[jmrm]

AFAIK there is no similar experience between programs, and the only thing in common is the base code, because depending on how the device and the tooling is, you need not only to configure which device are going to be used and how this will be used, but also you might need to create/edit manually files to link some inputs, outputs, and clocks.

In this matter my "real" experiences using Xilinx ISE and Xilinx Vivado, and the "virtual" ones are using the Mentor Graphics ModelSim, all of them using VHDL. Maybe in other suites, or using SystemC or SystemVerilog there are other experience, but I understand something so niche like this have this kind of quirks.