MES Model & Refactor^® (MES MoRe) - Release Notes

V2.0 2020-10

New Menu Design

The menu has been redesigned to improve clarity while allowing quick access to recently used actions.

To improve clarity, the actions are categorized in submenus. They are sorted in descending order of estimated frequency of use.

For quick access, a new list at the top of the menu allows you to directly start a recently used action.

The most recently used action always appears at the top of this list.
The list is kept short by displaying only actions that are applicable to the current selection.
The maximum number of list elements can be configured in the MoRe.ini file. The default value is 5.

New Action "Add Input Signal From Higher Level"

Use this action to add a new input signal coming from a higher-level (or top-level) subsystem to the current subsystem you are working on. This helps you to focus your work on the current subsystem and connect the new high-level inport to an external signal later. Often these high-level connections are established by additional tools, which automatically generate the highest levels of the model.

The dialog remembers the level of the last source system and selects the subsystem on this level as the source at the next start. This speeds up the action if the signals should always come from the same level.

The name of the ports and lines to be created is taken from the clipboard when the dialog is started. This speeds up the action if the name was copied elsewhere before.

Other Improvements

Rename Signal and Ports: When renaming a signal, the action now updates all dependent propagated signal labels and bus signal names.
Remove Cross-Hierarchy Signal Forward: The action now also follows the data flow into atomic subsystems and continues the removal process there. Previously, the process stopped at the inport of an atomic subsystem.
Jump to Usage Destinations: When the "Back to Selected Signal" button is selected in the "Usage Places" dialog, the function now also highlights the virtual blocks on the signal path to the selected usage place. Previously, only the lines on the signal path were highlighted.
Highlight to all Sources: The action now asks to remove existing highlighting before adding a new one.
The hook function file for setting block parameters ('MoRe_hook_BlockParameters.m') can now be accessed directly via a new entry in the MoRe menu under the category 'Preferences'.

Bug Fixes

All actions that delete or move signal lines: Fixed a bug that caused the propagated signal label of a line to be empty ('<>') after undoing the action. This only affected lines with activated signal label propagation.
All actions that add or redraw lines: Fixed a bug that caused an error when the action created a line where signal label propagation is not possible (e.g. the outgoing line of a bus selector) and signal label propagation was activated in the MoRe.ini config file.
Remove Cross-Hierarchy Signal Forward: Fixed a bug that caused the entire bus leaving a bus creator to be deleted when only a single input signal was selected for removal. The error occurred only when the signal was not named at the selected line itself but further ahead in the data flow (e.g. in an upstream subsystem).
Remove Cross-Hierarchy Signal Forward: Fixed a bug that, when removing the only sub-signal of a bus, caused the corresponding signal lines and virtual blocks to not be deleted.
Jump to Usage Destinations: Fixed a bug that caused no destination blocks to be found when the input signal of a bus creator was selected. The error occurred only when the signal was not named at the selected line itself but further ahead in the data flow (e.g. in an upstream subsystem).
Redraw Line: The action now preserves font-specific parameters of the line labels, so that e.g. font sizes and styles remain the same.

V1.4.1 2020-07

Avoidance of Multiple Signal Labels

All actions that add or redraw lines: For a branched line with a signal label, this signal label is now only displayed at the root segment of the line. Previously, in Matlab versions prior to R2017b, the signal label was displayed at all segments of the line which often resulted in overlapping signal labels.

V1.4 2020-07

New Hook Function for Setting Block Parameters

With the new hook function MoRe_hook_BlockParameters.m, parameters for blocks created by MoRe can be set more precisely than with the MoRe.ini config file. For example, the color of all created inport blocks can be set in this file.
The parameters set via this function have priority over the general block parameters from the MoRe.ini config file.
The MoRe_hook_BlockParameters.m function is located in the hooks folder and can be freely extended according to the documentation in the file.

Other Improvements

The configuration file ('MoRe.ini') can now be accessed directly via a new entry in the MoRe menu under the category 'Preferences & Help'.
All "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem): The runtime of the actions for large subsystems has been significantly reduced.
Jump to Usage Destinations: The action can now also be applied if the selected signal line is branched.
Break and Merge Subsystem: If a subsystem that is broken up using "Break Susbystem" or merged into another subsystem using "Merge Subsystem" is externally connected to signal lines, but these lines are not connected to other blocks in the subsystem, these lines are automatically deleted when the action is applied.

Bug Fixes

All actions that modify or delete signal lines: Fixed a bug that caused certain line parameters to lose their original value after undoing the action. This affected all line parameters that are not stored in the source port, such as 'FontSize' or 'FontAngle'.
All actions that modify or delete signal lines: Fixed a bug that in rare cases caused segments of a branching line not to connect properly after undoing the action.
All actions that move annotations (e.g. Move Blocks Up/Down, Create Subsystem, Break Subsystem, ...): Fixed bug that caused the undo action to fail when moving two or more annotations with the same name.
Arrange Port Blocks: Fixed a bug that caused an error when an outport block was arranged that was connected to an open line.
Create Bus: Fixed a bug that caused an error if the signal hierarchy could not be determined for at least one of the selected signal lines.

V1.3 2020-04

Added New Action "Arrange Port Blocks"

Inport and/or outport blocks present in the subsystem can be automatically arranged now.
The action can be applied either to all port blocks of the subsystem or only to the selected port blocks.

Added New Action "Convert Goto/Froms to Lines"

Goto/From connections can now be converted to corresponding signal lines.
The action can convert either all Goto/From connections of the current subsytem or only the selected connections.
The action can also convert connections where the Goto/From blocks are located in different subsystems or model parts (scoped or global tag visibility).

Improved "Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal" Action

The signal line parameters from the MoRe.ini configuration file are now only applied to the lines that the action actually creates. Previously, the parameters were also applied to open lines that the action only reroutes to a destination port and to lines to which the action only adds a new branch. For example, if the SignalPropagation parameter is set to 'on' in the MoRe.ini file and the action is started on an open signal line, this parameter is not set for this line, because the line is just rerouted by the action.
If an open signal line branch is selected as source for the action, this selected branch is now used as starting point for the cross-hierarchy signal. Previously, a new branch was created in addition to the selected branch and this new branch was used as starting point.
If the action reroutes an existing open signal line, all line parameters (such as font and font size) are now preserved.

Other Improvements

All actions that add or redraw lines: The newly created lines are now routed with Matlab's "smart" autorouting option in Matlab^® versions R2017b and above. This improved routing prevents lines from overlapping, among other things.
Merge Bus Selectors: The action now preserves the order of the merged output signals, i.e. the signals of the topmost bus selector are selected first and in the original signal order, followed by the signals of the second topmost bus selector in the original signal order and so on. Previously, the output signals were lexicographically sorted, which often led to crossing signal lines.
All actions that create inport/outport blocks: The position of newly created port blocks now also depends on the length of a signal name / propagated signal name. This ensures that there is sufficient space to display the signal name between the port block and the destination/source block.
Insert Subsystem Outport Above/Below: This action can now also be applied if the selected outgoing line is branched. Any of the line segments can be selected in order to do so.
MoRe can now safely be used in parallel with older slRefactor versions of the tool, as all functions present in both tools have been renamed to avoid shadowing.

Bug Fixes

Fixed bug that caused an error when opening the MoRe menu when two subsystems were selected along with other non-subsystem blocks.
All "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem): Fixed bug that, when moving blocks in a library, caused the action to convert those blocks into linked blocks with an unresolved reference to the origin of the block.
All "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem): Fixed bug that, when moving a bus selector block, caused the signal labels of the block's outgoing signal lines to be hidden after the action.
All "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem): Fixed bug that, when moving blocks, caused the block outports to lose their 'DataLoggingName' parameter.
Move Interface: Fixed bug that, for port names with line breaks, created additional selectable lines in the Move Interface dialog for each line in the port name. The bug may have caused an error when moving the ports in the dialog and may have led to an unexpected port order after applying the action.
Create InMap: Fixed bug that caused an error when trying to apply the action to a subsystem where one or more input signals are not bus signals.

V1.2 2019-12

Improved TargetLink^® support

All actions that create inport/outport blocks: Instead of normal inport and outport blocks, TargetLink inport and outport blocks are now created if necessary, according to the Modeling Guidelines for dSPACE TargetLink (version 4.0.3, paragraph 4.3). If TargetLink inport or outport blocks are added to a TargetLink subsystem, the actions properly update the TargetLink simulation frame containing the TargetLink subsystem (i.e. the two intermediate technical subsystems above the TargetLink subsystem).
Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal: Signals can now also be routed into or out of TargetLink subsystems. This action also properly updates the TargetLink simulation frame containing the TargetLink subsystem.
All actions that move blocks into or out of subsystems (e.g. Move Blocks Up/Down, Create Subsystem, Break Subsystem, ...): TargetLink simulation frame blocks can now also be moved. Previously, when undoing an action, this caused an error.

Bug Fixes

All actions that delete or redraw lines: Fixed bug that caused the order of the line children of a branched line to not be correctly restored when undoing an action that deleted or redrew that branched line.
All actions that set or change block names: Fixed bug that caused an error when the new name to be set and an existing name in the same system differed only by different whitespace characters ([' ', '\f', '\n', '\r', '\t', '\v']).

V1.1 2019-09

Improved Alignment of Dialogs

All dialogs are now aligned to the upper right corner of the editor so that the center of the editor remains visible. Previously, all dialogs were opened in the center of the monitor, which obscured the main part of the subsystem.

Reduced Runtime of Most Actions

The runtime of most actions has been significantly reduced, in particular when undoing an action. Some examples are listed below:
- The runtime for undoing the "Straighten Lines From Block" action has been reduced to approx. 10% (runtime of action itself to approx. 60%).
- The runtime for undoing the "Move Blocks Down" action has been reduced to approx. 30% (runtime of action itself to approx. 70%).

Improved Drawing of Branched Signal Lines

For all actions that add or redraw branched signal lines, the position of the branching point is now optimized so that there is no overlapping of the branching lines anymore. Previously, the branching point was positioned near the source port so that the branching lines overlapped, which looked unsightly.

Other Improvements

Analysis Actions: The analysis actions are now also possible in locked library subsystems. Previously, they were deactivated there.
Straighten Lines from Block: The action now also works for flipped blocks, i.e. when the signal flow in the subsystem goes from right to left.
Rename Signal and Ports: The input dialog for the new name is now initialized with the name of the signal. If the signal has no name, the name of the source port is used, provided this is not an automatic name. Previously, the dialog was initialized with an empty string.

Bug Fixes

All actions that move blocks into or out of subsystems (e.g. Move Blocks Up/Down, Create Subsystem, Break Subsystem, ...): Fixed bug that caused the line tree between moved blocks to be broken by the actions in both Do and Undo. This only occurred when lines of the tree overlapped in a certain way.
Rename Signal and Ports: Fixed bug that caused the action to raise an error when the specified signal name was empty. Now the dialog reopens until a non-empty string has been entered.
Rename Signal and Ports: Fixed bug that caused the action to raise an error when the input dialog was canceled.
Analyze -> Highlight to all Sources: Removed superfluous waitbar at the beginning of the action and message box at the end of the action.
Analyze -> Search Signal by Name: Fixed bug that caused the action to raise the error "Undefined function 'splitlines' for input arguments of type 'char'." in versions below R2016b.
All actions that create inports/outports at subsystems: Actions are now disabled on Stateflow chart subsystems where they have previously thrown errors.

V1.0 2019-07-05

Added Undo Functionality

All actions can now be undone or redone via the MoRe menu. It is also possible to undo or redo several consecutive actions.

New Downward Compatibility

In order to guarantee full undo functionality, the downward compatibility had to be raised to R2012b.

Rearrangement of the Menu Entries

To speed up access to regularly used actions, most of the actions from submenus have been moved to the top menu.
To limit the number of actions in the top menu, the analysis actions have been left in a sub-menu, since analysis activities are usually less time-critical than modeling activities.
Actions with very special use cases have been moved to a new submenu called "other".
The actions for calling help, contacting support and opening the "about" dialog have been moved to a new submenu called "help".

Revision of the "Straighten Lines" Action

To clarify the purpose of the action, it has been renamed to "Straighten lines from block".
Graphical revision of the dialog.
Improvement for feedback loops: In order to exclude a feedback loop from the straightening process and thus visually preserve it, straightening an outgoing line is now stopped when the destination port of a line is further to the left than the source port of the line (for incoming lines it's the other way around).
If a line to be straightened has several connected blocks, the block whose port has the smallest height difference to the source port is now shifted in height. Previously, the block positioned at the top was shifted, which often led to unsightly results.
The straightened lines are now drawn with autorouting, so that they do not cross other blocks anymore.
Lines connected to top ports of blocks (control ports) are now properly straightened. Previously, this led to an oblique line.

Revision of "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem)

Inport and outport blocks connected to the selected blocks are now automatically moved. Previously there was a corresponding warning dialog, which is no longer displayed.
Selected annotations are now also moved by the actions.
Selected inport and outport blocks that do not have outer connected lines are now also moved by the actions.
Unified positioning algorithm: All partition actions now use the same algorithm to position the blocks in the target system. The blocks are aligned to the connected target blocks.

Other Improvements

Dialogs are now always on top: To make switching between the non-modal dialogs of MoRe and the model easier, the dialogs now remain in the foreground when switching to the Simulink^® Editor.
Revision of the dialogs from "Jump to Source" and "Jump to Usage Destinations" in which the user should select a bus signal.
For the "Create InMap" action, the positioning of the bus creators and bus selectors has been improved.

V0.9 2019-01-29

Improved Auto-naming of Port Blocks Created by Actions

All port blocks created by actions are now automatically named. Previously, this was only done by the "Create Subsystem ..." action.
Port blocks created by actions are now automatically named after connected ports if the connected signal has no name. Previously, the port blocks were only named after the connected signal.
The AutoNamePortBlocks parameter was added to the MoRe.ini file which can be used to enable or disable the auto-naming of created port blocks.

Improved Auto-positioning of Blocks Created by Actions

If a new inport block has to be positioned left to all existing blocks in the subsystem, the inport is now really positioned left to the blocks. Previously, as position values below 15 are not supported in Matlab versions below R2012b, the inport was always positioned below the existing blocks. Technically, the exisiting blocks are now shifted to the right to circumvent this limitation.
New port blocks are now vertically placed closer to each other if the name of the upper block is hidden and if this helps to keep the line to the connected port straight.
New MarginTop and MarginLeft parameters were added to the MoRe.ini file which can be used to customize the auto-positioning of newly created blocks.

Other Improvements

Partition -> Split Subsystem: Action now preserves the names of ports splitted to a new subsystem.
All partition actions: The creation of multiple port blocks that are connected to the same signal in the parent system is now avoided. Now, a single port block is created and the signal is split up inside the subsystem.
Partition -> Create Subsystem: Action was renamed from "Create Subsystem and Set Port Names to Signal Names" to "Create Subsystem". As the port names are now also set to connected port names, the name was imprecise anyway. So, to keep it short and concise, the name was reduced to the main purpose of the action.

Bug Fixes

Signal Routing -> Remove Cross-Hierarchy Signal Backwards: Fixed bug that caused the action to fail if a line with multiple destination ports was selected.
Partition -> Split Subsystem: Fixed bug that caused the action to fail if a port block was selected to be split that has no connected block or that is just connected to another port block.
Partition -> Split Subsystem: Fixed bug that caused the action to create unconnected lines if port blocks were selected to be split that have no outer connections.

V0.8 2018-10-02

Configuration File MoRe.ini (previously slRefactor.ini)

Added the possibility to define default parameters for lines and blocks created by the tool. The line parameters can be specified in the new [line] section and the block parameters in the new [block] section of the MoRe.ini file. It is possible to add all kinds of parameters and values to the sections that can be set via the set() function of the Simulink^® API.
The show_block_names parameter from the [general] section was removed, because the behavior of this parameter is identical to the ShowName parameter of the Simulink API, which can now be customized in the new [block] section. As this was the only parameter of the [general] section so far, the complete [general] section was removed.

Improvements

Signal Routing -> Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal: Action can now be applied on signals that are already connected to destination ports. In this case, a new signal branch is created, which is routed to the selected target.
Signal Routing -> Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal: If the same name should be assigned to all signal lines created by the action, this is better done by just defining the name of the source signal line and then using the "Show propagated signals" option of the following signal lines. Therefore, the option to define a signal name in the action's dialog was removed to simplify the dialog. To propagate the signal name automatically for all signal lines created, the SignalPropagation and ShowPropagatedSignals properties can be predefined in the new [line] section of the tool's MoRe.ini file.
Partition -> Move Blocks Down: If the selected blocks are already forward connected to some subsystems, these subsystems are listed first in the list of potential target subsystems.

Bug Fixes

Signal Routing -> Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal: Fixed bug that caused action to raise an error if source signal has the same name as an inport in one of the target subsystems.
Partition -> Move Blocks Down: Fixed bug that caused action to raise an error if one of the moved blocks is connected forward to more that one block in the target subsystem.
Partition -> Move Blocks Up: Fixed bug that caused ports sometimes to get connected by the action that were previously unconnected (R2014b and older).
Layout -> Adjust Lines Vertically: Fixed bug that caused action to break the layout of incoming signal lines.

Trademarks

MES Model & Refactor^® is a registered trademark of Model Engineering Solutions GmbH.
Other product or brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

MES Model & Refactor® (MES MoRe) - Release Notes

V2.0 2020-10

New Menu Design

New Action "Add Input Signal From Higher Level"

Other Improvements

Bug Fixes

V1.4.1 2020-07

Avoidance of Multiple Signal Labels

V1.4 2020-07

New Hook Function for Setting Block Parameters

Other Improvements

Bug Fixes

V1.3 2020-04

Added New Action "Arrange Port Blocks"

Added New Action "Convert Goto/Froms to Lines"

Improved "Add Cross-Hierarchy Signal" Action

Other Improvements

Bug Fixes

V1.2 2019-12

Improved TargetLink® support

Bug Fixes

V1.1 2019-09

Improved Alignment of Dialogs

Reduced Runtime of Most Actions

Improved Drawing of Branched Signal Lines

Other Improvements

Bug Fixes

V1.0 2019-07-05

Added Undo Functionality

New Downward Compatibility

Rearrangement of the Menu Entries

Revision of the "Straighten Lines" Action

Revision of "Partition" Actions (Move Blocks Up/Down, Split Subsystem, Merge Subsystems, Create/Break Subsystem)

Other Improvements

V0.9 2019-01-29

Improved Auto-naming of Port Blocks Created by Actions

Improved Auto-positioning of Blocks Created by Actions

Other Improvements

Bug Fixes

V0.8 2018-10-02

Configuration File MoRe.ini (previously slRefactor.ini)

Improvements

Bug Fixes

Trademarks

MES Model & Refactor^® (MES MoRe) - Release Notes

Improved TargetLink^® support