Editor Components :: Simulink Basics (Using Simulink)

Using Simulink

Editor Components

The Simulink Editor includes the following components.

Menu Bar

The Simulink menu bar contains commands for creating, editing, viewing, printing, and simulating models. The menu commands apply to the model displayed in the editor. See Creating a Model and Running Simulations for more information.

Toolbar

The toolbar allows you to execute Simulink's most frequently used Simulink commands with a click of a mouse button. For example, to open a Simulink model, click the open folder icon on the toolbar. Letting the mouse cursor hover over a toolbar button or control causes a tooltip to appear. The tooltip describes the purpose of the button or control. You can hide the toolbar by clearing the Toolbar option on the Simulink View menu.

Canvas

The canvas displays the model's block diagram. The canvas allows you to edit the block diagram. You can use your system's mouse and keyboard to create and connect blocks, selelect and move blocks, edit block labels, display block dialog boxes, and so on. See Working with Blocks for more information.

Context Menus

Simulink displays a context-sensitive menu when you click the right mouse button over the canvas. The contents of the menu depend on whether a block is selected. If a block is selected, the menu displays commands that apply only to the selected block. If no block is selected, the menu displays commands that apply to a model or library as a whole.

Status Bar

The status bar appears only in the Windows version of the Simulink Editor. When a simulation is running, the status bar displays the status of the simulation, including the current simulation time and the name of the current solver. You can display or hide the status bar by selecting or clearing the Status Bar option on the Simulink View menu.

Undoing a Command

You can cancel the effects of up to 101 consecutive operations by choosing Undo from the Edit menu. You can undo these operations:

Adding, deleting, or moving a block
Adding, deleting, or moving a line
Adding, deleting, or moving a model annotation
Editing a block name
Creating a subsystem (see Undoing Subsystem Creation for more information)

You can reverse the effects of an Undo command by choosing Redo from the Edit menu.

Zooming Block Diagrams

Simulink allows you to enlarge or shrink the view of the block diagram in the current Simulink window. To zoom a view:

Select Zoom In from the View menu (or type r) to enlarge the view.
Select Zoom Out from the View menu (or type v) to shrink the view.
Select Fit System to View from the View menu (or press the space bar) to fit the diagram to the view.
Select Normal from the View menu to view the diagram at actual size.

By default, Simulink fits a block diagram to view when you open the diagram either in the model browser's content pane or in a separate window. If you change a diagram's zoom setting, Simulink saves the setting when you close the diagram and restores the setting the next time you open the diagram. If you want to restore the default behavior, choose Fit System to View from the View menu the next time you open the diagram.

Panning Block Diagrams

You can use the mouse to pan model diagrams that are too large to fit in the model editor's window. To do this, position the mouse over the diagram and hold down the left mouse button and the P or Q key on the keyboard. Moving the mouse now pans the model diagram in the editor window.

Simulink Editor Saving a Model