Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

Work Area Tools

The Ambit BuildGates synthesis tool provides the following design tools, which are described in detail in the following sections.

■The HDL Editor

■The Tcl Editor

■Constraints tool

■The Schematic Viewer

■Distributed processing

The HDL editor and constraints tool contain commands that have ac_shell command line equivlalents. For a cross-reference between these commands and ac_shell command line commands, refer to Appendix B, “Quick Reference”.

HDL and Tcl Editors

To display an editor or viewer such that it occupies the whole main screen window instead of only a portion of the window, place the cursor in the editor portion and press the Control-m keys. Repeatedly pressing Control-m toggles between the standard split-screen and the whole-screen display.

Note: Opening an HDL or Tcl file with the editor does not load/read the design file. However, the “Save and Parse” option button for both HDL and Tcl does load the file; see the following sections. Also, refer to “File Menu Options” on page 38 for instructions on loading a file.

The HDL Editor

The HDL Editor (shown in Figure 3-24) displays and edits Verilog and VHDL files. The text displayed in the HDL editor is color-coded by type: normal, operator, comparator, number, and so on. You can specify custom colors in View–General Preferences–Colors–Color Items.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

Figure 3-24 The HDL Editor

HDL file name

line num

HDL button bar

The HDL file’s path and name are displayed on the dialog box above the HDL text. This field can be used to specify the path and name of another file to display and/or edit. Click the scrolldown arrow to the right of the file name field to display the pull down menu showing the history of all the files previously opened. To re-open a previously opened file, click the left mouse button on a file in the history list.

The line number and column number fields display the current line and column numbers of the insertion cursor. These fields can be edited to position the cursor at a specific location in the file. To do so: click left mouse button in the field, overwrite the current value, and press the Return key. Lines start at 1 and columns start at 0.

The HDL button bar provides the following file operations.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

Button Description

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

The Tcl Editor

The Tcl Editor (shown in Figure 3-25) displays and edits Tcl files.

Figure 3-25 The Tcl Editor

Tcl file name

line num

Tcl button bar

The Tcl file’s path and name are displayed on the dialog box above the Tcl text. This field can be used to specify the path and name of another file to display and/or edit. Click the scrolldown arrow to the right of the file name field to display the pull down menu showing the history of all the files previously opened. To re-open a previously opened file, click left mouse button on a file in the history list.

The line number and column number fields display the current line and column numbers of the insertion cursor. These fields can be edited to position the cursor at a specific location in the file. To do so: click left mouse button in the field, overwrite the current value, and press the Return key. Lines start at 1 and columns start at 0.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

The Tcl button bar provides the following file operations.

Searching in the Editors

The search mechanism and interface, shown in Figure 3-26, is the same for both the HDL and Tcl editors.

Figure 3-26 Searching Within the Editors

To Search for a String

1. Open the HDL or Tcl file as described in the above sections.

Ambit BuildGates Synthesis User Guide

Using the GUI

2.Click the Search and Replace icon to display the window shown in Figure 3-26.

3.Enter the search string in the Text to Search field.

4.If replacement is desired, enter the replacement text in the Text to Search field.

5.If desired, select the following options:

Search up/Search down — to specify direction of search. Search down is the default.

Match case — to match upper/lower case sensitivity in search string.

Replace all — to replace all instances of the search string with the specified replacement string. Press the Replace button to automatically replace all instances without prompting.

6.Click Find to search for the string. Continue to click Find until the desired occurrence is displayed and highlighted.

7.If text replacement is desired, click Replace to replace the search string with the string specified.