Eshop Design File Structures
August, 1997
Electronics shop designs are often in use for many years, and
are used by people other than the original designer. For the poor
person asked to come up with schematics, artworks, etc. from only
a board name, a structured design area can save a lot of time and
effort. For this reason, there is a required area and structure
for board, chip, and FPGA designs done in the electronics shop.
Boards
The area for boards is in /nfs/voyager/l/projects and is
organized by experiment. Since almost all the work we are
currently doing is for CDF, most of the projects are in
/nfs/voyager/l/projects/cdf_projects. Everything in this area
should be the top level of a board design. The name of the
directory should sensibly indicate what the board is. When you
create a board using Mentor, the software creates a basic file
structure that should not be altered. If it is, you will run into
problems when the software can't find a file where it is supposed
to be. As an example of a board design, the directory structure
of a board called "dog" (after going through to_layout)
should look like the following: ( / indicates a directory)
dog
/design_lib
/design_geom
/design_maps
/pal_projects
part.Eddm_part.attr
part.part_1
/pcb
pcb.Mgc_pcb.attr
pcb_design_vpt
pcb_design_vpt.Eddm_ba_mgr.attr
pcb_design_vpt.Eddm_design_viewpoint.attr
pcb_design_vpt.ba_1
pcb_design_vpt.dvpt_1
/schematic
schematic.mgc_schematic.attr
/startup
to_layout_log
/xil_projects
In this example, there are two directories in addition to what
Mentor creates- pal_projects and xil_projects. You will need to
create these if you have either pals or xilinx chips on your
board. The pal_projects directory is for files for any PAL
designs you will need to create for your board. Since these are
usually designed somewhere else, you will need to transfer the
files back to this area. The xil_projects directory should
contain any Xilinx FPGA designs that you created for the board.
Since these designs consist of one directory for the schematics
and then a large number of loose files, you should have a
subdirectory for each design if you have more than one. Again,
changing the default structure that the Xilinx programs implement
will only cause headaches for yourself and others.
Chips
Traditionally, there has only been one or two people in the
shop doing chip designs, and they have usually been left in user
areas. A directory exists in /nfs/voyager/l/projects called
chip_projects. All new chip projects should be created in this
area in order that other designers may access them.