Managing Simulink Projects

Managing Simulink Projects

MATLAB projects coordinate Simulink workflows — they manage the MATLAB path (which Simulink uses to resolve model references, data dictionaries, and requirements), track file membership for source control, and provide label-based automation for selecting targets in CI/CD pipelines.

When to Use

• Creating a new MATLAB project for Simulink models
• Adding models, data dictionaries, or requirements to an existing project
• Configuring project paths so Simulink can resolve references
• Setting up labels for automation (test selection, code generation targets)
• Configuring source control and cache folders
• Diagnosing broken model references, missing dictionaries, or failing project health checks

When NOT to Use

• Building or editing model structure (blocks, connections) → use building-simulink-models
• Writing or running tests → use testing-simulink-models
• Drafting requirements content → use generate-requirement-drafts
• Running simulations for analysis → use simulating-simulink-models

Mental Model

Four principles that prevent the most common failures:

1. Registration ≠ path. addFile registers a file with the project for source control tracking. addPath puts a folder on the MATLAB path so Simulink can resolve artifacts by filename. These are independent operations — you almost always need both.

2. Filename-only resolution. Data dictionaries (set_param(...,'DataDictionary',...), addDataSource), model references, and requirements all resolve via MATLAB path using filename only — never full paths. The containing folder must be on the project path.

3. addPath is not recursive. Each subfolder containing resolvable artifacts needs its own addPath call.

4. Single-project constraint. Only one project can be open at a time. Creating or opening a new project silently closes the current one (running its shutdown scripts). currentProject throws an error when no project is open — it does not return empty.

Guardrails

Always:

• Use addPath(proj, folder) for every folder containing dictionaries, referenced models, requirements, or profiles
• Pass filename only (not full paths) to addDataSource, set_param(...,'DataDictionary',...), and slreq.createLink
• Use absolute paths for SimulinkCacheFolder and SimulinkCodeGenFolder: proj.SimulinkCacheFolder = fullfile(proj.RootFolder, 'work')
• Call updateDependencies(proj) before querying proj.Dependencies
• Close the current project before creating or opening another