Programmatically Flip/Rotate Simulink Block

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Hi,
I'd like to programmatically rotate/flip a simulink block - arbitrarily. Unfortunately, the 'orientation' property
seems to support specific orientations, only. Thus, no combination of e.g. 'y-mirror' and 90° clockwise rotation
seems to be possible.
Certainly, Simulink supports that via the 'Format' menue but I did not find an accessible block property for this.
Is there a way to access the 'Format/Flip Block' menu of Simulink via Matlab? I did not find a matching property in the slx model, but maybe I overlooked a possibility. Also, I was not able to send key commands to Simulink.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks in advance!

Accepted Answer

Timo Dietz
Timo Dietz on 25 Jan 2023
Edited: Timo Dietz on 25 Jan 2023
I finally made it with the help of:
I activate Simulink, select the block to be manipulated and then send kesytrokes for rotating and flipping it.
Not he most elegant approach but it works for me.
Have a nice day!
  3 Comments
Philip Hackett
Philip Hackett on 19 Jun 2023
Edited: Philip Hackett on 19 Jun 2023
In fact it works with an open Simulink window, as in the linked example:
% where the block to be rotated is selected in the GUI
h = actxserver('WScript.Shell');
h.AppActivate('Simulink');
h.SendKeys('^r');
But the block to be rotated must be selected by a mouse click, so it is not a programmatic method that can be used to arrange a model without manual intervention. Setting gcb to the block of interest, as in this answer:
set_param(model, 'CurrentBlock', 'blockName');
does not have the same effect as clicking the block in the GUI.
Timo Dietz
Timo Dietz on 19 Jun 2023
Edited: Timo Dietz on 19 Jun 2023
What I'm actually doing is the following:
actX = actxserver('WScript.Shell');
newBlock = add_block([libraryBlock], [modelName], 'MakeNameUnique','on');
blockObj = get_param(newBlock, 'Object');
blockObj.Selected = 'on';
Now, the block is selected and its orientation can be changed w/o manual intervention, using ACTX as well as blockObj.Orientation:
blockObj.Orientation = 'up';
actX.AppActivate('Simulink'); % focus on Simulink
actX.SendKeys('^i'); % flip vertically

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More Answers (1)

Jean Matthieu
Jean Matthieu on 24 Jan 2023
Edited: Jean Matthieu on 24 Jan 2023
Hi
set_param(gcb, 'Orientation', 'left')
--> Other keywords are up, right, down
Is that what you're looking for?
  1 Comment
Timo Dietz
Timo Dietz on 24 Jan 2023
Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately, these orientation properties do not suffice since they do not cover all possible variations of rotating and mirroring.

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