[Feature Request] Preserve hwdef in DCP file

[nqdtan]

RapidWright currently does not preserve a *.hwdef file (if it exists) in a Design checkpoint file. What happened was that I imported a DCP file produced by RapidWright to Vivado in order to generate a bitstream with the command write_device_image. I then met the following error message in Vivado

ERROR: [DRC CIPS-2] Versal CIPS exists check - wdi: Versal designs must contain a CIPS IP in the netlist hierarchy to function properly. Please create an instance of the CIPS IP and configure it. Without a CIPS IP in the design, Vivado will not generate a CDO for the PMC, an elf for the PLM.

By some investigations, I found that this error is due to the missing of a hwdef file in the DCP. I tried adding one (from the original design checkpoint) manually by compressing a new DCP with zip (plus inserting a HWDEF entry to the dcp.xml file) and was able to generate bitstream. Attached is a DCP sample generated by Vitis 2021.2 that has a hwdef file.

I think it would be convenient if future RapidWright version preserves hwdef file when writing out DCP.
DCP Sample with HWDEF

[clavin-xlnx]

Thanks @nqdtan - I have a fix in the works and it will be in the next release. I will reference this post when it is available.

[clavin-xlnx]

@nqdtan fix in the new branch 2022.2.1, if you get a chance, give it a try and let us know if there are any other issues. Thanks!

[nqdtan]

This is working well without any issues. Thanks Chris!