Later versions (2017+, 2020+) would sand down the rough edges. They added intelligent optimization wizards, better GUI responsiveness, and integration with Vitis. But in doing so, they also hid the machinery. Vivado 2015.1 still showed you the gears. When it failed — and it failed often — it failed loudly . A cryptic Drc-23 error meant you actually had to understand the physical layout of your LUTs and flip-flops. There was no "auto-fix." There was only you, the datasheet, and a deep, grudging respect for the silicon.
Do not attempt to open a 2015.1 project directly in 2020+ Vivado; it will corrupt the constraint files. vivado 2015.1
Vivado 2015.1 sits exactly at the fault line. It is neither the buggy, ambitious 2012 release nor the mature, almost-boring 2019 version. It is the adolescent Vivado: powerful enough to change the world, unstable enough to break your heart at 2 AM. Later versions (2017+, 2020+) would sand down the
It is important to note that this version lacked native support for the later UltraScale+ (16nm) or Versal devices, which would appear in subsequent toolchain updates. Consequently, for modern cutting-edge hardware, this version is obsolete. However, for long-life products based on the Zynq-7000 or Virtex-7, 2015.1 remains a highly capable tool. Vivado 2015
AMD-Xilinx maintains a (requires a free account). To get 2015.1: