How can I override the bulk move / group move in Simulink?

I've noticed sometimes in Simulink when I click on a block to move it, other aligned blocks highlight green and move with my primary block. Sometimes this behavior is helpful - sometimes it isn't. Is there a keyboard shortcut to override this behavior and ONLY move the selected block?

Answer 1

[Soumya]

Hi @Nicholas,

In Simulink, when you move, resize, or add a port to a block with three or more ports, any straight, unbranched signal lines connecting it to nearby blocks with one or two ports remain straight. Instead of bending the lines, Simulink moves the connected blocks as a group, highlighting affected blocks and lines in green. This helps maintain clean layout.

To temporarily override this grouped move behaviour and move only the selected block, Kindly, hold the Space bar while moving or resizing a block. This will allow you to move only the selected block, regardless of alignment. Once you release the Space bar, the default behaviour is restored.

To disable this functionality entirely across MATLAB sessions:

In the Simulink Editor,

• Go to the ‘Modeling’ tab,
• Select ‘Environment’
• Disable the ‘Preserve Alignment’ option.
• You can re-enable it by selecting ‘Preserve Alignment’ again.

For more details on keyboard shortcuts and alignment in Simulink, please refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/configure-model-layout.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/summary-of-mouse-and-keyboard-actions.html

I hope this helps!

[Nicholas]

Thank you!

Do you know if there is a way to "group" or "lock" additional blocks together? This functionality seems useful- however, it's been getting in the way by:

1) moving objects together when I just want to move a single object (addressed by the use of the spacebar as you noted)

2) moving some objects together, but not all (so I'm forced to manually select)