Filtering Warning/Info Messages in ISE

Introduction 

After executing some of the available processes in the ISE environment, various and numerous messages are generated. These messages let the designer know the “health” of the project. In some cases, you may want to suppress a particular message from appearing in the “Errors and Warnings Report”. For example, you may get a Warning message about unconnected pins that you intend to be unconnected. ISE allows you to suppress, actually filter, a particular message from subsequent runs of the software. The tool you can use for this purpose is the “Message Filters”.

Messages That Can Be Filtered

Not all the message generated by the different processes can be filtered. You can filter messages that begin with "WARNING" or "INFO" and are followed by a library name and message number. For example, the following message can be filtered:

In this Warning message, Xst is the library name, and 2677 is the warning message number.

Note: ERROR messages cannot be filtered. Likewise, messages for some processes cannot be filtered (for example, messages generated by third-party software, such as the Synopsys software). Anyway, if you try to filter a message that cannot be filtered, a dialog box will come up stating that the message cannot be filtered.

Procedures to Filter Messages in ISE

1. Once you have your project open, enable message filtering as follows:
• Open the Design Summary pane by doing Project -> Design Summary/Reports.
• In the upper pane of the Design Summary, in the Design Overview, select Summary.
• In the button pane of the Design Summary, select Enable Message Filtering.
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• Note: it is also possible to enable message filtering from the project properties options available at: Project -> Design Properties in the Project Settings pane.

1. In the Processes pane of Project Navigator, run the process which generate the messages to be filtered. For instance execute the Synthesize-XST process.
2. In the Design Summary pane, and in the option Errors and Warnings, select the process that generate the messages to be filtered, for instance select Synthesis Messages to filter the messages generated by the synthesis tool. Then, in the main Project Navigator window all the Warnings, Infos and Errors messages related to the synthesis tool should be displayed
3. To select which messages should be filtered, in the pane listing all the messages highlight (left mouse click) the message to be filtered. If there are several messages of the same type, just select one. Then right-click on the message to filter, and select:
• Filter All Instances of This Message - to filter out all messages with the same library name and message number, regardless of the message text.
• Note: there is another options in the filtering menu:
• Filter This Instance Only - to filter out all messages with the same library name, message number, and text. This option is for just one message in particular, for instance for a specific bit of a bus.
4. Just to be sure the filter has been correctly setting up, do Edit -> Message Filters, a new window will come up in which the selected Warning/Info to be filtered will be detailed. 
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5. In this window you can:
• Remove the filter: right-click the filter and select Remove, or click the Remove filter(s) button.
• Temporarily disable a filter, right-click the filter and select Disable.
• Activate a disabled filter, right click the Enable.
6. Re-run the process generating the messages to be filtered. Then, from both the console as well as from the Error and Warning pane the messages should be filtered.

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7. Note: Still the filtered messages are available. Select All Implementation Messages under the Errors and Warnings option in the Design Summary pane. The filtered messages will be displayed with a Yes in the Filtered column.

Caution! 

When you suppress a message, it does not fix the issue. 

Do not filter messages for issues that must be fixed. 

Filter when you know what you are doing. Then, you can focus in warnings that you do need to fix.