ModelSim SE User's Manual - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Macros (DO files)
Creating DO files
ModelSim macros (also called DO files) are simply scripts that contain ModelSim and,
optionally, Tcl commands. You invoke these scripts with the Tools > Execute Macro
menu selection or the do command (CR-151).
Macros (DO files) UM-487
You can create DO files, like any other Tcl script, by typing the required commands in any
editor and saving the file. Alternatively, you can save the transcript as a DO file (see
"Saving the transcript file" (GR-16)).
All "event watching" commands (e.g. onbreak (CR-214), onerror (CR-216), etc.) must be
placed before run (CR-252) commands within the macros in order to take effect.
The following is a simple DO file that was saved from the transcript. It is used in the dataset
exercise in the ModelSim Tutorial. This DO file adds several signals to the Wave window,
provides stimulus to those signals, and then advances the simulation.
Using Parameters with DO files
add wave ld
add wave rst
add wave clk
add wave d
add wave q
force -freeze clk 0 0, 1 {50 ns} -r 100
force rst 1
force rst 0 10
force ld 0
force d 1010
onerror {cont}
run 1700
force ld 1
run 100
force ld 0
run 400
force rst 1
run 200
force rst 0 10
run 1500
You can increase the flexibility of DO files by using parameters. Parameters specify values
that are passed to the corresponding parameters $1 through $9 in the macro file. For
example say the macro "testfile" contains the line bp $1 $2. The command below would
place a breakpoint in the source file named design.vhd at line 127:
do testfile design.vhd 127
Deleting a file from a .do script
There is no limit on the number of parameters that can be passed to macros, but only nine
values are visible at one time. You can use the shift command (CR-266) to see the other
parameters.
To delete a file from a .do script, use the Tcl file command as follows:
file delete myfile.log
ModelSim SE User’s Manual