[Project source code] Modify waveform display color based on FPGA Modelsim

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[Project source code] Modify waveform display color based on FPGA Modelsim [Copy link]

 

This article and design code were written by FPGA enthusiast Xiao Meige. Without the author's permission, this article is only allowed to be copied and reproduced on online forums, and the original author must be indicated when reprinting.

Why do we need to change the color?
Logic development engineers and students inevitably need to write design reports for the designed logic in their work and study. When writing design reports, simulation diagrams are often pasted into documents as a very useful content to illustrate the working sequence between various signals. Since the default color of Modelsim waveform display is to display green waveforms on a black background, the entire image is mainly black. Such a black-based image, when pasted into a document, will appear uneven in color due to excessive ink consumption when printed out, and when printed as a grayscale image, the contrast between green and black is low, which looks very laborious. Therefore, when writing document images, the waveform display color of Modelsim needs to be adjusted to a certain extent. For example, setting the background color to white and the waveform color to black to give it a higher contrast, it can also reduce the toner consumption when printing pictures, and make the picture quality higher.
Where to change the color
In the modelsim main interface menu, click [Tools]->[EditPreferences] menu in turn to open the configuration window. Note that it is in the modelsim main interface, not in the modelsim wave window. As shown in the figure below:

Select the Wave Windows option in the Window List on the left, then select a location where you want to change the color in the Wave Windows Color Scheme in the middle, and then click the corresponding color in the color palette on the right.

Which colors to change?
1. Set the waveform background window to white: waveBackground -> white
2. Set the background window of the signal name on the left to white: Background -> white
3. Set the text color of the signal name on the left to black: foreground -> black
4. Set the time indication color to black: timeColor–>black
5. Set the vector (multi-bit width signal) waveform color to black: vectorColor -> black
6. Set the color of all logic waveforms (single-bit signals) to black: LOGIC_0 and LOGIC_0 -> black
7. Set the text color displayed in the waveform to black: textColor -> black
8. Set the vertical grid color to gray (GRAY70): gridColoR –> gray

The final waveform style is shown in the figure below: