MATLAB R2011b is available for download since midnight September 1, 2011!

Each new release brings some excitement, but for me this one is especially exciting. I have been waiting for a long time to talk about a great new feature: Simulink Projects.

Why Simulink Projects?

Since as far as I can remember, Simulink users always had concerns about how to best use Model-Based Design within a collaborative environment. Simulink Projects is designed to answer questions like:

• How to componentize your design?
• How to facilitate peer review workflows?
• How to do configuration management within Simulink?
• How to integrate with external data management tools?
• How to make it easy for everyone on the team to work in the same way?
• How to access standard tools and libraries across the company?
• How to create a more efficient team-working environment?

Enough said about what it is supposed to do... let's see what it looks like.

What is Simulink Projects?

The fundamental concept behind Simulink Projects is to create a standardized environment accessible by all members of a team, making collaborative workflows in Model-Based Design easier and more efficient.

To get started, you can look at an example project by executing the following command:

The Simulink Project window will be launched:

As you can guess just by looking at this image, the Simulink Project window allows you to:

• Collect, organize and view all the files in your project.
• Create shortcuts to run frequent tasks.
• Quickly identify modified files.
• Launch a dependency analysis.
• Add labels to files, for example to tag a file for review.
• Interface with source control software, such as Apache™ Subversion® (SVN)

and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

How to learn more about Simulink Projects?

To learn more about Simulink Projects, I recommend watching this introduction video:

You can also visit the Simulink Projects website at:

https://www.mathworks.com/products/simulink/simulink-projects/

If you decide to give it a try, you can find the complete documentation here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2011b/toolbox/simulink/ug/bs13huh.html

Now it's your turn!

What are your first impressions of Simulink Projects? Would you be interested to see a series of posts on collaborative workflows in Model-Based Design?

I would be really interested to hear how you currently manage your Simulink files, and if you think Simulink Projects could help you.

Please, leave a comment here.