Quartus II file management

Quartus II is a powerful EDA software. In this inherited development environment, PLD users can complete a full set of PLD development processes, such as editing, compiling, simulation, integration, layout and wiring, timing analysis, generating programming files, and programming.

Quartus II manages files in projects. This ensures the independence and integrity of design documents.

Because Quartus II has many functions, each function corresponds to one or more file types. In use, if you need to transfer or back up the files corresponding to a project, it is a headache to choose a large number of files. Similar problems are also common when using maxplus II.

Using the engineering File compression function provided by Quartus II can save the trouble of selecting files. However, the. Qar file compresses a large number of files into a single file. Only after decompression can the information of the specific file be obtained. If you use a version control tool (such as CVS), you cannot compare versions of the. Qar file. Even if the. Qar file is damaged, some or even all files cannot be recovered. In addition, the default. Qar file contains some non-critical files, which have some redundancy.

The key to solving this problem is to clarify the significance of the file extension and clearly control the choice of files.

The following file is an explanation of the file extension copied from the Quartus II help file.

the preceding files can be divided into five types:
1. compile required files: design files (. GDF ,. BDF, edif input file ,. the TDF and OpenGL design files ,. vqm ,. VT, VHDL design file ,. VHT), memory initialization file (. ,. rif ,. HEX), configuration file (. qsf ,. TCL), engineering files (. qpf ).
2. the intermediate file generated during compilation (. eqn files and all files in the DB directory)
3. report files generated after compilation (. RPT ,. qsmg, etc.)
4. the interface configuration file (. qws, etc.)
5. programming file (. sof ,. POF ,. TTF, etc.)
the first type of files in the above category must be retained. The second type of files are generated according to the first type of files during compilation, no need to retain; the third type of files will change according to the changes in the first type of files, reflecting the compiled results, which can be retained as needed; the fourth type of files stores personal preferences, it can also be retained as needed. The fifth type of file is the compilation result and must be retained.
when using a version control tool, I usually keep files of the first, third, and fifth types. However, the third type of files are rarely used repeatedly.
therefore, the first and fifth types of files must be retained to maintain a minimum project.
In addition, when the configuration content of one project needs to be transferred to another project, such as pin allocation information, the. TCL file instead of the. qsf file needs to be transferred .. The relationship between the Tcl file and the. qsf file and how to generate the. TCL file will be shown in future logs.