Digilent provides board files for the Arty S7, and instructions to make them available for Vivado. What they don't mention is: what if you already have board files for another vendor?
It's not complex. With a little trial and error I got it working.
Context:
- I have board files for a Pynq Z2 board in folder C:\Xilinx\pynq-z2\A.0
- My Vivado_init.tcl file has this entry: set_param board.repoPaths [list "C:/Xilinx/pynq-z2/A.0"]
- The board files for the Arty S7 are here: C:\Users\jancu\Documents\git\git_digilent\vivado-boards\new\board_files
I couldn't find an example with more than one board directory online, so I was doubting between 3 options:
- (wrong) add a new set_param board.repoPaths entry for the directory with Digilent board definitions
- (wrong) add an additional [list "C:/Users/jancu/Documents/git/git_digilent/vivado-boards/new/board_files"] parameter behind the existing one.
- (correct) add the second folder to the existing list: [list "C:/Xilinx/pynq-z2/A.0" "C:/Users/jancu/Documents/git/git_digilent/vivado-boards/new/board_files"]
Option 3 is the one that worked. Content of %AppData%\Roaming\Xilinx\Vivado\Vivado_init.tcl:
set_param board.repoPaths [list "C:/Xilinx/pynq-z2/A.0" "C:/Users/jancu/Documents/git/git_digilent/vivado-boards/new/board_files"]
Result: the Digilent boards are available, next to the existing Zynq board I added before.
If, like in the image above, the Arty S7-50 doesn't appear, it's possible that the FPGA device isn't installed in your Vivado. Check the log files (in %AppData%\Roaming\Xilinx\Vivado) for this message: WARNING: [Board 49-26] cannot add Board Part digilentinc.com:arty-s7-50:part0:1.1 available at C:/Users/jancu/Documents/git/git_digilent/vivado-boards/new/board_files/arty-s7-50/B.0/board.xml as part xc7s50csga324-1 specified in board_part file is either invalid or not available.
If you know how to add a device, do it. If you have a Vivado installation that you've patched for the log4j vulnerability, things can get a bit tricky. Check this follow-up post: Add Spartan-7 to an existing, log4j patched Vivado installation.
