MATLAB: Is there a way to add another button to a mask in Simulink

buttoncallbackcustommaskplotsimulinksubsystem

I am looking for a way to add another button to a mask dialog. For example, I want a button that will plot a preview of some data that is dependent on settings in the mask. Is there a way to add a button and then customize the callback similar to a GUI in MATLAB?

Best Answer

The ability to add a button to a mask is not available in Simulink.

To work around this issue, a parameter can be added to the mask and a checkbox can be used to display the plot. The example below demonstrates how this can be done.

A dialog parameter of type 'checkbox' controls the creation of a plot. Double-clicking on the block in the model will open the mask dialog. Checking the checkbox will create a plot.

The following code was added to the OpenFcn callback for the block:

set_param(gcb,'showPlot','off');
open_system(gcb,'mask');

This ensures the checkbox is always set to 'off' when the block is opened preventing the plot from being created if it was checked from a previous opening of the mask dialog.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to get SIMULINK to use Dialog Callbacks and not GUI Callbacks when having a block mask with a GUI build using GUIDE

This is expected behaviour.

As a workaround you can modify the GUI MATLAB file to evaluate the callbacks of the SIMULINK block mask.

The following code illustrates how to do this:

names = get_param(gcb,'MaskNames');
callbacks = get_param(gcb,'MaskCallbacks');
eval(callbacks{find(strcmp(names,'callback_name'))});

MATLAB: Dynamically populating mask parameter popup list

Actually, I figured this out after hours of experimenting with Mask Parameters. This is one way to do it: You can access the 'MaskStyles' parameter like so:-

myMaskStylesVar = get_param(gcb, 'MaskStyles');

Here you should be able to observe the MaskStyles for each of your parameters as edit, checkbox, DataTypeStr, Minimum, Maximum or ...wait for it... popup! Yes, and 'popup' style is defined as follows:-

popup(menuitem1|menuitem2|menuitem3|...etc)

So you can modify the corresponding cell of myMaskStylesVar with the menu items of your choice and set them back as:-

myMaskStylesVar{1} = 'popup(red|green|blue|yellow)'; % Assuming the popup is the first parameter
set_param(gcb, 'MaskStyles', myMaskStylesVar)

You can add this code at any desired callback. In my case, I put it in 'OpenFcn'. However that led to another issue with the Mask Parameters Dialog not being invoked at the end of the code. So I had to do some crude workaround like below to invoke the Mask Parameter Dialog, but at the same time, not lose my precious code above!

a = get_param(gcb, 'OpenFcn');
set_param(gcb, 'OpenFcn', '');
open_system(gcb); %With no OpenFcn defined, this line will call Mask Parameter Dialog
set_param(gcb, 'OpenFcn', a); %Restore your original OpenFcn code

I am 99.99% sure this issue can be handled in a less comical way than above. But it works for me and my boss doesn't complain!! :)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to get SIMULINK to use Dialog Callbacks and not GUI Callbacks when having a block mask with a GUI build using GUIDE

MATLAB: Dynamically populating mask parameter popup list

Related Question