Block Diagram

A block diagram consists of blocks that represent different parts of a system and signal lines that define the relationship between the blocks. Block diagrams are widely used by engineers for controls, signal processing, communications, and mechatronics.

Engineers build and use block diagrams to:

• Provide a high-level graphical representation of real-world systems, as in the figure below
• Understand the relationship and interdependencies among different parts of a system, such as a house heating system
• Analyze dynamic system behavior in time and frequency domains

Engineers rely on the Simulink^® environment to build and simulate block diagrams for multidomain systems efficiently. This environment provides:

• A graphical editor for building and managing hierarchical block diagrams
• An extensive set of block libraries and templates to design block diagrams
• Solvers to simulate a range of systems, including continuous-time (analog), discrete-time (digital), hybrid (mixed-signal), discrete-event, and multirate systems
• For details on modeling and simulating block diagrams, see Simulink.