Creating a Constraint File and Specifying the Device
Frozen Content
- To add a new constraint file to your project, right-click on the project name in the Projects panel, and select Add New to Project » Constraint File from the menu that appears.
- The new constraint file will open as the active document. To specify the target device, select Design » Add/Modify Constraint » Part from the constraint file editor menus. The Choose Physical Device dialog will appear (Figure 1), from where you can browse for and select the required target device.
Figure 1. Specifying the target FPGA device on the development/production board.
Available (and supported) devices will have a pin number value entered in the main device availability grid as well as information made available in the Selected Device region of the dialog. Devices that do not exist are represented by a hyphen character '-'.
Once selected, click OK – a record will be added to the constraint file, specifying the device, something like:
Record=Constraint | TargetKind=Part | TargetId=XC2S300E-6PQ208C
- Save the constraint file. Typically it would be named to reflect its role – for example if the target device was an Altera Cyclone mounted on your project PCB you might call the constraint file
MyProject_Cyclone.Constraint.