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Nonvirtual and Virtual Blocks

Simulink® blocks fall into two basic categories: nonvirtual blocks and virtual blocks.

  • Nonvirtual blocks play an active role in the simulation of a system. If you add or remove a nonvirtual block, you change the model behavior.

  • Virtual blocks help organize a model graphically. While they play no active role in the simulation, they can affect the execution order of other blocks.

Some Simulink blocks are virtual in some circumstances and nonvirtual in others. Such blocks are called conditionally virtual blocks.

The table lists Simulink virtual and conditionally virtual blocks.

Block NameCondition Under Which Block Is Virtual

Bus Assignment

Virtual if input bus is virtual.

Bus Creator

Virtual if output bus is virtual.

Bus Selector

Virtual if input bus is virtual.

Demux

Always virtual.

Enable

Virtual unless connected directly to an Outport block.

From

Always virtual.

Goto

Always virtual.

Goto Tag Visibility

Always virtual.

Ground

Always virtual.

In Bus Element

Virtual unless input bus is nonvirtual and contains a variable-size signal.

Inport

Virtual unless the block resides in a conditionally executed or atomic subsystem and has a direct connection to an Outport block.

Mux

Always virtual.

Out Bus Element

Virtual unless output bus is nonvirtual.

Outport

Virtual when the block resides within any subsystem (conditional or not), and does not reside in the root (top-level) Simulink window.

Selector

Virtual only when Number of input dimensions specifies 1 and Index Option specifies Select all, Index vector (dialog), or Starting index (dialog) for fixed-size index signal.

Signal Specification

Always virtual.

Subsystem

Virtual unless the block is conditionally executed or the Treat as atomic unit check box is selected.

You can check if a block is virtual with the IsSubsystemVirtual block property. See Block-Specific Parameters.

Terminator

Always virtual.

Trigger

Virtual when the output port is not present.

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