Hi Elina,
To achieve the functionality of changing the lamp color in your app while the Simulink simulation is running and then updating it when the simulation is complete, you can follow these steps. This approach assumes you're using MATLAB App Designer for creating your app.
Step 1: Design Your App Interface
1. Add a Lamp: In the App Designer, drag and drop a Lamp component from the Component Library onto your app's UI. Place it next to the "Run" button.
2. Configure the Lamp: Set the initial color of the lamp to green to indicate that the app is ready to run a simulation. You can do this by selecting the lamp in the Design View, going to the Component Browser, and setting the Color property to green.
Step 2: Modify the Callback Function for the "Run" Button
In the Code View of the App Designer, you need to modify the callback function for the "Run" button. This function is executed when the user clicks the "Run" button.
% Button pushed function: RunButton
function RunButtonPushed(app, event)
% Change lamp color to red indicating processing
app.Lamp.Color = 'red';
% Pause to ensure UI updates
drawnow;
% Place your code here to setup and run the Simulink simulation
% For example, using sim command if you have the model name
% modelName = 'yourSimulinkModel';
% simOut = sim(modelName, 'SimulationMode', 'normal');
% Assuming 'simOut' contains the results of your simulation
% Process the results of the simulation
% For example, updating a plot in the app based on simOut
% Once processing is complete, change the lamp color back to green
app.Lamp.Color = 'green';
end
Important Notes:
- Simulation Time: Running Simulink simulations or heavy computations directly in the callback might affect the responsiveness of your app. Consider using asynchronous execution (e.g., `parfeval`, `batch`, or background execution) if the simulation is expected to take a long time and you want to keep the UI responsive.
- Updating UI Responsively: The `drawnow` command is used to force MATLAB to update the figure window. It's particularly useful here to ensure that the lamp color changes to red immediately after the button is pressed, even before the simulation starts.
- Asynchronous Execution (Advanced): For a more responsive UI, especially for long-running simulations, you might want to run the simulation in the background. MATLAB's `parfeval` function can execute functions asynchronously, allowing your app to remain responsive. You would then use a callback to update the lamp color and UI once the simulation is complete.
Example of Asynchronous Execution:
If you decide to use asynchronous execution to keep the UI responsive, here's a brief example:
% Inside your RunButton callback
future = parfeval(@sim, 1, modelName, 'SimulationMode', 'normal'); % Run sim asynchronously
fetchOutputs(future); % Blocks only until sim is done
% Update UI here
app.Lamp.Color = 'green';
Following links can also be helpful:-
This approach requires a more complex handling of asynchronous operations and result fetching but can significantly improve user experience for long-running tasks.
I hope the above information helps you.
Thank you.
