Description:

ispLEVER tools come packaged with Synopsys's Synplify Pro synthesis tool (Lattice Device version) and Aldec's Active-HDL (Lattice Edition) simulation environment. These tools only support development for Lattice devices. ispLEVER also comes packaged with its own editing environment called Text Editor.

In addition to these bundled tools, ispLEVER supports other synthesis and simulation environments. ispLEVER has the ability to support the following versions of the synthesis and simulation environments. Once they are integrated into the Project Navigator, you can launch these tools directly.

Synthesis Tools:

• Synopsys's Synplify Pro (multi-vendor full version)
• Mentor Graphics Precision

• Active HDL Pro
• Mentor Graphics Modelsim (all versions)

1. Under the Environment window, go to the Directories tab.
2. You will see the default path setup for Synplify.
3. Browse to the path where the full version of Synplify is installed, select the Synplify executable, and click OK.

1. Under the Environment window, go to the Directories tab.
2. You will see the default path setup for Precision. By default the path entry is blank.
3. Browse to the path where Precision is installed on the machine, select the Precision executable, and click OK.

1. Under the Environment window, go to Directories tab.
2. You will see the default path setup for Modelsim. By default it is left empty.
3. Browse to the path where Modelsim is installed on the machine, and click OK.

1. Under the Environment window, go to Directories tab.
2. You will see the default path setup for Active-HDL.
3. Browse to the path where Active-HDL Pro is installed on the machine, and click OK.

1. Under the Environment window, go to the General tab.
   
2. At the bottom of this tab, select the box "Use Your Favorite Editor"
   
3. Under the External TextEditor section, browse to the path where the editor is installed in the Text field.
   
4. Select the appropriate Arguments, and click OK. Note that the Arguments box enables you to specify the command arguments to pass to the text editor executable when it is invoked. When you double-click an error message in the Output panel, these arguments will direct the Project Navigator to open the source file in the specified editor and pinpoint the specific line that has the error. The mapping between the argument-substitution values and the value which replaces them are:
   %F = file name
   %L = line number
   

   For example, to configure the gVim text editor, use the following command line: <path>/gvim +%L %F.
   
   The arguments are order dependent, and if used, cannot be skipped. If you do not specify any argument, then the file name is added to the executable command line by default.

Once you have these in place, any new project, when created, will permit you to use the custom tools.

Existing projects remember the synthesis and simulation tool that was active when the project was created.  You can change the tools associated with the project by:

• Opening the project in Project Navigator
• Selecting the Options menu
• Clicking on the Select RTL Synthesis or Simulator menu
• Update the synthesis and simulation tool entries and click OK.

Project Navigator is able to support other synthesis tools.  The Project Navigator project must be configured as an EDIF Only.  Synthesis tools must be run independent from Project Navigator, and must create an EDIF netlist for use by Project Navigator.

Simulation tools other than Aldec and Modelsim can not be integrated into Project Navigator, and are required to be run stand-alone.