Creating a New Project

When you open the Design Manager for the first time, you must create a new project for your design before you can use the Design Manager. A project includes all design versions, implementation revisions, reports, and any other Xilinx data created while you work with a design.

The Design Manager graphically displays information about these items in the project view. When you create a new project, you specify a design to open and a directory for the project. You can create as many projects as you want, but you can only work with one at a time. The following procedure explains how to create a new project by importing a design.

1. In the Design Manager, select File New Project or click the New Project toolbar button.
   
   
   
   The dialog box shown in the following figure appears.
   
   

   Figure 3.1 New Project Dialog Box

2. In the Input Design field, type the name of a design file to open, or click the Browse button to select a file from the Open dialog box. Use only the file formats listed in the “Inputs and Outputs” section of the “Introduction” chapter.
   
   
3. If you want to change the default work directory, type a path in the Work Directory field or use Browse to select a directory.
   
   

   Note: The Design Manager automatically creates a subdirectory named xproj under the input design directory and uses it as the work directory. The Design Manager uses the xproj subdirectory to store all the data files for the project.

4. Enter any comments in the Comment field. Use this field to note options and strategies.
   
   
5. In the New Project dialog box, click OK.
   
   After your design is loaded, the Design Manager is configured for the loaded design.