Subversion and mdl files

Hello

Does anybody know how to have real "merge" action between two .mdl files? Specifically if you are using subversion version control how can we handle a .mdl file share between two users? Thanks

Answer 1

[Stuart Bowman]

There is a third-party application known as SimMerge (<http://www.ensoftcorp.com/SimMerge/Overview.gen.html>) that is quite helpful for this. (I'm a user, not affiliated with the company.) It's a bit expensive, but well worth the cost if working on a team. It supports two- and three-way diff and merging as you would expect with any other source code management tool.

[Carlo Marques]

Thanks Stuart. I did look into the SimMerge tool and it should od the trick. Probaly will only be able to implement it next year as the cost, as you said, is high.

Answer 2

[Jarrod Rivituso]

Hi Carlo,

I'm not aware of a way to do this. However, an alternative would be to break apart your model into multiple .mdl files and use model reference to combine them. This would allow different users to work on their own separate pieces of the model, and not have to worry about merging later.

This approach is also useful in that it allows you to test smaller components of your model individually.

Hope this helps! -Jarrod

[Jarrod Rivituso]

Hi Carlo,

Check out the release notes for the latest version of Simulink (look under "Model Management"):

http://www.mathworks.com/products/simulink/whatsnew.html

Answer 3

[Carlo Marques]

Hello Jarrod,

Thanks for the hint. It's not what I am looking for, even though it would limit the impact.

Best Regards Carlo marques

Answer 4

[Mark]

In general, doing text merges on ".mdl" files doesn't go well, so I would strongly advise against this. The primary issue is that text in ".mdl" files isn't as "local" as text in a regular source code file would be. As a result, text in one part of a model file may also influence the meaning of text elsewhere in the model. It isn't as convenient, to be sure, but it is probably best to configure your version-control system to treat ".mdl" files as binary even though they are text-based.

[Carlo Marques]

I totally agree with not treating mdl files like text. I am searching something like SimDiff ad-on for Subversion.

There's a tool called ecVERSIM, but this resorts to brute force (by limiting model access to one editor user). That's not very smart.

The IKV's medini tool looks quite promising. Apparently it can be integrated into Subversion for solving conflicts, but don't actually know how much it costs.

[Mark]

I haven't used either of those tools before, but limiting access to one user seems like something you could do with locks in Subversion without buying anything extra.

MATLAB/Simulink has a feature that converts models to XML and then shows two panes to illustrate changes made to the model, but this is a much more manual process. Nonetheless, the fact that we convert the model to XML first illustrates the fact that the ".mdl" format is probably not the best for comparing (and implicitly, merging) model files.

Unfortunately, there is no way to *import* the XML back to ".mdl" files after the comparison. (We stay with the ".mdl" format because it works better for loading, saving, and most things other than comparing.)

[Walter Roberson]

I see that the new 2011a highlights include,

Merge capability for Simulink models from the XML text comparison in Simulink Report Generator™

That _sounds_ to provide the missing mechanism.

[Jarrod Rivituso]

Walter, I really wish I could vote up a comment :)

Answer 5

[Frederic Vartanian]

medini unite also provides SIMULINK model merge capabilities. It can be integrated in a number of SCM tools, such as CVS, SVN, ClearCase, Visual Source Safe and more. You can request a trial here http://www.ikv.de/mediniunite/