{"id":7961,"date":"2018-09-24T17:11:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T22:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/?p=7961"},"modified":"2018-09-24T17:11:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T22:11:45","slug":"whats-new-in-r2018b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2018\/09\/24\/whats-new-in-r2018b\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s New in R2018b!"},"content":{"rendered":"

MATLAB R2018b is now available! In this first post about R2018b, I decided to highlight enhancements to the Simulink editor that will hopefully speed up model creation.<\/p>\n

Group Block Rotation and Flip<\/strong><\/p>\n

I reorganize models all the time, and I am picky on the style. This means that I often need to flip and rotate blocks. Before R2018a, I was running into situations like this one very often:<\/p>\n

\"Flipping<\/p>\n

See how easier it is in R2018b. Now when I select a group of blocks and hit Ctrl+I, the entire group flips:<\/p>\n

\"Flipping<\/p>\n

Connect Blocks More Quickly<\/strong><\/p>\n

In R2018b, if you click on a port, compatible ports are highlighted, and you can click on one of them to make the connection. No more need to hold the mouse and drag.<\/p>\n

\"Connecting<\/p>\n

Add Ports More Easily<\/strong><\/p>\n

When hovering over the edge of blocks that can have multiple ports, you now have the possibility to create new ports. Here is an example using a Subsystem and a Bus Selector.<\/p>\n

\"Port<\/p>\n

A smarter quick insert<\/strong><\/p>\n

We added a few mechanisms to help the Quick Block Insert feature to provide smarter suggestions. The first one is that it learns the blocks you use the most and ranks them higher.<\/p>\n

To highlight the effect of this feature, in the next image I show the result for typing \"si\". In R2018a, I often ended up inserting mistakenly the Sine Lookup Table<\/a> block instead of the Sine Wave<\/a> source block. After using R2018b for just a few days, it now knows that I use the Sine Wave source block more often and ranks it higher.<\/p>\n

\"Smart<\/p>\n

See this documentation page<\/a> if you want to customize the way the algorithm learns. For example, the function slblocksearchdb.trainfrommodelsindir<\/a> can scan all the models in a specific folder and use them to train the algorithm.<\/p>\n

If you drag a line from a port, you can now double-click on its unconnected end and you will get a list of the blocks most likely needed next. For example, after a Gain block I am likely going to do more math like additions and subtractions. For a Mux block, I am more likely to use blocks like Rate Transition or Signal Conversion.<\/p>\n

\"Contextual<\/p>\n

See how it helps me creating a Mass-Spring-Damper system without typing anything and without opening the library browser.<\/p>\n

\"Quick<\/p>\n

Edit and Tune Parameters Without Opening Block Dialog<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some blocks, we added the possibility to edit and tune parameters without opening the block dialog, directly in the canvas. This works both during edit-time and while the simulation is running.<\/p>\n

\"Tuning<\/p>\n

Simscape Buses<\/strong><\/p>\n

As requested by many users, it is now possible to combine multiple Simscape connections into one bus. Notice in the following animation how the Simscape Bus<\/a> block leverages many of the enhancements mentioned above. You can configure it entirely from the canvas, without opening any dialog box.<\/p>\n

\"Simscape<\/p>\n

Now it's your turn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you already go through the R2018b release notes<\/a>? Let us know in the comments below what is your favorite new feature and which ones you would like to see described on this blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

MATLAB R2018b is now available! In this first post about R2018b, I decided to highlight enhancements to the Simulink editor that will hopefully speed up model creation.
\nGroup Block Rotation and Flip
\n... read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[547],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961"}],"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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7961"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8142,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions\/8142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}