In this procedure, we show you how to use MxTransIt to create a Test Harness with multiple Virtual MicroControllers.  For an example of a completed project, see the Multi-VMC sample project.

To work with an MxVMC, the version of the MxSuite you are using must be set as the current version. If you are not sure, use one of the procedures in Set Current Version.

hmtoggle_plus11. Create the Project

1.Create a new project in MxVDev.  Follow the wizard until you see this form:

SelectSUT

2.Select Custom SUT and MxClock. For information on clocks, see Real Time/Accelerated Time.
 
If you are using only one VMC, you can select SIL using the MxVMC.

3.Check Start MxTransIt on Finish.

4.Click the Finish button.  MxTransIt opens.

Note: If your project contains more than one VMC, create a subfolder for each VMC:  

a.Use Windows Explorer to navigate to your Project folder and click the new folder button (NewFolder-btn).

b.Create a new folder for each VMC to be created.  In this example, we use folders One and Two.

c.After you've created the folders, return to MxTransIt.
hmtoggle_plus12. Create the VMCs

Select the compiler to use:

1.Be sure all the requirements have been satisfied.

2.Type VMC in the Filter box at the top of the Toolbox on the left of the screen to find the Virtual Microcontroller Transform. Double-click to put it into the Harness window.

3.Click the VMC Transform to select it, then set the SUT File Path to the location of your build output.

4.Set the Build System property to Msys2:

VMC-GCC

5.In the same property, click the 3-dots (3dots_button) to open the Build Configuration dialog:

VMC-BuildConfiguration

6.Set the Makefile Location to the path of your Make file.

7.Click OK.

 

1.Type VMC in the Filter box at the top of the Toolbox on the left of the screen to find the Virtual Microcontroller Transform. Double-click to put it into the Harness window.

2.Click the Create VMC Visual Studio Solution verb at the bottom of the Properties box.

MV-newproject-marked

3.Navigate to the folder you created.  In this example, One.
 
If you are testing an AUTOSAR system, see AUTOSAR Testing.

4.Click the Select button to launch Visual Studio.

If Visual Studio does not open, see Visual Studio and MxVDev.

5.Disconnect the Harness.

6.Select Build->Rebuild Solution from the Visual Studio main menu.

•If the build fails due to open files, either close MxVDev or disconnect the Harness.  This prevents file conflicts between MSVC and MxVDev such as the following:
 
error LNK1104: cannot open file '../MxVTarget.sut'
 
1>LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file '../MxVTarget.sut'

•If the build fails due to missing header files, in MSVC, check Tools‑>Options‑>Projects And Solutions->VC++ Directories and ensure there are entries for MxVDev\Harness\include and MxVDev\Harness\lib respectively.  If the entries are missing, close MSVC and run the MxVSDK tool located in the bin folder in the MxSuite Installation Folder.

•0,VisualStudio,Make sure Visual Studio 9.0 (2008) is installed,Failed to build Visual Studio Solution: \mxsuitesamples\turndoorsample\SUT\MxVDev90.sln
 
This or a similar error indicates that you have a version of Visual Studio newer than the version used to build the sample solution. Use the Launch Project verb to open a supported version of MSVC. Run the conversion wizard. Future builds will use your current version without need for the conversion wizard.

•1>LINK_ORIG : fatal error LNK1207: incompatible PDB format in 'C:\Users\paulm\Documents\MxSuiteSamples\TurnDoorSample\SUT\MxVTarget.pdb'; delete and rebuild
 
If you see this error message, delete the MxVTarget.pdb file from the folder specified in the error message. Rebuild your solution.

•0,Visual Studio,Visual Studio installation version mismatch,Cannot detect solution version VisualStudioVersion2015, falling back to use the latest version installed.
 
See Retargeting a Visual Studio Solution.

•C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(44,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for v141 (Platform Toolset = 'v141') cannot be found. To build using the v141 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install v141 to build using the v141 build tools. [C:\Users\paulm\Documents\+MxVProjects\GuidedDemo\SUT\MSVC\MxVTarget.vcxproj]

This error indicates that you did not save your solution after retargeting. See Retargeting a Visual Studio Solution.

•For more information, see Visual Studio and MxVDev.

7.When the build has completed successfully, exit Visual Studio.

8.Use the Name field in the Properties box to choose an appropriate name for the new transform.  In this example we used VMC One.

9.In the Properties Box, set the Signal Dictionary File Path.  Navigate to your Single Dictionary file in the Project folder--not in the subfolder you created for the VMC. The file name ends in .mxd.

10.Click the Connect/Reconnect verb at the bottom of the Properties box to display the predefined ports.

MV_connect

11.Repeat this procedure for each VMC to be used in your project.  In this example, we create two VMCs, named VMC One and VMC Two.

To avoid confusion, you may want to rename some of the ports in the C source code so that the signal names are unique.

 
hmtoggle_plus13. Create the Ports

There are 3 ways to add ports to a VMC:

•AUTOSAR - If your SWC is AUTOSAR-compliant and ARXML files are available, the VMC can automatically generate the Harness. See AUTOSAR Testing.

•Guided Harnessing - Use the Guided Harnessing tool to select the Signals to use for testing the SWC.

•Manually - The AppIF.c is a C code file and can be written or revised by a programmer. This may be the best way when working with an existing project or a non-standard interface. For details, see Manual Harnessing.

The Guided Harness tool automatically identifies inputs, outputs, and methods that can be used as ports on a VMC Transform. It also provides a dialog for selecting ports to use and specifying their properties. For more detailed instructions, see Guided Harnessing.

Before using the Guided Harness tool on your own project, we recommend harnessing the TurnDoorSampleAutoTick sample project.

The following requirements must be satisfied before using the Guided Harness tool:

•The AppIF files must be in the form created by the Create VMC Visual Studio Solution verb.

•The solution must use the same directory structure as the Create VMC Visual Studio Solution verb:

VisualStudio-DirectoryStructure

•The solution must build with no errors. For guidelines on preparing the code, see Linking your code with the MxVMC and Modifying Application Code for Harnessing.

For more detailed instructions, see Guided Harnessing.

Click the Guided Harness verb in the VMC's properties.

VMC-GuidedHarnessVerb-marked

Select Signals Dialog

To add a port, select it in the Available list, and click Add. To remove a port, select it in the Selected list and click Remove.

VMC-SelectSignals

Setting Properties

Name - The name of the Signal. By default, this is the name of the variable or task in the C code.

In/Out - The direction of the port, input or output.

Type - The type of the port. These options correspond to Signal Classifications: Discrete, Continuous (Fixed Point), Continuous (Floating Point), TaskInfo (Event)

The following properties must be specified for numeric Signals:

Init - The initial value of the port.

Min - The minimum value of the port.

Max - The maximum value of the port.

The following properties must be specified for task Signals:

Mode - Controls how the task is called (ticked): Call From Test Case (using a Task Signal) or Call Automatically. If Call Automatically is selected, you must specify an AutoTick Rate.

AutoTick Rate - Specify how often the task is called in milliseconds.

In case of problems, see Troubleshooting Guided Harnessing.

To add new ports to your VMC, you need to add code to the AppIF.c file in your MSVC project. There are two ways:

This is the recommended method.

Create a user-defined function named MxVRegisterPortDefinitions()in the AppIF.c file. This function is called during SUT loading. Use the functions described in Port Registration to define ports on the VMC. For more examples, see the VMCPortDefinitions sample project.

 
hmtoggle_plus1PortDefs (deprecated)

This method is supported for backward compatibility only. It is not recommended for new projects.

1.In MxTransIt, select your VMC, then click Launch Project in the Properties box to start Visual Studio.

2.In Main.h, locate the existing declarations, and add a declaration for the C variable associated with your new port.  The code should look something like this:

extern uint8 InVal;

extern uint8 OutVal;

extern float NewPort; //this line was added

Your code may be different if you use a different name or data type.

3.Locate the PortDefs array near the end of the AppIF.c file.

4.Add a new line defining your new port.  The definitions of the port types are in the comments just above the PortDefs array. The code should look something like this:

Created in MxTransIt

Created with the New Project Wizard SIL Option

const t_SigDesc PortDefs[] = 

{

INPUT_BOOL("InVal", InVal, 0)

OUTPUT_BOOL("OutVal", OutVal, 0)

OUTPUT_FLOAT("NewPort", NewPort, 0, 100, 0) //this line was added

};

const t_SigDesc PortDefs[] =

{

INPUT_BOOL(InVal, 0)

OUTPUT_BOOL(OutVal, 0)

OUTPUT_FLOAT(NewPort, 0, 100, 0) //this line was added

};

5.Repeat steps 2 and 4 for each port to be added.

6.Build the MSVC project.

7.When the build is successful, close Visual Studio.

8.In MxTransIt, select the VMC.

9.In the Properties box, click Connect/Reconnect to show the ports on the VMC Transform.

For more detail on harnessing, see Linking your code with the MxVMC.
hmtoggle_plus14. Export the Ports

There are two ways to export ports from an MxVMC:

To export VMC ports automatically, set the Auto Export Signals property to True. The default is False. When this option is set, all ports not already exported or connected are exported.

VMC-AutoExportproperty

You can also set this option from the Project Settings command in MxVDev. This eliminates the need to open MxTransIt. To connect the ports from MxVDev, use these steps:

1.Disconnect the Harness.

2.Use the Build or Rebuild All verbs to rebuild the VMC.

3.Reconnect the Harness.

Note: If you use this procedure, the mxform file is not saved. To work with the VMC in MxTransIt, click the Connect/Reconnect verb (in MxTransIt) and save the Harness.

1.Select Transform->Export Ports from the main menu:

MV_export

2.Check the ports you wish to export to MxVDev.  Click OK.

3.Click Save to save your Harness.

4.Select File->Exit from the main menu to close MxTransIt.  

5.Return to MxVDev.

6.When you see the reload message, click Yes.

GST_Reload

For more information, see Exporting Ports.
hmtoggle_plus15. Connect the Signals

Use the procedure in Connecting Signals to connect the ports to MxVDev.

 

hmtoggle_plus1Properties

Use the Properties box to set properties which control the behavior of the MxVMC:

IsSut

By default, IsSut = True and the MxVMC is a Connector Transform. All Connector Transforms in the Test Harness logically execute in parallel. Interconnections between Connector Transforms require a Delay Transform.

Set IsSut to False to treat the MxVMC as a Signal Processing Transform. SP Transforms are ticked sequentially. Inport values are read and outport values are transmitted in a single tick.

Auto Export Signals

Use this property to choose the method of exporting ports: manual or automatic. False (manual) is the default.

 

Related Topics:

Exporting Ports

Using the Signal Dictionary

Connecting Signals

Linking your code with the MxVMC