Downloading Third-Party Board Files from GitHub Using the GUI - 2020.2 English

Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Designing IP Subsystems Using IP Integrator (UG994)
Document ID
UG994
Release Date
2021-01-04
Version
2020.2 English
Third-party board files or even Xilinx provided board files that are not natively supported in Vivado can be downloaded from the GitHub using the GUI. The Default Boards Page of the New Project Wizard has a mechanism to download the board files available on the GitHub. To download boards click Install/Update Boards on the top right corner of the Default Part page.
Figure 1. Download Third-Party Board Files from GitHub
The Download Latest Boards dialog box opens. Click Download.
Figure 2. Download Latest Boards
The first time you download the boards from the GitHub you will download the entire repository available. Subsequent downloads will only download the boards that are new and have not been previously downloaded. As the boards are being downloaded you will see messages such as the following on the Tcl Console.
INFO: [Common 17-1570] Installing object em.avnet.com:xilinx_board_store:Ultra96:1.2 from remote host https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore.git
INFO: [Common 17-1573] Object em.avnet.com:xilinx_board_store:Ultra96:1.2 has been installed successfully.
INFO: [Common 17-1570] Installing object em.avnet.com:xilinx_board_store:picozed_7010_fmc2:1.2 from remote host https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore.git
INFO: [Common 17-1573] Object em.avnet.com:xilinx_board_store:picozed_7010_fmc2:1.2 has been installed successfully.
INFO: [Common 17-1570] Installing object digilentinc.com:xilinx_board_store:arty:1.1 from remote host https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore.git
INFO: [Common 17-1573] Object digilentinc.com:xilinx_board_store:arty:1.1 has been installed successfully.
INFO: [Common 17-1570] Installing object digilentinc.com:xilinx_board_store:arty-a7-100:1.0 from remote host https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore.git
INFO: [Common 17-1573] Object digilentinc.com:xilinx_board_store:arty-a7-100:1.0 has been installed successfully.
INFO: [Common 17-1570] Installing object digilentinc.com:xilinx_board_store:arty-a7-35:1.0 from remote host https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore.git

These boards are downloaded to the default locations which are as follows:

  • On Linux - <user home directory>/.Xilinx/Vivado/20xx.x/xhub/board_store/
  • On Windows - %APPDATA%\Roaming\Xilinx\20xx.x\xhub\board_store\

Once the boards have been download the repository path to the download location is set automatically and the downloaded boards are now visible in the Default Part page. You can then select the target board and create your project.