To efficiently manage shared parameters and data types in Simulink, similar to the “#ifndef” directive in C, you can use a combination of common and component-specific data dictionaries. A common dictionary stores model-wide data, that can be accessed by all independent components in the model. Each component in the model can have its own data dictionary as well, to organise data in a better way, and avoid redefinition of shared parameters.
To use this in your model, you can try the following steps:
- First create a common data dictionary at the top-level model, through the “Model Explorer” dialog to store project-wide data that needs to be accessed by all subsystems. Migrate the shared data from the base workspace to this common dictionary.
- Then, for each component, create a separate data dictionary, by clicking on the “New” tab inside the component properties.
- Go to the component data dictionary, click on “Add” and select the common dictionary file to link the common dictionary to the component dictionary.
- To migrate data from the base workspace to the component dictionary, select the desired component and click on migrate data. This will migrate all the data used by that component to the component data dictionary. During migration, any data already defined in the common dictionary will not be duplicated, thus preventing redefinition conflicts and allowing each component to operate both independently and within the integrated model.
The above actions can also be performed programmatically using the command line APIs that Simulink provides. You can refer to the following documentation for more information:
Additionally, enumerated types used by a model can also be migrated and managed using a data dictionary. Please refer to the following documentation to read more about how enumerated types can be handled in data dictionaries:
