DVT Eclipse IDE Diagrams - How to Use HDL Diagram Filters

Overview

Diagram filters help you remove clutter from complicated design diagrams. This video explains how you can filter out unwanted instances, signals and ports and highlight specific diagram elements.

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Details

Introduction

It sometimes happens that a design diagram is too big to be explored efficiently. In this case, you might want to hide or highlight particular elements.

Using Predefined Filters

In a schematic diagram:

  1. Click on the Filters toolbar button.
  2. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog to choose from the available filters.
  3. Select Clock and Reset, then Apply.
  4. Notice that only the clock and reset signals are shown, and they are highlighted with different colors.

Creating Custom Filters

To create your own filter:

  • Use the New button from the filter's dialog and enter a name.
  • You can use Content Assist to write the filter.
  • Press Ctrl-Space to see valid proposals.
  • Each line consists of an action applied to the diagram elements matching a specific regular expression. For example, the current line will hide all instances containing UART in their name.

Advanced Filtering Techniques

Let's suppose we want to see only the data, ports, and signals:

  1. First, we hide all ports and signals; then we show only the desired elements.
  2. Select Hide Unconnected Ports and Hide Blocks Without Ports to clean up any stray blocks and ports.
  3. Finally, let's highlight the signals starting with P using orange. The color can be specified by name or hex code.

The resulting diagram contains only the relevant information and it's much easier to follow.