What’s New in Simulink in R2024a: Emojis!

Posted by Guy Rouleau, April 1, 2024

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MATLAB R2024a has been released recently, so I thought I should share my favorite new addition to Simulink: The ability to add emojis everywhere!

As you probably know, it has been possible for many releases now to include emojis in the comments of MATLAB code:

It is now possible to use emojis in Simulink too! 

Including Emojis in blocks and signal names

When you are editing the name of a block or an annotation, try hitting the shortcut "Win+." (or Cmd-Ctrl-Space for Mac OS) to launch the emoji dialog:

Those will not only show up in the editor canvas, they will follow along through your entire workflow.

Stateflow

Stateflow also supports emojis in comments:

Visualizing Signals

Let's look at simulation results in the Simulation Data Inspector:

Code Generation

If you generate code using Embedded Coder, emojis will show up in the generated comments:

Finder

The Finder also supports searching for emojis in a model:

Diagnostics Viewer

If you end up using emojis incorrectly, you will get a clear error. For example, I tried using the "automobile" emoji instead of typing "auto" for a configuration parameter. (Unfortunately we are not evaluating emojis yet... ☹️)

I get a clear error:

Now it's your turn!

Obviously, emojis are not the greatest addition in Simulink in R2024a... I will follow up in a few days with a post covering my real favorites of R2024a.

Final disclaimer for Simulink Check users: Before you start adding emojis everywhere in your Simulink models, you might want to know that they are not yet approved by the MathWorks Advisory Board Guidelines for blocks and signals names. Let us know in the comments below if you think they should!