Pre-placing a design, Placing an object, 10 pre-placing a design – Achronix ACE Version 5.0 User Manual
Page 281: 1 placing an object, Placement of the instance
Pre-Placing a Design
Chapter 4. Tasks
Pre-Placing a Design
Placing an Object
Currently in ACE, there are two types of objects that can be placed: instances and ports. Placing a port is
equivalent to placing the pad or macro instance that the port is connected to in the design.
There are two types of placement in ACE: soft and fixed. Fixed placement locks the placement of an instance
to a site such that the placer is not allowed to move the instance to another site. Fixed placement is the only
type of pre-placement command recommended. Soft placement is used as a global placement hint to the
placer.
Note:
Soft placement is not fully functional.
To begin pre-placement activity, the Run Prepare flow step for the active implementation must be run.
Placing an object automatically resets the flow status to start over from the Run Prepare step.
To place an object from the Search view:
1. In the Placement (
) section of the fly-out palette, check the placement options desired.
Note:
The Fixed placement is recommended for all pre-placement.
2. Pan and zoom the Floorplanner view or Package view to locate the site to place the object on.
3. In the Search view, click and drag the desired object from the results list onto the desired site in the
Floorplanner view or Package view.
Note:
The icon on the object in the Search view is now updated to reflect the placement status.
To place an object from the Selection view:
1. In the Placement (
) section of the fly-out palette, check the placement options desired.
Note:
The Fixed placement is recommended for all pre-placement.
2. Pan and zoom the Floorplanner view or Package view to locate the site to place the object on.
3. In the Selection view, click and drag the desired object from the selected items list onto the desired site
in the Floorplanner view or Package view.
Note:
The icon on the object in the Selection view is now updated to reflect the placement status.
To place an object from within the Floorplanner view or Package view (move from one placement to
another):
1. In the Placement (
) section of the fly-out palette, check the placement options desired.
Note:
The Fixed placement is recommended for all pre-placement.
2. Click on the Placement Tool (
) on the view toolbar to change the mouse behavior to drag and drop
placement mode. Then pan and zoom the Floorplanner view or Package view to locate the placed
instance to be moved.
3. In the Floorplanner view or Package view, click and drag the placed instance from its current site onto
the new site in the Floorplanner view or Package view.
Note:
This operation requires an existing placement of the instance to be moved or placement fixed for.
Sometimes it is helpful to start with a fully placed and routed design, and then fine-tune the placement
with this method. Also, be aware that changing the placement of an object clears the current routing
data.
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UG001 Rev. 5.0 - 5th December 2012