Controlling Views Using the General Tab - 2021.1 English

You can change different aspects of the block design in the GUI environment make it easier to view the block design in the design canvas. Several options are provided as a part of the General settings to control objects that are displayed in the design canvas.

Figure 1. General Settings

Show hierarchy navigation bar

Selecting this option shows all the hierarchical blocks present in the current block design. Selecting any of the available hierarchies opens up the hierarchy in a separate block design view.

Figure 2. Showing Hierarchy Navigation Bar

Selecting the highlighted hierarchy in the above figure, opens the hierarchy in a separate block design view.

Figure 3. Opening the Hierarchy in a Separate Block Design

Allow drag and drop of pinned objects

This option allows users to optimize the placement of block design objects, even when they are pinned to certain locations by moving them.

Adjust pins to reduce jogs for connections

Selecting this option adjusts the pins of a cell on the block design to reduce jogs in the nets. As an example, the following figure shows the net connections between IP prior to selecting this option, and shows how the pins are moved on the cell to optimize the routing of nets.

Figure 4. Adjusting Pins to Reduce Jogs

Move pins to avoid loops for connections

This option allows for moving pins on either side of the symbol to avoid any loopbacks that might be present in net routing. As an example the following figure shows the highlighted net both before and after this option is selected.

Figure 5. Moving Pins to Avoid Loopbacks

Group Connections

Enable this option (in combination) using the Match pin direction and Match pin type options. It groups interfaces and pins to simplify the routing of nets in the block design canvas. The groups are auto-named by the tool as in group_1, group_2, etc. To see which pins are included as part of the group of signals, select a group pin and then view the Pin Group Properties window.

Figure 6. Grouping Pins

Match pin direction

When this option is selected (in combination with the Group connections option), input pins are connected to output pins between the two endpoints.

Match pin type

When this option is selected (in combination with the Group connections option) similar types of pins such as clock, reset, interrupt, etc. are grouped together.

Elide long text

Selecting this option truncates the text of certain objects such as pin/port names of cell instance names. In the example shown below, the instance of the AXI Uartlite IP has been changed to my_uartlite_with_really_long_name_abcdefgh. Likewise the Interface Port connected to the interface pin /axi_ethernet_0/mdio has been changed to mdio_mdc_asdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfsadfsadfasdfasdfsd. These two objects have been truncated to ...rtlite_with_really_long_name_abcdefgh and ...sdfasdfasdfasdfasdfa as shown in the figure below.

Figure 7. Eliding Text

Display function on output pins

On certain IP such as the Concat and Slice, it could be useful to display the bits of a bus being concatenated or ripped. Selecting this option enables the output pins to show the resulting function as illustrated by the following examples.

Evaluated functions on output pins

Select this option (in conjunction with Display function on output pins) to see the full function being evaluated.

Enable the output pin of the Concat IP, to display the Concat values. For example, Concat IP blocks are being used to drive a Multiplier IP in the following figure.

Figure 8. Concat IP Example

As you can see, the multiplier, mult_gen_0, has two inputs A and B, which are both 16-bits wide. The Concat IP xlconcat_0 and xlconcat_1 instances drive the 16 bits out on the output pin dout[15:0]. The dout[15:0] pin on the xlconcat_0 instance concatenates two inputs In0_0[1:0] and In1_0[13:0]. This concatenated value can be seen on the output pin of the xlconcat_0 block dout[15:0]. Similarly, the xlconcat_1 instance concatenated value can be seen on the output pin dout[15:0].

Note: The evaluated functions cannot be displayed on the output pin until connectivity of the output pin is made to a destination pin on the design.

The output pin of the Slice IP, can be enabled to display the bits being ripped off from a bus. As a simple illustration Slice IP blocks are being used to drive the input pins of a Adder/Subtractor IP.

Figure 9. Slice IP Example

As you can see, the Adder/Subtractor IP, c_addsub_0, has two inputs A and B, which are both 16-bits wide. The Slice IP xslice_0 and xslice_1 instances drive the 16 bits out on the output pin Dout[15:0]. The dout[15:0] pin on the xslice_0 instance rips 16 bits [bits 15 through bit 0], off of the 32-bit input buts Din0_0[31:0]. This "ripped-off" value can be seen on the output pin of the xlslice_0 block dout[15:0] as Dout=Din_1[15:0]. Similarly, the ripped output of xlslice_1 instance, Dout=Din_0[17:2], can be seen on the output pin dout[15:0].

Note: The evaluated functions cannot be displayed on the output pin until connectivity of the output pin is made to a destination pin on the design.

Show blocks without interfaces

Selecting this option displays all the cells (or blocks) on the design canvas even if they do not have any interface pin(s) on their I/O.

Note: Unselecting this option will make the blocks without any interfaces "disappear" from the block design canvas. This is a visual only representation. In reality those blocks are still present in the block design - they just "disappear" from the block design canvas to show an uncluttered view.

Show objects with no visible connections

This option shows or hides the following objects on the block design canvas.

• blocks
• sub-blocks
• external ports
• block pins