How to get TikZ externalization to work with Sumatra and Texniccenter

Question

I use externalization, as described in the TikZ manual, to obtain a PDF file that only contains a specific figure. This involves using the PDFLaTeX Option

 --jobname=figure

when I create a build profile to accomplish this, it works in the sense that pdflatex creates a file figure.pdf. However, I cannot get this to work with Sumatra. I want it to open automatically when it is not open, and to refresh when it's already open.

I tried instructing it to open "figure.pdf" instead of %bm.pdf, but it keeps opening new Sumatra windows each time I compile. When I enable forward-search, changing the instruction from [ForwardSearch("%bm.pdf","%Wc",%l,0,0,1)] to [ForwardSearch("figure.pdf","%Wc",%l,0,0,1)], I get an error (cannot execute command). Viewer is set on do not close (as in the non-externalize case).

Does anyone know how to get it working?

Answer 1

I finally found the solution. You give as an option to PDFLatex

-synctex=-1 -interaction=nonstopmode "%pm" --jobname=figure

and you use forward search as stated in the question, and it works.