MATLAB R2016b is available for download since yesterday, so today I decided to highlight the most visible enhancements in the Simulink area.

Property Inspector

From the View menu or using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I, you can launch the Property Inspector.

When selecting a block, the parameters that you normally view and set in mask dialogs are displayed and can be modified. This should make it easier and faster for you to see and modify block parameters.

Note that the Property Inspector is by default on the right of the canvas, but can be dragged at the bottom, right, or top if you prefer.

Model Data Editor

With the same goal of making it easier to access and configure models, we also added the Model Data Editor.

In a table, it gives have access to all the parameters, signal and data stores in a subsystem. For example, in the Signals tab, you can enable/disable logging, or set the code generation properties of all your signals.

Just-in-Time Acceleration builds

Before R2016b, we used to generate C code and create a MEX-file for model running in accelerator mode. As we did for Stateflow in R0215a, Simulink now uses a Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation technology to improve initialization time of models running in accelerator mode.

It will probably go so fast that you will not be able to see it, but you might notice the following status in your model while Simulink is "jitting" your model:

Updated fonts and block icons

Here is a comparison using a few blocks between R2016a and R2016b.

Edit-Time Checks

If we can detect it, why wait for you to click the play button to tell you that there is a problem?

In R2016b, you might notice new colors and exclamation marks on GoTo, From and Data Store Memory blocks if we detect mismatch or duplicates.

Now it's your turn

Give a look at the R2016b release notes and let us know which new feature or enhancement you prefer or would like to read about on this blog.