It is best for users to manually recreating the project (by using write_project_tcl command) in the latest release to move to the new directory structure.
To better understand the differences between BDs users can use the diffbd command line utility in Vivado to get a comparison of two BDs in a text report. For more information, look at Cross-Probing Differences in the Block Designs section in chapter 4.
Once the framework is in place use the following general guidelines:
- Use scripted flows for revision control.
- Keep source files external to the projec in a repository that is under revision control .
- Create a Tcl script to recreate the project and keep the script under revision control.
See this link in the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Design Flows Overview (UG892) for more information on using the Vivado Design Suite with revision control software.