Critical Warning(20762): QSF instance assignment source or target uses an escaped identifier containing a colon (':')

Description

In the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 19.3 and later, you might see this critical warning when you open your project:

Critical Warning(20762): QSF instance assignment source or target uses an escaped identifier containing a colon (':'). If this is a VHDL name corresponding to a 'generate' construct, note that as of Intel Quartus Prime software version 19.3, such names use period ('.') instead of colon. Replace this escaped identifier with the new instance name, which does not need to be escaped.

Any assignments or constraints that use the old colon(':') format for VHDL generate statements will be ignored. 

Resolution

To remove this warning and have your assignments and constraints honored in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 19.3 and later, change the format from

\\<generate name>:<generate number>:<instance name> 

e.g. \\generate_statement:0:example_instance 

to

<generate name>[<generate number>].<instance name>

e.g. generate_statement[0].example_instance

You can also run this script on any .sdc (Synopsys Design Constraints) or .qsf (Quartus Settings File) to convert constraints and assignments to the new format

convert-backslash-and-colon.tcl

Run the script with this command quartus_sh -t convert_backslash_and_colon.tcl -file <file name> -new_file <new file name>

You should review the new file before using it as some complicated tcl structures will not be converted.