Converting an HDL-based design into an emulation system for design verification is an extremely complex and time-consuming task. One possible solution to improve productivity is an effective emulation-based design methodology that exploits the modularity of designs. This paper develops and explores such a methodology. We present a multi-level synthesis method which is able to establish a direct link between High-level Descriptive Language (HDL) constructs and corresponding circuit designs. This feature greatly facilitates HDL debugging capabilities such that when bugs are detected in sub-netlists, links allow the corresponding HDL source code to be easily recognized. This powerful feature greatly reduces design debugging time. Experimental results on a set of industrial designs are reported in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis methodology.