DVT Eclipse IDE Diagrams - How to Focus Design Exploration on Specific Instances

Overview

== Important note ==
Starting with DVT 18.1.44 more design exploration actions are available, and the Select Instances toolbar button has been obsoleted. For more details see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SvN269GTJk

Sometimes HDL diagrams for complex designs can be hard to follow.

This video explains how you can focus the design exploration on specific instances which are of particular interest for you.

You can easily tune a diagram to show only the connections between or around one or more selected instances, even if located at different levels of the design hierarchy.

Details

Introduction

To simplify the exploration of large design diagrams, you might want to focus only on the connections and logic involving specific instances. In a schematic diagram, right-click on an instance and select Show connections around.

The resulting diagram shows only the selected instance and the instances connected to it directly or via logic blocks. Note that the initially selected instance has a highlighted border.

Hold the Control button and select multiple instances. To focus only on the connections between multiple instances right-click and choose Show Connections Between.

Click the Select Instances toolbar button. Use the arrows in the center of the dialog to move instances from one side to the other. Specify what connections you wish to see and click Apply.

Exploring Diagrams Across Multiple Hierarchy Levels

A particularly interesting use case is exploring a diagram spanning across multiple design hierarchy levels. Increase the depth of the schematic select two instances and show connections between them.

Similarly, you can start the exploration from a flow diagram, which presents a high-level view of the internal connectivity. Showing connections between multiple instances will expand to a schematic representation.