Scripting a global assignment without qsf modification?

Hey Frank,

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But this also modifies the respective qsf file permanently which retriggers the version control system. ... I hope there should be an easier way.

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There is, don't use the .qsf file, use Tcl, and consider the .qsf file to be a build artifact :)

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As nother inconvenient point if you want to keep your scripts generic is the need for an actual project name in project_open command. I mean, the GUI apparently knows which project it is working with, the information should be available somehow?

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Yeah, it is, you can get the info you want as follows

#  -----------------------------------------------------------------
#  Tcl packages
#  -----------------------------------------------------------------
# 
package require ::quartus::project
package require ::quartus::report
#  -----------------------------------------------------------------
#  Script arguments
#  -----------------------------------------------------------------
# 
set module   
set project  
set revision 
#  Path to the directory containing this preflow script
set scripts ]]
# post_message -type info "POSTFLOW: $module $project $revision"
if {} {
    post_message -type info "POSTFLOW: Analysis & Synthesis detected!"
    post_message -type info "POSTFLOW: Run the DDR3 pin assignment script"
    
   #  Check the pin assignments script exists
	set fname qsys_system/synthesis/submodules/qsys_system_ddr_p0_pin_assignments.tcl
    if {!} {
	    post_message -type error "POSTFLOW: pin assignments script $fname missing!"    
    }    
#  Open the project before running the DDR assignments script
	if {!} {
		project_open -revision $revision $project
	}
    post_message -type info "POSTFLOW: Running the DDR3 pin assignments script $fname"
	source $fname
#  Save the changes
	export_assignments
	
    post_message -type info "POSTFLOW: DDR3 pin assignments complete"
}

This is the postflow script for the BeMicro-CV DDR example (see Post#5)

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43992

and please take a look at this DE0-nano example (Post# 2)

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45927

Both of these examples show how you can use a synth.tcl script to automate the creation of the Quartus project, i.e., it relegates the .qsf file to being a build artifact. The DE0-nano SDRAM example shows how you can take a Qsys XML file and convert it to Tcl so that it is portable between multiple Quartus versions. I figure that might be of interested to you.

Cheers,

Dave

Hello Dave,

thanks for the suggestion. I think I understand the concept of replacing the qsf as project database by user scripts, it's basically discussed in the Quartus software manual, Volume 2, starting at Chapter 1. I agree that it can solve the raised issue.

Personally I love a GUI centered design with qsf files holding most of the project settings. Lean and easy to setup for a new design. But I see that it has limitations.

Regards,

Frank

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thanks for the suggestion. I think I understand the concept of replacing the qsf as project database by user scripts, it's basically discussed in the Quartus software manual, Volume 2, starting at Chapter 1. I agree that it can solve the raised issue.

Personally I love a GUI centered design with qsf files holding most of the project settings. Lean and easy to setup for a new design. But I see that it has limitations.

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Don't think of the scripts as replacing the GUI, think of them as setting up the GUI independent of the Quartus version. Try running the synthesis scripts I referenced in the above links. Once you run the script, the GUI is fully functional, and is identical to as if you had opened up a .qsf file. You can save the Quartus project as a .qar, and it would be no different than had you started with Project->New.

Tcl has the advantage that you can put useful Tcl procedures in a package (I use one called 'hdl', with 'altera' and 'modelsim' namespaces) and re-use that across multiple projects. It makes for concise Tcl scripts. I tend to remove that functionality from my example designs as it requires setting up environment variables (TCLLIBPATH) before it works.

Cheers,

Dave