Qsys and incremental compilation

[Altera_Forum]

Hi all, 

I'm not familiar with incremental compilation. I wonder if it's possible to use it with hierarchical sub modules of Qsys ? Thanks

[Altera_Forum]

yes, try taking a look at the documentation and/or free online training 

 its pretty straight forward, after a compile you can open the Hierarchy window and start expanding the modules, find modules to make partitions, right click and make it so  in the Design Partitions window you can then define the netlist type for each partition (source files, post-fit, empty)

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you. 

I got confused, in fact there's no hierarchy in design partitions even if they're of hierarchical modules. I got compilation down from 8min only to 4min while sourcing 2% of the design and post-fitting 98% of it. But I guess incremental compilation is as more interesting as designs are bigger or harder to fit.

[Altera_Forum]

Incremental Compilation is not a magic bullet. it is a useful tool that may help reduce compile time, increase fmax, or help fitting in certain cases 

 there's probably a certain overhead that makes it more useful in longer compiles