How can I compile my project with MikTeX?

Question

I have a project whose directory structure looks like the following, which I would strongly prefer not to alter:

topdir/
  LaTeX/
    this_project.sty
  Dir1/
    fileA.tex % uses a documentclass defined in this_project.sty
  Dir2/
    fileB.tex % uses a documentclass defined in this_project.sty

When I attempt to compile fileA.tex, it cannot find this_project.sty. I am using TeXnicCenter with MikTeX on Windows 10, though I've also tried TeXworks.

On Linux systems, where I have used projects like this before, I just added the LaTeX directory to the PATH and it was automatically recognized. I have attempted to add the LaTeX directory to every configuration option that looks like it might go on the PATH, to no avail.

How can I make this work? Most suggestions I see in my searches assume that the .sty file can be moved, usually into some common directory instead of something specific to the project. In particular, I'd like to avoid copying it into both Dir1 and Dir2 where the versions can diverge.

Answer 1

You can call pdflatex with the option --include-directory=DIR see the documentation https://docs.miktex.org/2.9/manual/miktex-pdftex.html.

miktex also knows the TEXINPUTS environment variable. See https://docs.miktex.org/2.9/manual/envvars.html.