SimBiology Model Matching Policy

To report the differences between the source and target models, SimBiology^® first decides which components of the models match one another. The matching process includes the following criteria:

• Criterion 1 – Two components are considered the same if both are derived from one single model. For instance, duplicated models in the app, or the same models saved to and loaded from different versions of SBPROJ files, are derived from one single model.

• Criterion 2 – Two components are considered equivalent if criterion 1 is not applicable to these components but they can be uniquely matched by one of the corresponding properties, such as Name, Reaction, Rule, and so on.

The following sections describe how SimBiology matches different types of model components.

Model Quantities

Model quantities include species, compartments, and parameters. SimBiology first matches them using criterion 1. Then, it matches all the remaining quantities using criterion 2. That is, components of the same type that have not yet been matched are compared by the Name property. However, parameters are matched only if they are scoped to matching reactions or if one of the parameters is model-scoped.

Model Expressions

Expression-based components are reactions, rules, events, and observables.

SimBiology matches these components using criterion 1 first. Then it matches all the remaining expression-based components using criterion 2. That is, components of the same type that have not yet been matched are compared by the Name property and one of the following properties for reactions, rules, and events:

• Reaction property for reactions

• Rule property for rules

• Trigger property for events

SimBiology accounts for the changes in these properties (the expression strings) that are caused by the dependent changes. The dependent changes are the side effects of changing the Name, Parent, or Owner properties of a quantity component. When these properties change, they trigger changes in other components referencing the quantity. For instance, the Reaction property of a reaction C1.S1 -> C1.S2 changes to C1.S3 -> C1.S2 when you rename the species S1 residing in a compartment C1 to S3. Such changes are not included in the comparison results of sbiodiff. If you are using the Comparison tool, such changes are automatically hidden.

For kinetic law objects, they match if their parent reactions match.

Doses and Variants

Variants and doses are matched using criterion 1 first. Then the remaining doses and variants are matched using criterion 2. That is, components of the same type that have not yet been matched are compared by the Name property.

Note that for doses, the subtype (RepeatDose or ScheduleDose) must match also.

Variants can contain multiple rows in their corresponding Content property. Each row of the Content cell array includes values for the component type, component name, property name, and property value. When comparing variants with such content, SimBiology matches the property names of the rows and reports the last occurrence if there are duplicate rows with the same component type and component name.

Determine Differences in Component Properties

After model components are matched, SimBiology next determines if the property values of matching components are different. All properties (except the UserData property) of each model component are included in the comparison results.

If either model has a diagram, SimBiology also reports any graphical differences between the diagrams. Specifically, it includes the following properties of graphical blocks of the corresponding model components and graphical lines.

• Graphical block properties: Position, Visible, Pin, Shape, Rotate, FontName, FontSize, FontWeight, TextLocation, FaceColor, EdgeColor, and TextColor.

• Graphical line properties: Color and Width.

Each of these graphical block properties is reported as a property of the corresponding model component in the comparison results. Similarly, if species blocks have any clones, the clones are also matched and reported as properties of the parent block.