Cannot Export Multisim PLD Design to LabVIEW FPGA

Updated Dec 22, 2021

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW FPGA Module

Driver

  • Digital Systems Development Board Driver for LabVIEW

Issue Details

In Multisim, I navigate to Transfer >> Export to PLD, select the Program the connected PLD option, and press Next. In the Select a tool to use area, when I try to select the latest version of NI LabVIEW FPGA Xilinx Tools for Vivado that I have installed on my computer, it lists it as unsupported and shows the following text under the Device area after pressing Refresh button:

Not connected or drivers not installed - MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS

Solution

  1. Please refer to this document to confirm that your driver installation is correct. The latest version of Multisim, released with NI Circuit Design Suite 14.1 in February 2017, is only compatible up to LabVIEW 2015 SP1 FPGA Module Xilinx Tools Vivado 2014.4. This means you will receive this message if you attempt to use a version of the Xilinx Compilation Tools for Vivado newer than 2014.4.  Since multiple versions of the Xilinx Compilation Tools can exist on one computer, simply install and select a compatible version to continue exporting the PLD design.
  2. Check the hardware connection of ELVIS and DSDB. 
  • Check if the ELVIS power cable is connected to the power supply interface and whether the USB data cable is properly connected to the PC.
  • Check if the UART interface on the DSDB board is connected to the PC USB interface.
  • Check if the power switches on the ELVIS and DSDB board are turned on separately.
The UART interface on DSDB and power switches of DSDB and ELVIS are all marked in the figure below.