Creating a New Schematic

The following procedure demonstrates how to open and create schematics in ViewDraw.

1. Open a blank schematic window by clicking on File New.
   
   
2. In the Name field, type in the name of the new schematic. Make sure that Schematic highlights in the Type field.
   
   
3. Click on OK. The blank schematic sheet now opens with the name of the new schematic at the top of the window, followed by a .1 extension.
   
   

Creating Schematics with Multiple Sheets

When you create multiple-sheet designs, each sheet must have the same file name with extensions .1, .2, .3, and so forth. This convention applies to both top-level and lower-level schematics. The default sheet number is 1. To open a different sheet, type the schematic name and sheet number separated by a period in the Name field, or click on the file in the Designs list box. To view each sheet, use the Goto Page icon from the View Toolbar or right mouse click and select GoTo Page.

Changing the ViewDraw Window Colors

You can change the ViewDraw color settings to make it easier to view a schematic, choosing from a variety of available color schemes. In addition to these, Xilinx provides a special color scheme that provides optimal viewing of the Xilinx libraries in ViewDraw. If you want to change to this color palette, proceed with these steps.

1. Select Project Settings.
   
   
2. Click on the Color Palette tab.
   
   
3. Click the Import Scheme button.
   
   
4. In the Load Color Scheme dialog box that appears, navigate to the directory containing the Xilinx Development System, and then go to the viewlog\data subdirectory. Select the xilinx.scm file, and click Open.
   
   
5. Back in the Project Settings dialog box, the color scheme appears as Xilinx Library. Click on Apply to activate this new color palette. Click on OK to save the settings and close the Project Settings dialog box.
   
   

Changing ViewDraw Settings

The Project Settings dialog box allows you to change various other aspects of the ViewDraw display and save these settings to the project's viewdraw.ini file.

1. Select Project Settings (if you closed it from the previous step).
   
   
2. Select any tab and make desired global changes.
   
   
3. To activate the new settings, click on Apply or OK. Apply keeps the Project Settings box open, OK closes it.
   
   

To find out the current settings of the key parameters without bringing up the dialog box, select Project Status. ViewDraw opens a window displaying the settings.

NOTE

Tools Check Project gives an error stating that LogiBLOX symbols do not have an underlying schematic. You can ignore this error safely, as an NGO netlist describing schematic functionality merges in later.