Customizing Simulink Dashboard Blocks

Hello,

I am making an interactive Simulink control panel and I am trying to customize my knobs and dials. I saw that there is a custom gauge in the library that allows me to change pretty much anything and I love it. I was wondering if there is something like that for knobs and dials. If not, is it possible to make an additional library element such as a custom knob and if there is anything downloadable on the forum? I did a search and I didn't see anything. If all of this is not possible, is it possible to at least remove the knob tick marks and numerical values all together so that I can just use a background image for that?

Also, when I zoom out of my model, the text on the gauges and knobs increases relative to the panel (stays the same, doesn't get smaller as I zoom out). Is there an option to disable this feature?

I also want to change the numerical display font to a font I downloaded. I go to the format/font dialogue box but I don't see the font I downloaded. How do I update Simulink's font data base?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

[Meike Ernst]

A customizable Knob block was introduced in R2021a. You can find the documentation for it here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/slref/customknob.html

Also, from what I understand, you have your dashboard blocks in a panel (I assume you mean this when you refer to panels: https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/interactively-debug-your-models-using-panels.html ), and when you zoom out, the blocks do not change size. Panels float above the model, and so the panel and its contents do not zoom with the model.

If you have only one tab in your panel, and you want to create a dashboard that acts as a part of the model rather than floating above it (i.e. a dashboard that zooms in and out with the model), then instead of having blocks in a panel, you can just have the blocks in the canvas and add a background image under them.

To add an image to the Simulink canvas, see the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/annotations.html#bt89ojw