PARAMETER PROMOTION IN A BLOCK DIAGRAM MODELING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20120316851A1
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Inventors: CIOLFI, John Edward, DALAL, Yogesh Kamalkishore, SINGH, Sanjai, THUNUGUNTLA, Saikiran S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,058,175 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A computational device receives, from a user, a selection of a block, a subsystem or multiple blocks from a block diagram modeling environment, and presents, to the user, a set of parameters associated with the block, subsystem, or multiple blocks. The computational device receives, from the user, selection of a first subset of parameters from the set of parameters, and creates a customized dialog box by promoting the selected first subset of parameters to the customized dialog box, wherein the customized dialog box permits editing of values associated only with the first subset of parameters.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions for receiving a selection of a block, a subsystem or multiple blocks from a block diagram modeling environment running on a computing device;

one or more instructions for presenting, to the user, a set of parameters associated with the block, subsystem, or multiple blocks;

one or more instructions for receiving, from the user, selection of a first subset of parameters from the set of parameters; and

one or more instructions for creating a customized dialog box, using the computing device, by promoting the selected first subset of parameters to the customized dialog box, wherein the customized dialog box permits editing of values associated only with the first subset of parameters.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the customized dialog box does not permit editing of values associated with other parameters of the set of parameters that are not in the first subset of parameters from the set of parameters.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions for receiving a second subset of parameters from the set of parameters.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the customized dialog box also includes a programmatic Application Programming Interface (API) to edit the values associated only with the first subset of parameters.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the customized dialog box permits editing of the first and second subset of parameters.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of parameters comprises multiple parameters associated with different ones of the multiple blocks.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions for presenting the customized dialog box to a block user; and

one or more instructions for receiving from the block user, via the customized dialog box, edits of the values associated only with the first subset of parameters.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the block comprises elements from which a model can be built.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each parameter of the set of parameters are associated with values that customize the behavior of the block, subsystem or multiple blocks.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the subsystem comprises a set of blocks that have been replaced by a single subsystem block.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions for disallowing edits of values of the first subset of parameters except via the customized dialog box or programmatic Application Programming Interface (API).

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions for disallowing edits further comprises:

one or more instructions for only allowing edits of values of the first subset of parameters via the customized dialog box and for disallowing edits of values of any other parameters of the set of parameters.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions for generating a custom masked block based on the selected first subset of parameters.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising:

one or more instructions for storing the custom masked block in a block library for use by one or more block users.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, from a user, a selection of a block, a subsystem or multiple blocks from a block diagram modeling environment, the receiving performed using a computing device;

presenting, to the user, a set of parameters associated with the block, subsystem, or multiple blocks, the presenting performed using a computing device;

receiving, from the user, selection of a first subset of parameters from the set of parameters, the receiving performed using a computing device; and

creating a custom masked block by promoting the selected first subset of parameters to the custom masked block such that only values associated with the promoted first subset of parameters may be edited by a block user, the creating performed using a computing device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the set of parameters comprises multiple parameters associated with different ones of the multiple blocks.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

storing the custom masked block in a block library for use by one or more block users.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein each of the multiple blocks are selected from different parts of a model.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the block comprises elements from which a model can be built.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein each parameter of the set of parameters are associated with values that customize the behavior of the block, subsystem or multiple blocks.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the subsystem comprises a set of blocks that have been replaced by a single subsystem block.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

presenting a customized dialog box, associated with the custom masked block, to permit editing of values associated with the first subset of parameters by the block user.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein presenting the customized dialog box further comprises:

disallowing edits of values of any other parameters of the set of parameters.

24. A device, comprising:

one or more processing units configured to implement a user interface and configured to;

receive, via the user interface, a selection of a block, a subsystem or multiple blocks from the block author,

present, via the user interface, a set of parameters associated with the block, subsystem, or multiple blocks,

receive, via the user interface, selection of a first subset of parameters from the set of parameters, and

create a custom masked block by promoting the selected first subset of parameters to the custom masked block such that only values associated with the first subset of parameters may be edited by a user of the custom masked block.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the user interface comprises one or more dialog boxes.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein the set of parameters comprises multiple parameters associated with different ones of the multiple blocks.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein the one or more processing units are further configured to:

present a customized dialog box, associated with the custom masked block, to permit editing of values associated with the first subset of parameters.

28. The device of claim 27, wherein, when presenting the customized dialog box, the one or more processing units are further configured to:

disallow edits of values of any other parameters of the set of parameters.