIFO
is a different instance in each target.  I'm really trying to get away
from supporting two copies of the same exact code.
So, it seems this type of project doesn't fit well into the project
explorer and decided to create only 1 target with 2 source
distribution's. I can create 2 source distributions but the target
destination directory must be different. Had anyone run into this
situation and come up with a better way to handle this?  I guess I'm
back to manually deploying the files and making sure the correct
ni-rt.ini file get placed in the corresponding cRIO.

Answer 1

Dwisti,
I suggest you look into using the Open FPGA Reference node in Bitfile
mode (right-click the Open FPGA Reference node). From my experience,
that's the best way to share the same FPGA code between multiple
targets; you just need to be aware that if you recompile, you may need
to point the Open FPGA Ref node to the new bitfile. With this approach
you don't really need to have the two FPGA Targets in the project; just
keep one as the master and that should be it (in case the FPGA Targets
are of the same type)
Hope this helps.
JMota