Generating a Symbol for a Quartus Design to Use in Mentor Graphics

Environment Variables Required
QUARTUS=d:/quartus_II_2.2
MGC_HOME=s:/mgc_en2002/MGC_HOME
PATH=c:/WINNT/system32
VCO=ixn
NCDIR=D:/Nutc

The Quartus Altera models should also be extracted to d:/quartus_II_2.2/libraries. The current zip file with these libraries is in U:/installed_software/altera/quartus/modelsim_oem_56a_q22sp1_models.zip

Example

In this example, the project directory is Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test and the top level design is top_model_test.

In Quartus
Assignments-EDA Tool Settings:

Simulation: Modelsim (VHDL Output from Quartus)
Timing Analysis: Custom VHDL

In Assignments-EDA Tool Settings-Simulation, make sure to check Map Illegal VHDL characters
Make sure the "Run this tool automatically" is NOT checked. This is because we are not going to run Modelsim by itself, but through Design Architect and Quicksim.

After compilation, there will be a folder in the project directory called simulation/modelsim. In this directory, there will be two files, top_model_test.vho and top_model_test_vhd.sdo.

The next step is to use Design Architect to compile the files and create the symbol. Design Architect actually calls Modelsim to perform this task. If you are going to have problems, it's going to be here and it's going to be due to how the libraries are set up.

The most important thing to understand about Modelsim is the work directory. This is by default, the directory from which you call Modelsim, if you were using a dos window. If you start Modelsim from the Start menu in windows, the work directory is the d:\modeltech_5.6d\examples directory. When you invoke Modelsim from Design Architect, the work directory is your home directory (the location of My Documents.) Neither of these directories work well for us because we want the location to be on a drive that is shared by both the unix and windows machines. So, we need to set the working directory for ourselves.

We can either set up a communal workspace and map the work library to it or everyone can set up their own and map to it. It really doesn't matter. For the rest of these instructions, I am just going to set up a single directory called work inside the Quartus project directory.

Design Architect schematic: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test
Quartus model_test: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test
Quartus and3: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/and3
Modelsim work directory: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test/simulation/modelsim/work
model_test symbol location: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/top_model_test
and3 symbol location: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/top_and3

Notice that in this project there are two different Quartus projects that are going to be part of the Design Architect schematic. It would be nice to be able to have a work directory for each Quartus project, but I'm not sure that this will work. As, you can only specify one work directory in the modelsim.ini file. So, for this example, all compiled items will end up in the directory called work in the model_test project home.

You will also need to specify where the stratix library is. Do this by mapping the name stratix to the location of the files.
vmap stratix d:/quartus_II_2.2/libraries/altera/vhdl/stratix

In Design Architect
Set up your work directory. Modelsim-Lib
This will be done once to create the directory:
Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test/simulation/modelsim/work

Compile the project

Set these options

File Name: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test/simulation/modelsim/top_model_test.vho Look at the shell window to see that it finished without any errors.

Next, generate the symbol with File-Generate-Symbol

Choose Source: Entity
Modelsim InitFile: d:/modeltech_5.6d/modelsim.ini You may have a modelsim.ini in your home (U:/users/...) directory, which may or may not work. The file you want to put here is the one that has the newly created work directory in it. The correct one should look something like:
[Library]
std = $MODEL_TECH/../std
ieee = $MODEL_TECH/../ieee
verilog = $MODEL_TECH/../verilog
vital2000 = $MODEL_TECH/../vital2000
std_developerskit = $MODEL_TECH/../std_developerskit
synopsys = $MODEL_TECH/../synopsys
qspro_fixed_lib = S:/MGC_EN2002/MGC_HOME/pkgs/vsim_qspro/5.6/qspro_fixed_lib
stratix = d:/quartus_II_2.2/libraries/altera/vhdl/stratix
work = Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test/simulation/modelsim/work

Library Logical Name: work
Entity Name: top_model_test
Default Architecture: Press the Choose Arch... button and pick the one that appears. Note that if nothing appears and there is an error message in the shell window, the environment variable NCDIR is probably not set properly.

Directory: Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test
Inside of this directory, a directory called top_model_test will be created and a file called top_model_test.mgc_component.attr will be created.

The new symbol appears

Check the symbol and save it. This completes the symbol creation.

Instantiate this symbol in the schematic in which you want to use it. For this example, the schematic created is Y:/TDC/altera_symbol_test

Here is what the test schematic looks like:

Be sure to check and save it.

In QSPro

From the Design Manager, start QSPro on your schematic. Take all the defaults from the QSPro window that comes up. You should now be able to simulate your schematic. If you have any problems here, it's most likely due to using a different modelsim.ini file than the one which has the correct location of the work directory. This is why I deleted any modelsim.ini file, except the one in the modelsim installation directory.

Here are some quick instructions for using QSPro:

1.  After QSPro is open, do Open Sheet and select your schematic.
2.  Setup-Open New Window-Trace
3.  Select all the signals that you want to trace and click on the TRACE button.
4.  Unselect all the signals (F2) and select just one that you want to put a force on.
5.  Click ADD FORCE or ADD CLOCK to put a force on the wire
6.  Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each signal that you want to put a force on.
7.  Click RUN and put a value in for the clock, the units are ns.  (Don't put any units in the time window.)

QSPro Problems
After upgrading some software, we had problems starting the QSPro program.  The error message would be about the file tcl83.dll.  There are many copies of this file on the computer, as it is supplied by Altera for Quartus software, Modeltech for Modelsim software and Mentor Graphics for Nutc and FPGAdvantage software.  The workaround for the problem was to edit the PATH environment variable so that d:\modeltech_5.6d\win32 was first.  Once this was done, QSPro worked fine.

Making Changes

If you change your Quartus design, you will need to recompile the .vho file, but do not need to generate a new symbol file unless the pins change.

Unix-Windows Compatibility

Everything in this example was done in windows, but it will all work in unix with a few simple changes. First, make sure to check references. Most likely, you'll need to change everything from Y: to $DESIGNS. (I should have set it up this way in the beginning, but I forgot to use $DESIGNS.) Second, copy the default modelsim.ini (in /net/edg/disk3/modeltech.5.6d/modelsim.ini) to your home directory (/users/maryh). Then in an xterm, map the stratix and work (and any other required) directories with the following command:

vmap stratix /net/edg/disk3/modeltech.5.6d/altera/vhdl/stratix
vmap work /net/designs/TDC/altera_symbol_test/model_test/simulation/modelsim/work

Everything else works as in windows.

Mary Heintz
June 10, 2003
Update:  September 24, 2003