Create Your First DaVinci Project

This section covers the creation of a DaVinci Project and leads you to the initial tasks afterwards.

The simplest way is to use the DaVinci Assistant to create your project and process your input files. It asks for everything it needs, calls the required tools in the right order, and writes a log of what it did.

Run dv-assistant.exe without arguments to pick your task from a menu interactively (the instructions below use targeted calls).

The DaVinci Assistant ships with DaVinci Configurator Classic so you do not need to install it separately. You find it in your installation directory as assistant\dv-assistant.exe. If you have not installed and activated DaVinci Configurator Classic yet, start with Installation and License Activation.

The DaVinci Assistant is currently available for Windows only.

If you want a detailed workflow guide, or you work on Linux, use one of the other creation methods instead.

Creating Your DaVinci Project

The DaVinci Assistant asks for everything it needs, so you start with a single command and answer its questions.

Prerequisites

  • A BSW Package R35 or newer is available on your machine.

  • DaVinci Developer Classic and vVIRTUALtarget are installed, if you plan on using them for your project.

Steps

  1. Open a terminal and start the DaVinci Assistant:

    $ dv-assistant.exe create

  2. Follow the dialog and answer the questions.

  3. Review the summary and confirm it.

Result

  • A <project name>.dvjson project in the directory you chose, ready to open.

  • A DaVinci Developer Classic workspace and a vVIRTUALtarget project, linked to your project, if you asked for them.

  • A log of the run in the .dv/assistant/logs directory of your project.

Adding Your Input Files

Your input files (.arxml, .dbc, .ldf, FIBEX .xml, .vsde, .cdd) describe your ECU data. The DaVinci Assistant converts them into a usable ECU extract, derives the ECU configuration from it, and updates your project in one run.

Prerequisites

  • A DaVinci Project exists.

  • Your input files are available on your machine.

  • Vector CANdelaStudio or DaVinci-AUTOSAR-JSON is installed, if you add .cdd files. Which one you need depends on the processing route you pick during the dialog, and either is enough on its own. We recommend CANdelaStudio.

Steps

  1. Start the DaVinci Assistant in a terminal:

    $ dv-assistant.exe update

  2. Follow the dialog and answer the questions.

  3. Review the summary and confirm it.

Result

  • An updated ECU configuration in your project.

  • A log of the run in the .dv/assistant/logs directory of your project.

The order of your input files matters. The DaVinci Assistant merges them in the order you enter them, so the same files in a different order can produce a different ECU configuration. Keep the order stable across updates, and the result stays reproducible.

To repeat an update with the same input files, run dv-assistant.exe update again in the directory of your DaVinci Project and confirm the files it remembers from the last run.

Behind the single update command sits a pipeline of several tools. Run those tools yourself when you need to inspect an intermediate result, or when you build your configuration in a CI pipeline.

Activating the Recommended Modules

Your input files describe only part of the MICROSAR Classic BSW, so the modules they say nothing about are still inactive. Activate the recommended configurations for the module clusters your project contains:

$ dvcfg-b project activate-rec-modules -p="/Path/To/Your/ProjectFile" -b="/Path/To/Your/BSW"

The DaVinci Assistant does not cover this step yet, so run it yourself before you continue.

From Here to Generated Code

Your project now holds an ECU configuration derived from your input files, which covers what those files describe. This is a starting point, not a finished configuration, so expect validation to report many findings at first. That is normal and not a sign that something went wrong. The steps below take you from here towards generated code, and how much work that is depends on your ECU.

Opening Your Project

Open your project to see the ECU configuration you just derived.

Run dv-assistant.exe file-assoc register on Windows to register the DaVinci Assistant on .dvjson files to open them directly from your explorer.

Open your DaVinci Project via:

$ dv-assistant.exe open

Find Out What Is Missing

Validation tells you what is still incomplete or inconsistent, and where possible it offers a solving action that fixes it for you, right in the GUI.

Complete Your Configuration

Add whatever your ECU needs beyond those, then work through the parameters until validation is clean. In case of questions, please also reach out to our support at support@vector.com.

Generate Your Code

Once validation reports nothing left to resolve, generation turns your configuration of the MICROSAR Classic BSW modules and the Runtime Environment into embedded code.

Run`dvcfg-b project generate -p="/Path/To/Your/ProjectFile" -b="/Path/To/Your/BSW"` to execute this via CLI.