The Hierarchy Diagram depicts the structure of a hierarchical design. Hierarchy diagrams are a useful for understanding the top-level structure of an unfamiliar design and make a great addition to top-level design documentation.

An example hierarchy diagram is shown below.

Hierarchy Diagrams can only be generated for a component. It is most useful for top-level components and totally unhelpful if the design contains no instantiated components.

The hier command provides options to control how Hierarchy diagrams are generated. However, the hier command defaults are usually sufficient, so X-Amin provides a Quick Hierarchy Diagram function.

To perform a Quick Flow on a component, select the component in the Components Window, press the right mouse button. On the Components popup menu, select Hierarchy.

To set the hier command options when generating a Hierarchy Diagram, select the component in the Components Window and use the Diagram menu (Diagram->Hierarchy...) or the Hierarchy icon in the Diagram toolbar. The Hierarchy Diagram Options dialog will appear:

Title: Specifies the Hierarchy Diagram title. Windows are identified by their titles which must be unique. The default title is the component name.

 

hierarchy Command

Hierarchy diagrams can also be generated using the hierarchy command entered in the GUI Command Entry box or on the command line in command-line mode. The hierarchy command format is:

SYNTAX
 (void) hier
   [-text]
   [-title <title>]
   [<namespace>...]
   

ARGUMENTS
 -text In GUI mode, output results as text, not in a Hier­
   archy Window. Ignored in command-line mode.

 -title <title>
   Specifies the Hierarchy Diagram title. Windows are
   identified by their titles which must be unique.
   The default title is the component name.

 <namespace>
   Produce a hierarchy diagram for the specified
   namespace(s). If no namespaces are specified, pro­
   duce a hierarchy diagram for the current scope.
   

Interpreting a Hierarchy Diagram

The hierarchy representation in a Hierarchy Diagram is straightforward. Each block in the diagram represents a component instance in the design. Instantiated blocks appear inside the block in which they are instantiated. Each block is labeled with the Instance name and with the component name in parenthesis.

 

Hierarchy Diagram Customizations

The Hierarchy Preferences page (Edit->Preferences or the Preferences icon in the Edit toolbar) provides numerous controls for configuring the appearance of Hierarchy Diagrams. The Hierarchy Preferences page is partitioned into 2 categories: General and Symbols.

The Hierarchy General preferences page, shown below, controls the diagram layout and symbol style.

Orientation: Hierarchy diagrams can be oriented Left-to-Right or Top-to-Bottom

Filled Symbols: Select this control to produce solid color hierarchy symbols.

Shadowed Symbols: Select this control to produce a shadowing or 3-D effect on the hierarchy symbols.

Horizontal Spacing: The number entered in this control specifies the horizontal distance between hierarchy symbols.

Vertical Spacing: The number entered in this control specifies the vertical distance between hierarchy symbols.

 

The Hierarchy Symbols preferences page, shown below, controls the colors of the Hierarchy symbols.

To change a symbol color, simply select the color button which will invoke the color dialog. From the color dialog select the desired color.