Plan Tab

Click the Plan tab to interactively place IP cores and other design elements in legal locations in the device periphery. The Plan tab displays a list of your project's design elements, alongside a graphical abstraction of the target device architecture.

You can assign design elements by dragging them from the Design Elements list and dropping them onto available device resources in the Chip or Package view. Alternatively, click the button next to any design element to display a list of legal locations. Single-click any legal location in the list to highlight the location in the floorplan. Double-click any legal location in the list to place in the floorplan. Interface Planner displays the approximate number of legal locations in the Legal Locations column. Clicking the button verifies the number of legal locations.

You can apply various filters to locate specific design elements or target device resources. Device resources are color coded by type, allowing quick access to any structure. Interface Planner accurately evaluates the constraints using the Fitter in real time. Select any physical design element and click Report Placeability of Selected Element to generate a report listing all legal placement options on the Reports tab. You can Export the contents of the report for analysis.

The Interface Planner Plan tab contains the following controls to help you place logic in the interface plan. Placement or unplacement in the interface plan does not apply to your Quartus Prime project until you add the generated Interface Planner constraints script to your project. Interface Planner is only available in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software.

Table 1. Plan Tab Controls
Command Description
Lists legal locations for placement.
Locate Node Display a list of Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition tools where the selected design element is referrenced in the hierarchical database. If the Locate Node command is disabled for a specific element in the Design Elements list, it is because that element is not represented as an element in the design.
Autoplace All Attempts to place all unplaced design elements in legal locations in the interface plan.
Autoplace Fixed Attempts to place all unplaced design elements that have only one legal location into the interface plan.
Unplace All Unplaces all placed design elements in the interface plan.
Right-click > Auto-place selected element Attempts to place the selected design element and all its children in a legal location in the interface plan.
Chip View Displays the target device chip. Zoom in to display chip details.
Package View Displays the target device package. Zoom in to display chip details.
Show I/O Banks Selects and color codes the I/O banks in the Plan tab.
Show Differential Pin Pair Connections Displays a red connection line between a pair of differential pins. The Package View labels the positive and negative pins with the letters p and n, respectively.
Show PCIe Hard IP Interface Pins Selects and color codes the PCIe Hard IP interface pins in the Plan tab. To access this command, right-click in the Plan tab package view, and select x1 Lanes, x2 Lanes. x4 Lanes, x8 Lanes, or by 16 Lanes. After enabling, view or change color coding in the Color Legend.
Show DQ/DQS Pins Selects and color codes the PCIe Hard IP interface pins in the Plan tab. To access this command, right-click in the Plan tab package view, and select x4 Mode, x8/x9 Mode. x16/x16 Mode, or x32/x36 Mode. After enabling, view or change color coding in the Color Legend.
Right-click > Report Placeability of Selected Element Displays detailed information on the Reports tab, showing legal locations in the interface plan for the selected cell in order of suitability for fitting.
Copy Current View Copies the current interface plan to the clipboard for pasting into other files, such as word processing or presentation files.
Reset Plan Unplaces all placed design elements and removes applied project assignments from the interface plan. Resets all project assignments to the enabled state. You must subsequently run Update Plan prior to placing design elements. This command only applies to your interface plan and does not impact your Intel® Quartus® Prime project assignments until you apply the Interface Planner script.
Load Floorplan Allows you to select and load an Interface Planner Floorplan Format (.plan) file. You can save Interface Planner floorplan files in the format by clicking Save Floorplan.
Save Floorplan Allows you to save your Interface Planner floorplan as a .plan file.
Undo/Redo buttons The Undo button reverts the last change made in the Plan tab. Redo re-implements the last undo. Use these commands to step forward and backward though your plan changes.