Using the Interface

This section describes the elements that compose the Design Manager and Flow Engine interfaces and how to use them.

Note: Menus, dialog boxes, and parts of the application window are documented as they appear on a UNIX workstation. Differences between the PC and the workstation applications are documented if there is a difference in operation between the two platforms.

Main Window

This section describes the Design Manager and Flow Engine main windows, their menus, toolbar, and status bar. By default, the main window displays a menu bar and toolbar at the top and status bar at the bottom of the window. You can hide the toolbar or status bar from view by selecting the Toolbar or the Status Bar commands, respectively, from the View menu. In the Design Manager, the toolbox also appears by default. You can hide it from view by selecting the Toolbox command from the View menu.

Design Manager Window

To work with the Design Manager, you must create a project. See the “Creating a New Project” section of the “Using the Design Manager and Flow Engine” chapter for information. After you create a project, the Design Manager window appears configured for the loaded design, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 2.1 Design Manager Window

The Design Manager project view displays design version and implementation revision icons. The toolbox allows you to launch Xilinx tools. You can select Design Manager commands from the menus and toolbar.

Flow Engine Window

You can open the Flow Engine automatically through the Design Manager implementation process or manually from the Design Manager Tools menu or toolbox. See the “Implementing a Design from the Design Manager” or “Implementing a Design from the Flow Engine” section of the “Using the Design Manager and Flow Engine” chapter for descriptions of the different ways to open the Flow Engine and implement a design. When you open the Flow Engine, the Flow Engine window appears as shown in the following figures.

Figure 2.2 Flow Engine Window (FPGA)

Figure 2.3 Flow Engine Window (CPLD)

Process indicators in the Flow Engine main window show which step in the design flow is currently processing. The arrows between each step turn black after the previous step is completed. Below each process indicator, a progress bar shows the status of each processing step, whether Running, Completed, Aborted, or Failed. You can control each step in the processing of your design by using the run control buttons at the bottom of the Flow Engine main window. Select Flow Engine commands from the menus and toolbar.

Title Bar

The title bar displays the program name and the name of the currently loaded design.

Menu Bar

All of the Design Manager commands are available in the pull-down menus of the Design Manager window after a design is loaded. Flow Engine commands are available in the pull-down menus of the Flow Engine window.

All menu commands and keyboard combinations for certain commands are described in the “Menu Commands” chapter.

Toolbar Buttons

You can access frequently used commands by clicking the appropriate toolbar button. See the “Toolbars” section of the “Menu Commands” chapter for an explanation of each toolbar button.

The toolbar can either be docked (that is, attached to the main window) or floating (that is, contained in its own window). You can position the toolbar as follows.

• To move the toolbar, point to a spot between toolbar buttons (or to the title bar, if the toolbar is floating), then drag and drop the toolbar to the desired location. If you drop the toolbar near an edge of the main window, it will be docked on that edge. If you drag the toolbar away from the window edge, it will float instead of being docked.
  
  
• To toggle between a floating toolbar and a docked toolbar, double-click on a spot between toolbar buttons (or on the title bar, if the toolbar is floating).
  
  
• To prevent the toolbar from being docked, press the Ctrl key as you move the toolbar.
  
  

Toolbox Buttons

You can access the available set of Xilinx interactive tools from the Design Manager Tools menu or from the toolbox. To launch a tool from the toolbox, click the appropriate toolbox button. See the “Toolbox” section of the “Menu Commands” chapter for a detailed explanation of the toolbox. The toolbox can be arranged in the ways described in the preceding section.

Status Bar

By default, the status bar appears at the bottom of the main window. When you select a menu command, a brief description of the command's function appears in the status bar. As the software processes, status messages are dynamically updated and displayed.

Dialog Boxes

Many menu commands display dialog boxes in which you can enter information and set options.

Common Fields

The fields shown in the following table are common to most dialog boxes.

Table 2_1 Common Dialog Box Fields