pixhdl

A command-line tool that produces graphical representations of entities from VHDL source files.

examples

simple entity (ALU)

Source:

library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
 
 
entity ALU is
    port (
        OP : in std_logic_vector (1 downto 0);
        A, B : in std_logic_vector (31 downto 0);
        O : out std_logic_vector (31 downto 0);
        N : out std_logic
    );
end entity;
 
...

Output:

entity with generic inputs (MUX)

Source:

library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
 
 
entity MUX is
    generic (
        N : integer range 0 to 32
    );
    port (
        A, B : in std_logic_vector (N - 1 downto 0);
        COM : in std_logic;
        Y : out std_logic_vector (N - 1 downto 0)
    );
end entity;
 
...

Output:

how to use pixhdl

Pixhdl takes in a .vhd/.vdhl source file and generates an SVG image as an output.

For example, running

$ pixhdl my_vhdl_source.vhdl

will generate a file called my_vhdl_source.svg in the same directory as the source file.

If you want to specify where the output file should be created and how it should be called, you can run:

$ pixhdl my_vhdl_source.vhdl -o ~/my_entity_diagram.svg
$ # you can also do:
$ # pixhdl -o ~/my_entity_diagram.svg my_vhdl_source.vhdl

This will generate an image called my_entity_diagram.svg in your home directory (~/).

To get an exhaustive list of arguments, you can run:

$ pixhdl -h

how to install pixhdl

In order to install pixhdl, get the latest release, decompress it, cd into it, then run:

$ make
$ sudo make install

That will install pixhdl on your computer. You can verify that the installation was successful by running:

$ pixhdl -v

This command will show the current version of pixhdl installed on your computer.

how to uninstall pixhdl

In order to uninstall pixhdl, you have to cd into the folder you got from when you installed it. If you no longer have that folder, you can just download the latest release, decompress it, and cd into that.

Once you're into your pixhdl/ folder, you can run:

$ sudo make uninstall

That will uninstall pixhdl from your computer if it was previously installed.

further documentation

To read up on more detailed documentation, you can go on pixhdl's official site.

Or if you prefer, you can generate the docs locally with doxygen:

$ doxygen

The docs will be generated in the docs/doxygen/ directory. Open the docs/doxygen/html/index.html file and read away!