Occasional Contributor
Super ContributorI'm not sure what the previous poster is referring to, but there is supposed to be an option (Project menu -> Export Design) as opposed to (Project menu -> Export Design Partition). The export design option is supposed to let you export the synthesized or final design as a whole as a .qdb (page 46 here: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/ug/ug-qpp-compiler.pdf). For some reason, I'm not seeing that option in 20.4 even though it is documented in the user guide. Hmm.
What you could do if you are not partitioning your design is to export the whole design as a partition (referred to as the root_partition in the tool). Open the Design Partitions window from the Assignments menu and click the 3 dots (...) to add the "Post Synthesis Export File" and "Post Final Export File" options. Enter .qdb file names in these columns for the root_partition, and that will automatically create post synthesis and final .qdb files for the entire design.
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for.
Occasional ContributorHello @sstrell,
(Project menu -> Export Design) doesn't exist in the version I'm using either (QPro 20.2).
I believe your second suggestion is what I'm looking for and I tried it through scripting (in the Quartus tcl console):
load_package design design::export_partition root_partition -snapshot synthesized -file ip.qdb Error:0x1a3be630 Error: while executing Error:"design::export_partition root_partition -snapshot synthesized -file post_synth.qdb"
However, I haven't tested yet with the qsf assignments:
set_instance_assignment -name EXPORT_PARTITION_SNAPSHOT_SYNTHESIZED post_synth.qdb -to | -entity top_fpga_ddr4 set_instance_assignment -name EXPORT_PARTITION_SNAPSHOT_FINAL post_fit.qdb -to | -entity top_fpga_ddr4
This requires a re-run of the implementation I guess? That takes some time...
Occasional ContributorJust saw the following explanation for the error:
Error(18895): The TCL command design::export_partition from the design package is not supported while running on the Quartus Graphical User Interface
The idea is to do it using scripting anyways so I'll try that.
Occasional ContributorAn update: The qdb files are effectively generated using the commands
design::export_partition root_partition -snapshot synthesized -file post_synth.qdb design::export_partition root_partition -snapshot final -file post_fit.qdb
However, I don't see how I can import this qdb. When I assign it to the root_partition of the archived project, analysis & elaboration gives the following error:
Error(19829): ../../../../quartus/post_fit.qdb cannot be assigned. The ../../../../quartus/post_fit.qdb file is missing Partial Reconfiguration or Reserved Core subpartitions and assigned to the root partition. In order to assign a QDB file to the root partition, it must be created from a design using Partial Reconfiguration or Reserved Core subpartitions. To correct this error, ensure that the creation and assignment of the QDB is correct.
To restate my original objectives. I would like to :
1) retain a reasonably sized database of a completed implementation which, at a later date, can be reopened (without re-running the implementation) to be further analyzed (timings, placement, etc).
2) analyze an intermediate snapshot while the (scripted) implementation is not yet complete.
Maybe the snapshot is not the ideal method to go about this? As a comparison, Vivado allows this with the design checkpoints.
