{"id":16,"date":"2008-05-30T14:30:16","date_gmt":"2008-05-30T19:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2008\/05\/30\/tips-on-how-to-use-simulink-more-efficiently\/"},"modified":"2008-05-30T14:40:04","modified_gmt":"2008-05-30T19:40:04","slug":"tips-on-how-to-use-simulink-more-efficiently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2008\/05\/30\/tips-on-how-to-use-simulink-more-efficiently\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips on how to use Simulink more efficiently"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If I am not in a meeting, I am generally at my desk. I often\r\nspend the whole day in front of a computer.  Because so much of my time is\r\nspent with a hand on the keyboard, I look for all those tricks that make my\r\nwork more efficient.  I could tell you about the way I have customized my\r\nWindows environment, but this is a Simulink blog, so let me tell you how I\r\nbuild models faster.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/AtMyDesk.png\" alt=\"Seth at his desk\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Building Models<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Tip: Collect, and then connect.  <\/b>When building a\r\ndiagram, collect all the blocks you think you need, and then connect them\r\ntogether.  Dragging most of the blocks you need from the library onto the\r\ncanvas gives you a chance to pre-organize you diagram.  As you start connecting\r\nthe blocks, you can focus on how to lay things out to make it easy to\r\nunderstand.  Remember, collect, and then connect.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Collect blocks on the canvas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/vdpCollect.png\" alt=\"Collect blocks\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Connect them together to form the equations for your system.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/vdpConnectDiag.png\" alt=\"Connect blocks\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Tip: Use Control-Click to connect blocks<\/b>. Most\r\neveryone has seen this dialog in Simulink:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/controlClickMessage.png\" alt=\"Control click Simulink tip\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This showed up in R13 Simulink around 2002 when the\r\nCtrl-Click method for connecting blocks debuted.  Connecting from one output to\r\none input is the obvious application.   The more efficient methods of using\r\nthis involve connecting many blocks to one block in a single click.  I use this\r\nwhen I have to wire many blocks to a bus.  For example, think of connecting\r\nmany blocks to one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>First, select the many blocks using a drag select or shift\r\nselect each block.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/selectManyBlocks.png\" alt=\"Selecting many blocks\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Next, Ctrl-Click on the one block you want to connect all of\r\nthese to, simultaneously.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2008Q2\/ctrlselectOneBlock.png\" alt=\"Use Ctrl-Click on the block to connect to.\"><\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This also works to connect from many sources to a single\r\ndestination.  Remember; select the many, then Ctrl-select the one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Now it\u2019s your turn<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Now you have a couple of the accelerators I use when building\r\nmodels.  What do you do?  Leave a <a\r\nhref=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/?p=16&amp;#comment\">comment here<\/a> and\r\nshare your workflow accelerators with the rest of the Simulink community.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I am not in a meeting, I am generally at my desk. I often\r\nspend the whole day in front of a computer.  Because so much of my time is\r\nspent with a hand on the keyboard, I look for all those... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2008\/05\/30\/tips-on-how-to-use-simulink-more-efficiently\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,33],"tags":[448],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}