About Design Evolutions

Projects help you organize your work for large modeling projects. You can manage all the files you need in one place, including all MATLAB^® and Simulink^® files, and any other file types you need, such as data, requirements, reports, spreadsheets, tests, or generated files.

The Design Evolution Manager app helps you to manage different versions of a project. Evolutions capture the state of a project at key stages in your design process. Evolutions are organized within an evolution tree hierarchy. The relationships between evolutions and the metadata you associate with different components of an evolution tree help you manage and compare different versions of a design, model your design process, and communicate the rationale of behind design decisions.

Key Terms and Concepts

An evolution is a snapshot of a particular version of your files contained in a project, visualized as boxes in an evolution tree. Each evolution represents an alternative version of the project files you have stored, similar to a revision control system. Evolutions are stored separately within the project by the Design Evolution Manager app.
An evolution tree is a collection of related evolutions, organized in a tree structure. A child evolution is created from a parent evolution.
Connectors, visualized as arrows between evolutions, contain information about the changes made between a parent and child evolution.
A snapshot of project files are recorded to the active evolution in the active evolution tree when you click the Update Tree button. You can view and update metadata for non-active evolution trees; an evolution tree must be made active before it can be updated.
You can lock an evolution to prevent changes to project files from being recorded to the evolution when you update the evolution tree. Metadata, such as the name of the evolution and notes, can still be edited.
If you lock the active evolution, it will no longer record changes. You can either create a new active evolution or the Design Evolution Manager app will automatically create one for you the next time you update the evolution tree.

Example Evolution Tree

This is an example of a small evolution tree. The Baseline evolution is the reference point for the evolution tree. When you create a new evolution tree, the Design Evolution Manager app creates a baseline evolution that captures a snapshot of the original state of your project. Evolution 1 and Evolution 2 capture two alternative solutions based on the Baseline evolution. Evolution 3 is the active evolution. Evolution 3 captures further improvements on Evolution 2.

Example evolution tree. The tree is annotated to show locked/unlocked evolutions, the active evolution, and the current files open in the project.

The Design Evolution Manager app allows you to capture notes for the evolution tree, for each evolution within the tree, and for each connector between two evolutions. At any time, you can select an evolution to see the files and notes captured in that evolution. As you work, you can compare files from any two evolutions in the evolution tree.

The shape of the evolution tree visually maps to your design process. Your evolution tree may be linear, indicating that each evolution is a continuation of the same design path. Or, your evolution tree may branch if you explore multiple design directions within one evolution tree. You can use evolutions and branches in the evolution tree to explore different design ideas, perform trade studies, or troubleshoot an existing design. Evolutions can be used to record successful design directions and also to keep a record of unsuccessful design ideas. At any point, you can trace back through your evolution tree to understand why particular changes were made to the design.

For examples showing how to integrate the Design Evolution Manager app into your workflow, see Use Design Evolution Manager with Fixed-Point Tool and Use Design Evolution Manager App to Explore Different Coder Settings.