Signal object vs Bus Object - Which is better for defining and providing fixed interfaces?

Use case:

Send out bus containing signals whose properties (name, data type, default value) are derived from a database.

What is a better approach? Create signal objects for each signal, or a bus object parametrized with rename/override capability?

[Walter Roberson]

Do you need structured objects (mix of datatypes in one object)? If so then my understanding is that signals cannot handle that case, that any one signal must be a single type.

Do I understand correctly that you have a block (or subsystem) whose output datatype changes ? If so then I think you might have to use Variants; https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/variant-systems.html

[Ansh Gandhi]

Thanks for responding Walter, will try my best to answer..

Yes, the bus will contain signals of different data type but I am also interested in how the answer would change if the data types are the same. And the bus will be virtual so not a data struct as it is referred to in code post code gen.

I did not mean assigning a signal object to the bus creator outport line, rather assiging signal objects for each signal going into the bus creator. So the output data type doesn't change, but the bus will contain fixed signals but of different data types.

Hope that answers the questions!

[Walter Roberson]

I do not think I understand yet what you are doing.

Do you have some MATLAB code that is constructing Simulink objects including connecting them to a bus?

Or do you mean that you have a block (or subsystem) whose output is (one of?) the inputs to a bus creator, but the block (or subsystem) generates different datatypes at different times? If so then I believe that you will need to use variants.

To confirm, your purpose includes code generation?

Is the question about whether the generated code would be more efficient if you used a bus, compared to if you used a whole bunch of signal objects?

[Ansh Gandhi]

Maybe an image will assist!

Yes, currently I have a matlab code that generates bus objects that I assign to the blue bus creator. I keep the override bus signal names option unchecked so as to use the generated signal names.

My primary question is - what is the difference, if I no longer generate and assign the bus object, but generate and assign signal objects to 'a' and 'b' in this picture? The data types, names and properties of the signal objects, or the bus object, won't change once generated, but the signals may have different data types.

My purpose currently doesn't include code gen, but it might in the future so design for codegen is desirable.

'Is the question about whether the generated code would be more efficient if you used a bus, compared to if you used a whole bunch of signal objects?' That wasn't my question, but now that you mention it, I'm interested to know! My impression or guess would be that it doesn't make a difference as long as bus is not 'non-virtual' but I'm not an expert.

[stozaki]

Hello

Did you solve this problem?

stozaki

[Ansh Gandhi]

Hi,

Sorry for the radio silence, and no, still looking for clarification on this.

Regards!