Auto-connect block to existing line

I want to add in some data type conversion blocks infront of some already existing inport blocks. I can create the block and add them to the model and they appear on the port line where I expect them, but they do not connect to that line. They appear above the line and I have to drag them to get them attached to the line. So I was wondering if there was any way I could connect the new block to the line that’s already there from the command line.

Answer 1

[Albert Yam]

How are you "getting the old block out out the way"? I never figured out how to leave lines in place.

Last time I did something like this,

[in1]--line--[out1]

1. %find_system out1 (or the list of what I was adding to)
2. get the position of out1 = pos
3. get the input port to out1
4. get the line handle
5. get the source port (out port of in1)
6. delete the line
7. set_param out1 to position [pos(1)+dx pos(2) pos(3)+dx pos(4)]
8. add conv block to 'pos'
9. addline in1 to conv
10. addline conv to out1

Side note, if the list is really long, name the blocks 'well' and do a loop at the end to add all the lines. My code, with lines added at every step, took 2-3 hours. Doing lines at the end, took 20 mins. [Might only apply to Simulink 6.6.1]

EDIT: Actually, for your specific question, have you tried (no idea if this will work). get_param the port location (x,y location)

add_line([x y], [x y]) %effectively, draw a 'dot'

or get the port location of the existing block, port location of the new block, and add_line to those

[Albert Yam]

I had no idea you could just drop a block on a line to connect it, that's cool. Learn something everyday. Unfortunately, I think that might just be a GUI feature.

Can you quasi-draw out what you want to add? (I think I just got it, by infront you mean behind?) So.

[inport]--->[subsys where there are 19 other inputs]

and you want?

[inport]-->[conv]-->[subsys]

Played around, got this (step through this)

new_system('simtest')
open_system('simtest')

simulink('open')
%%setup
add_block('simulink/Commonly Used Blocks/In1','simtest/in1')
set_param('simtest/in1','Position',[50 50 100 75])

add_block('simulink/Commonly Used Blocks/Out1','simtest/out1')
set_param('simtest/out1','Position',[500 50 550 75])

add_line('simtest','in1/1','out1/1')

%%real code
%find_system blah blah in1

pos1 = get_param('simtest/in1','Position');
pos2 = [pos1(1)+200 pos1(2) pos1(3)+200 pos1(4)];
set_param('simtest/in1','Position', pos2);
%get a lot of parameters here for in1, name, port number
delete_block('simtest/in1')

add_block('simulink/Commonly Used Blocks/Data Type Conversion','simtest/conv1')
set_param('simtest/conv1','Position', pos2);
%set_param('OutDataType')

add_block('simulink/Commonly Used Blocks/In1','simtest/in1')
set_param('simtest/in1','Position', pos1);
%set_param( name, port number)

add_line('simtest','in1/1','conv1/1')

Answer 2

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

% the line fom you want connect to your new block "new_block" is an output for a certain block "block1"

 %for example new_block is a "constant" block and modelname is the name of your simulink model

 add_blck('Simulink/Sources','modelname/new_block')
 % to position your block
 set_param('modelname/new_block','position' , [x0 y0 x0+x_width y0+y_width]) 
 %connect block
 add_line('modelname','block1/1','new_block/1','autorouting','on')
 % 'block1/n' means n'th output of block1
 % 'new_block/n' means n'th input of new_block