Patent ID: 8549454

Claim:
A method for propagating design constraints between a module and a module instance in a circuit design, comprising: on a programmed processor, performing operations including: for a port of the module and a corresponding pin of the module instance, determining a port/pin of the circuit design, between which and the port of the module design constraints are to be propagated, the determining including: determining whether or not the pin of the module instance is directly connected to a top-level port of the circuit design; in response to determining the pin of the module instance is directly connected to a top-level port of the circuit design, selecting the top-level port as the port/pin of the circuit design; and in response to determining the pin of the module instance is not directly connected to the top-level port of the circuit design, selecting the pin of the module instance as the port/pin of the circuit design; and propagating design constraints between the port of the module and the selected port/pin; wherein the propagating of the design constraints between the port of the module and the selected port/pin includes adding design constraints from the port of the module to the selected port/pin; wherein the propagating of the design constraints between the port of the module and the selected port/pin includes adding design constraints from the selected port/pin to the port of the module; and storing the propagated design constraints in a storage device.