Get attribute of a field from a VHDL record type
<p>Consider the following VHDL record:</p>

<pre><code>type big_record_t is record
    field_a : unsigned(15 downto 0);
    field_b : unsigned(23 downto 0);
end record;
</code></pre>

<p>Is it possible to get attributes on the record fields <strong>without</strong> instantiating the record itself? eg</p>

<pre><code>signal ex : unsigned(big_record_t.field_a'range);
</code></pre>

<p>modelsim reports the following error:</p>

<pre><code>(vcom-1260) Type mark (big_record_t) cannot be prefix of selected name.
</code></pre>

<p>I know that getting the attribute of a instantiated signal is possible but for this specific situation I want to get the type attributes from the type itself.</p>