Overview

The Vivado® Design Suite allows you to create projects based on specific boards. Trenz Electronic provides Vivado Board Part files in the download area. This files are included into the reference projects, please choose a reference design under the proper module.

There are three options for installing the Board Part files

Attention: The board part files of our reference designs are for the corresponding Vivado version of the project delivery. It's possible to use them with other Vivado versions, but maybe it's not working correctly, if this is done.

Option 1: Use Trenz Electronic Reference Design with local board part file

The board part file will be set for the local project, if the project is generated with the provided scripts from the project delivery. More information on: Project Delivery

Option 2: Xilinx Git Hub for Vivado

Coming soon for Vivado 2019.1 and newer

Option 3: Install into a User Repository

This Option allows you to install the Vivado Board Part files to any location of your choosing. The disadvantage is that it required an additional command to point the tools to your repository.

This description is for Vivado 2015.1 and higher. Older Vivado versions used other variable names, so some changes are necessary.

Since Vivado 2017.1, "init.tcl" should be renamed to "Vivado_init.tcl"

  1. Create init.tcl with following content:

    if { [catch {
      # #############################
      # insert settings here:
      set tepath "C:/TE"
      if {[file exists ${tepath}/]} {
        set_param board.repoPaths $tepath
        puts "Set Board Part RepoPath: [get_param board.repoPaths]"
      }
      # #############################
    }] } {
      puts "Info: (TE) init.tcl failed"
    }
    
    


  2. Put init.tcl in one of the possible locations for init.tcl:
    1. Vivado Project (For current version only): <installdir>/vivado/<version>/scripts/
    2. User Data(For all versions): C:/Users/<user>/AppData/Roaming/Xilinx/Vivado/
  3. Copy the Board part files folder from the reference project (<reference_design>/board_files/) into the folder C:/TE (the folder location can be changed in the init.tcl script). The *.csv file from <reference_design>/board_files/ is not necessary for this way.
  4. Start your Vivado Version and the TCL-console printout should be the following:



    Please make sure you use plain ASCII text editor when creating the init.tcl file, any non ASCII character in the file will make Vivado to freeze on startup.

    A working init.tcl file is provided in the archive with this tutorial. With this method you can set up a permanent initialization TCL that is read by Vivado each time it launches. Details about the init.tcl file are included in UG835 Vivado Design Suite Tcl Command Reference Guide. UG835 describes where to put the init.tcl file. 


Option 4: Install into the Vivado installation

This is the quickest option, but it is not recommended by Xilinx. Use at your own risk.

  1. Copy the Board part files folder from the reference project (<reference_design>/board_files/) into the folder <installdir>/vivado/<version>/data/boards/board_files/. The *.csv file from <reference_design>/board_files/ is not necessary for this way.
     
Test in Vivado

Regardless of which method you choose, the new boards should now be visible in Vivado 2015.1 or higher for vendor trenz.biz . To test this out, do the following.

  1. Launch Vivado.
  2. Select Create New Project.
  3. Click Next>  to get started.
  4. Set the project name and location. Press Next>.
  5. Select project type Click Next>.
  6. At the Default Part screen,
    a, Click Boards under Specify.
    b, Click trenz.biz under Vendor.

The options should appear as shown.


For more information about this capability, please refer to the following Quick Take video.


http://www.xilinx.com/training/vivado/using-vivado-with-xilinx-evaluation-boards.htm

Software Requirements

The software used is