{"id":16392,"date":"2024-04-11T11:35:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T15:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/?p=16392"},"modified":"2024-04-17T17:19:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T21:19:42","slug":"whats-new-in-simulink-r2024a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2024\/04\/11\/whats-new-in-simulink-r2024a\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s New in Simulink R2024a?"},"content":{"rendered":"
MATLAB R2024a is now available, and a lot of new important features have been added to Simulink. Here are my top 5.<\/span><\/div>

Simulation object<\/span><\/h2>
Using the <\/span>Simulation object<\/span><\/a>, you can programmatically run a simulation step by step. You can execute the simulation one step at a time, for a specified number of steps or up to a specific time. Here is an example where I simulate the model up to t=18.5 seconds, then I change the value of variable <\/span>k<\/span> and continue the simulation until the stop time:<\/span><\/div>
mdl = <\/span>'vdpX'<\/span>;<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
sm = simulation(mdl);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
% Run the first part of the simulation with k=0.2<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
sm.setVariable(<\/span>'k'<\/span>,0.2);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
step(sm,PauseTime=18.5);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
% Run the second half with k=1.5<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
sm.setVariable(<\/span>'k'<\/span>,1.5);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
step(sm,PauseTime=40);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
out = terminate(sm);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Design Study<\/span><\/h2>
The new <\/span>Design Study API<\/span><\/a> provides a layer on top of <\/span>parsim<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>batchsim<\/span><\/a> to improve scalability. Instead of creating an array of <\/span>Simulink.SimulationInput<\/span><\/a> objects, you specify arrays of values to be simulated, and how they should be combined. Here is a simple example where I simulate a mass-spring-damper system for different mass and damping values. <\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/div>
I specify 5 mass values and 5 damping values, and simulate an exhaustive combination for a total of 25 simulation<\/span><\/div>
mdl = <\/span>'simple_system'<\/span>;<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
kVar = simulink.multisim.Variable(<\/span>'c'<\/span>,1:5);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
cVar = simulink.multisim.Variable(<\/span>'m'<\/span>,1:5);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
fullSpace = simulink.multisim.Exhaustive([kVar cVar]);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
myDesignStudy = simulink.multisim.DesignStudy(mdl, fullSpace);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
outH = parsim(myDesignStudy,<\/span>'ShowProgress'<\/span>,<\/span>'Off'<\/span>,<\/span>'UseFastRestart'<\/span>,<\/span>'on'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
out = fetchOutputs(outH);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Specifying Variant Configurations using a SimulationInput object<\/span><\/h2>
A new <\/span>VariantConfiguration<\/span> property has been added to the <\/span>Simulink.SimulationInput<\/span><\/a> object. Here is an example code where I get the variant configuration data for a model and run one simulation per available configuration:<\/span><\/div>
mdl = <\/span>'sldemo_variant_subsystems'<\/span>;<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
load_system(mdl);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
load(<\/span>'variantConfigs.mat'<\/span>); <\/span>% load pre-saved variant configuration data<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
vcd = Simulink.VariantManager.getConfigurationData(mdl);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
N = length(vcd.Configurations);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
in(1:N) = Simulink.SimulationInput(mdl);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
for <\/span>i = 1:N<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
in(i) = in(i).setVariantConfiguration(vcd.Configurations(i).Name);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
end<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
out = sim(in,<\/span>'ShowProgress'<\/span>,<\/span>'off'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Simplified Mechanism to access Data Dictionaries<\/span><\/h2>
Before R2024a, if you wanted to programmatically change the value of a parameter stored in a data dictionary, you had to write code like this:<\/span><\/div>
myDictionaryObj = Simulink.data.dictionary.open(<\/span>'simplesystemDD.sldd'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
dDataSectObj = getSection(myDictionaryObj,<\/span>'Design Data'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
kObj = getEntry(dDataSectObj,<\/span>'k'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
k = getValue(kObj);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
k = k+1;<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
setValue(kObj,k);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
In R2024a, you can simple <\/span>connect<\/span><\/a> to a data dictionary and interact with it using the dot operator.<\/span><\/div>
h = Simulink.data.connect(<\/span>'simplesystemDD.sldd'<\/span>);<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
h.k = h.k+1;<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Preserve alignment when moving and resizing blocks<\/span><\/h2>
Let's close this list with a simple quality-of-life editing improvement. This is not a game-changer like some of the previous highlights but will hopefully improve your editing experience.<\/span><\/div>
When selecting a block, you might notice a light green highlighting on connections and blocks around it. This means that we have detected that those connections and blocks should likely move with the blocks.<\/span><\/div>
\"MoveBlocks.gif\"<\/img><\/div>
Same works with resizing:<\/span><\/div>
\"ResizeBlocks.gif\"<\/img><\/div>

Now it's your turn<\/span><\/h2>
Have a look at the <\/span>Simulink release notes for R2024a<\/span><\/a>. Let us know your favorite feature and which ones you would like to see highlighted on this blog.<\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>