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Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

Saving Block Design Files get Not Responding Message

Hello, my design manager has decided to have all the engineers store their Quartus Designs on a File Server instead of their local workstation. When I do this and have a Block Design File open and then click the Save button Quartus will take a very long time to save the file, maybe 30-60 seconds. Within those second I will get a Not Responding message at the top of Quartus and will disappear when the file is saved. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I didn't experience this when I was working from my local drive. Any ideas?

Thanks,

joe

6 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    Sounds like a network problem?

    But why are you using block design files and not HDL?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    I develop my FPGA designs using SystemVerilog and then generate a symbol from the HDL and then using Block Design Files to graphically show how my code and also the Megafunctions are connected. I find it very similar to Mathworks' Simulink which is all graphical and easy show to others the signal flow and control. I admit that there are pro's and con's of Block Design Files but I believe the pro's out weight the cons.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    try taking a diff of a graphical file in a version control system and you'll see more problems.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    It's a problem with your network and/or file server. I'd be a bit paranoid about directly saving files to a file server. There is too much risk of a problem causing corrupted files. Make sure daily backups of the server are done. Keep lots of history in case a file goes bad and you don't notice for a while.

    I'd suggest using a real version control system like git, svn, etc. These will insure that only good copies of revisions are saved. I use git even for my home hobby projects because it is easy to branch out and go back if something doesn't work out. Version control is free, and easy to use once you get the hang of it (which does take some effort). The ones I mentioned are simple for a software person to install and a real butt saver at times. In my opinion none of the paid packages are better than git or svn, so don't waste your money on them. Paid support for the free systems is available if you need help getting set up and learning how to use them.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    Galfonz,

    Hi, thanks for answering my post. I'm still confused that I only get this problem when saving .bdf files and not my HDL files. Any ideas? Also, I don't have any other problems with files stored on the file server. For example, when I'm using Mentor Graphics DxDesigner to build my circuit schematics and the project is stored on the file server I have no problems. I do notice that if I'm using Quartus 9.1 I get the same Not Responding message when saving a .bdf but the message is only there for a few seconds while in Quartus 14.1 the message is present for 30-60 seconds. Your thoughts.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    It's likely Altera didn't test Quartus using file servers. If you have the paid version, you might file a service request with them. Other than that, I'd suggest version control or writing to local hard disk. For file server backup you can use the Quartus project archive feature or copy the files after quartus has written them.