How to find if Simulink block name is visible

Hello,

I am trying to programmatically find out if the name of a block is shown on the canvas. When the block parameters 'ShowName' and 'HideAutomaticName' are both set to 'on' I can't find a way to know if the name is displayed.

Thank you,

Marco

Answer 1

[Manan Jain]

Hi!

In Simulink, programmatically determining whether the name of a block is shown on the canvas can be a bit tricky, especially when the 'ShowName' and 'HideAutomaticName' parameters are both set to 'on'. When both options are enabled, the block's name might be automatically shown or hidden based on certain conditions, making it less straightforward to determine its visibility.

To check if the name of a block is displayed on the canvas, you can use the MATLAB API for Simulink. Specifically, you can use the get_param function to retrieve the value of the 'ShowName' and 'HideAutomaticName' parameters for the block in question. Then, based on their values, you can infer if the block name is currently displayed.

Here is the snippet of code that you can refer:

function isNameVisible = isBlockNameVisible(blockPath)
    % Get the values of 'ShowName' and 'HideAutomaticName' 
    showName = get_param(blockPath, 'ShowName');
    hideAutoName = get_param(blockPath, 'HideAutomaticName');
    
    % Check if the name is set to show
    if strcmp(showName, 'on')
        isNameVisible = true;
    elseif strcmp(showName, 'off')
        % Check if the name is set to hide
        isNameVisible = false;
    else
        % The 'ShowName' parameter is set to automatic, check 'HideAutomaticName'
        if strcmp(hideAutoName, 'off')
            isNameVisible = true;
        else
            isNameVisible = false;
        end
    end
end

You can refer to the get_param documentation according to your case. I hope this helps!

[Marco Tobia]

Hello there,

Thank you for your answer!

Unfortunately on my Simulink 10.6 (R2022b) I cannot find blocks with 'ShowName' set to anything other than 'on' or 'off' (and as a result the first else of your function is never reached). I have many blocks (e.g., constants) with 'ShowName' = 'on' and 'HideAutomaticName' = 'on' that do not have the name shown on the canvas.

Best regards,

Marco