Guy on Simulink

Simulink & Model-Based Design

Simulink Review Manager

I have not been blogging in the last few months, I apologize for that. With MATLAB R2021b now available, I am getting back in the blogging business!
Before highlighting new R2021b features, I decided to take a step back and highlight a feature that I am afraid went a bit unnoticed in R2021a, the Simulink Review Manager.
If you have never used the Simulink Review Manager, try launching it right now by searching for it in the Actions menu (You can launch the Actions menu by hitting the shortcut "Ctrl+." in a model. This is my new favorite way to find and launch any Simulink-related app):

Adding Comment to Blocks

Starting in R2021a, after launching the Review Manager, you will notice a new "Add Comment" option when selecting blocks:
Clicking "Add Comment" launches the Comments panel and adds a new comment associated with the selected block where you can type your comment.
The first time a comment is added to a model, a file named "modelname_comments.mldatx" will be created in the same folder as the model. This happens when you close the model. If you are working in a Project, don't forget to add the comments file to the project!

Collaborate Using Comments

If you are collaborating on a project as a team, comments are very useful to exchange ideas and perform design reviews. In the following image, I have a Project under source control, and I have been collaborating with my colleague Reid using comments. The screenshot shows what I saw when I retrieved Reid's last commit. Comments that are grayed out have been marked as resolved.

Managing Comments

If you receive a model with open comments, you will notice a badge at the bottom
Once the Comments panel is opened, you can hover over individual comments and see hyperlinks to edit, reply, resolve, etc.
If there is no open comment, you can also open the Review Manager perspective from the same menu as the other perspectives at the bottom right of the canvas.
ReviewManager.gif

Now it's your turn

In the current version, it is possible to associate review comments to Simulink blocks. We are looking into adding capability to associate comments with other model elements and we would be interested to hear what you would like to see added.
In the comments below or in the poll you can see on the left of this blog post, let us know what you would like to see being added, or what you think of the Review Manager in general.
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