Signal Editor

Create and edit input signals

Description

The Signal Editor tool lets you create and edit input signals that you can organize for multiple simulations.

Mouse, Keyboard, and Touchscreen Shortcuts

You can use these keyboard shortcuts to interact with the Signal Editor.

Edit actions:

Action	Keyboard	Mouse	Multi-Touch
Insert point	Ctrl+P	Click	Tap
Insert line	Ctrl+L	Click	Pan and pinch
Draw	Ctrl+D	Click and draw	Pan
Select a point	Ctrl+T	Click , then click and select point or area To select all areas, double-click	Pan and pinch To select all areas, double-tap
Move a point	Ctrl+M	Click and drag	Tap and move
Continuously delete points on a line		Click
Fit to view if zoom action is selected	Spacebar		Triple tap
Fit to view when signal table is updated	Spacebar
Zoom out	Ctrl+-	Two mouse clicks, if zoom action is selected	Double tap
Expand along the x-axis		Ctrl+mouse pan	Touch and drag along the x-axis in opposite directions
Expand along the y-axis		Shift+mouse pan	Touch and drag along the y-axis in opposite directions

Zoom actions:

Type of Zoom or Pan	Action
Zoom in along the T and Y axes.	Click
Zoom in along the time axis. After selecting the icon, on the graph, drag the mouse to select an area to enlarge.	Click
Zoom in along the data value axis. After selecting the icon, on the graph, drag the mouse to select an area to enlarge.	Click
Zoom only in x while zooming in xy.	Zoom in xy while pressing Ctrl
Zoom only in y while zooming in xy.	Zoom in xy while pressing Shift
Zoom out from the graph.	Click
Fit the plot to the graph. After selecting the icon, click the graph to enlarge the plot to fill the graph.	Click
Pan the graph up, down, left, or right. Select the icon. On the graph, hold the left mouse button and move the mouse to the area of the graph that you want to view.	Click

Snap to Grid for Alignment

You can use these alignment commands to snap to the plot grid for accuracy.

Action	Snap to Grid
Snap values to x grid lines for point and line insertion and movement and zooming.	Snap X to Grid
Snap values to y grid lines for point and line insertion and movement and zooming.	Snap Y to Grid
Snap values to x minor grid lines for point and line insertion and movement and zooming.	Snap X to Tick
Snap values to y grid lines for point and line insertion and movement and zooming.	Snap Y to Tick
Snap to incremental value in X grid.	Snap X to Increment
Snap to incremental value in Y grid.	Snap Y to Increment
Turn plot markers on and off.	Markers

Signal Selections

You can use these keyboard shortcuts to select multiple signals in scenarios.

Action	Snap to Grid
Select all signals with the same under all scenarios	F3
Select all the signals under the same scenario	F4
Select all scenario children	Shift+F4
Select all scenarios	F1

Open the Signal Editor

• MATLAB^® Command Window: Enter signalEditor.

• Root Inport Mapper: To create a MAT-file for your new signal data, select Signals > New MAT-File. To link in an existing signal data file from an existing scenario and edit the signals in that file, use the Signals > Edit MAT-File.

• Signal Editor block: Click .

  Note

  The Signal Editor block opens a version of the Signal Editor tool that has some parameters related to the block.

  

• Simulink^® Editor toolstrip:

  1. In the Prepare section of the Simulation tab, click the expander.

  2. Click Inputs & Parameter Tuning > Signal Editor.

Signals can be:

• MATLAB timeseries objects. timeseries objects cannot have empty Data properties.

• timetable objects. timetable objects cannot represent multiple variables.

• Structure of MATLAB timeseries or timetable objects.

• Two-dimensional matrices.

Examples

Change Signal Names and Hierarchy Orders

In the Inputs pane, you can change signal names and hierarchy order, create duplicates of signals, and delete signals. The software ignores leading and trailing spaces in signal names.

To change a signal name, double-click the name and enter a new name.

To change the unit or interpolation of a signal, in the Inputs pane, select the signal you want to edit, then navigate to the Input Properties pane, and update the Unit or Interpolation value.

To change the order of a signal in the hierarchy, drag and release the signal. For example, you can drag and release signals into a bus.

Alternatively, in the Adjust section, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

To copy a signal and paste it under the original, right-click the signal and select Duplicate Signal.

Alternatively, in the Adjust section, use the Duplicate button. You can also adjust the default properties of the signal you duplicate. For more information, see Create Signals with the Same Properties.

To copy a signal and paste it elsewhere in hierarchy, select Copy and then Paste.

Create Signals with the Same Properties

To create signals of the same predefined type, in the Adjust section, use the Duplicate button. To change the predefined signal type, click the Defaults icon . The Properties for Insertion dialog box opens.

On the Signals tab:

• Data type — From the list, select the signal data type.

  Enumeration — When you select the Enum data type, this parameter displays. Enter the class name of your enumeration.

  If you define an enumeration class that contains the same integer value multiple times, the Signal Editor treats the first enumeration value as the canonical value and equates all subsequent instances of the same underlying integer to the enumerated name. In this example, Red(118)) is canonical, so Pink equals Red.

  classdef(Enumeration) hEnumColors_duplicateValues < Simulink.IntEnumType
    enumeration
      Red(118)
      Yellow(-14)
      Blue(90)
      Green(87)
      White(-14)
      Black(198)
      Brown(90)
      Pink(118)
      Purple(90)
    end
    methods (Static = true)
      function retVal = getDefaultValue()
        retVal = hEnumColors_duplicateValues.Blue;
      end
    end
  end
  

• Interpolation — From the list,select linear or zero order hold.

• Unit — Enter an appropriate unit expression. For a suggested list of unit expressions, see Allowed Units.

• Dimensions — Enter the number of dimensions for the signal. For a multidimensional blank signal, enter a dimension greater than 1.

• Signal type — From the list, select real or complex.

• Variable type — From the list, select Timeseries (default), Timetable, Logged timeseries, or Logged timetable.

  Logged timeseries and logged timetables objects are Simulink.SimulationData.Signal objects whose Value property is of data type timeseries or timetable.

On the Buses tab:

• Bus object — From the list, select the bus object for which to define the dimensions. If you leave the Bus object parameter as the default <object name>, the Signal Editor adds empty buses.

• Dimensions — Enter the number of dimensions for the bus object.

On the Constant tab:

• Value — Enter constant value to output.

• Time — Enter sample time.

On the Step tab:

• Initial value — Enter output value before step.

• Final value — Enter output value after step.

• Start time — Enter time when step starts.

• Step time — Enter time increment when step occurs.

• Step final time — Enter final step time.

On the Pulse tab:

• Initial value — Enter initial default value of signal.

• Value at trigger — Enter value of signal at pulse trigger.

• Pulse duration — Enter length of time of pulse.

• Step time — Enter time when step occurs.

• Trigger time — Enter time when pulse trigger occurs.

Modify Multiple Scenarios or Signals Simultaneously

In the Inputs section, you can select multiple scenarios or signals simultaneously and perform actions on them.

Start Signal Editor.

In the toolstrip, add two scenarios. Click Scenario twice.

To the first Scenario, add a basic signal and step. In Insert, click Signal and Step.

By default, basic signals are created with linear interpolation while step signals are created with zero-order hold (ZOH) interpolation.

Change the interpolation of both signals to linear. In the Inputs pane, select both Signal and Step. Observe that in the Input Properties pane, the Interpolation field now shows <mixed values>.

In the Interpolation field, type linear. Individually select Signal and Step and observe that they now both have linear interpolation.

Add the same signal types to both scenarios. In the Inputs pane, select Scenario and Scenario1. Then in the Insert pane, click Function Call.

Cut, Copy, or Paste Data Between Signal Editor and Excel Spreadsheets

Exchange rows and columns of data between Signal Editor and Excel^® spreadsheets using cut, copy, and paste operations.

If you do not have an existing Excel spreadsheet, create an Excel spreadsheet and data.

Select and copy two adjacent items, such as A5 and B5.

In Signal Editor, create a signal and double-click the hide icon ().

In the signal pane, select two adjacent cells.

Paste the contents from the spreadsheet to the Signal Editor data table.

Tip

You can cut, copy, and paste directly into a spreadsheet or Signal Editor data table. However, if you cut, copy, and paste to a selected target area, the selected target area must be the same size as the source area.

Create Signal Data Using Standard Waveforms

In the Signal Editor tab, create signal data from the standard waveform options.

• Constant — Straight line waveform with a default value of 1.

  

• Step — Step waveform with default initial value of 0 and final value of 5.

  

• Pulse — Pulse waveform with default initial value of 0, pulse at trigger 5, and pulse duration of 1.

  

To change the data from these waveforms, you can manually modify them in the plot. If you want to create multiple waveform plots with the same set of initial data, you can change the default signal properties for the waveform.

Start Signal Editor.

In the toolstrip, click Scenario.

To add a pulse waveform to the scenario, select the scenario and from the Insert section, select Pulse.

In the signal hierarchy, double-click the hide icon ().

To change the default of the pulse waveform and its data, in the toolstrip, click Defaults ().

In the Properties for Insertion dialog box, on the Pulse tab, change the values as desired.

To add a second pulse waveform to the scenario, select the scenario, and from the Insert section, click Pulse.

Work with Data in Signals

You can add and delete data to the signals in a linked scenario. To create a model to work with, see Add Signals to Scenarios.

In the MATLAB Command Window, create data by entering this command:

ts = timeseries([0;20],[0;10]); 

Add a scenario. Click Scenario.

In the Signal Editor, in the File section, click Import.

In the Import window, in the Select signals to import pane, select the ts signal and click OK.

Drag the ts signal into the scenario.

In the Signal Editor, in the Inputs pane, double-click the hide icon () for the signal ts.

The focus moves to the Edit tab.

Add data to the signal ts.

1. In the Scenario.ts pane, click the add row icon (), and add signals. To add a signal row between other signals, click the signal above, then click the add row icon.

2. When done, click anywhere in the pane to update the plot. To reorient the plot, click Fit to View.

   

Remove the time 20 line from the signal. Select 20 and click .

Alternatively, if you want to replace all the signal data for ts with a signal defined with signal notations, click the replace button and use the Author and Replace Signal Data dialog box to define new data.

Move Signal Points in Signal Editor

You can move one signal point, two signal points, or an entire plot in Signal Editor. Create a plot to work with, for example, see Create Freehand Signal Data Using Mouse or Multi-Touch Gestures.

Click the Select button. This action persists until you select another action.

Click a point. The move icon appears on top of the point.

Drag the point to another area of the plot.

Tip

You cannot drag the point horizontally past adjacent points.

To move two contiguous signal points, click one point.

• Click a point.

  • Click anywhere on the line between the two contiguous points.

  • Drag to the other point on the same line.

The move icon appears on top of the points.

Drag the points to another area of the plot.

Tip

You cannot drag the point horizontally past adjacent points.

To move an entire plot, select the entire plot. Alternatively, double-click anywhere on the plot.

The move icon appears on top of the plot.

Drag the plot to another area of the canvas.

Related Examples

• Create and Edit Signal Data

Parameters

File

New — Start new Signal Editor session

button

Open a new Signal Editor session.

Open — Open MAT-file containing signals

button

Open MAT-file containing signals to be displayed and edited in Signal Editor.

Save — Save signal data to MAT-file

button

Save the contents of Signal Editor. Clicking this button also makes the signal data visible to the Signal Editor block.

Import — Import signals from registered file type

button

Import signals from registered file types that Signal Editor supports. For more information, see Import Custom File Type.

Export — Save signals to registered file type

button

Save signals to registered file types that Signal Editor supports. For more information, see Export Signals to Custom Registered File Types.

Scenario

Scenario — Create scenario

button

Create scenario to contain signals.

Insert

Defaults — Change predefined signal types and properties

button

Change the predefined signal type and properties by clicking . Use this button to define your own signal defaults, such as signal dimensionality, data type, and so forth.

Signal — Insert basic signal

button

Insert basic signal by clicking . For more information, see Work with Basic Signal Data.

Function Call — Insert function-call signal

button

Insert function-call signal by clicking .

If you need a function-call signal for a root inport with explicit periodic sample time, insert a ground signal instead. Simulink then executes the function-call automatically.

Constant — Instant constant signal

button

Insert constant signal with value of 1 by clicking .

Bus — Insert bus

button

Insert bus by clicking . To the bus you can add signals using any of the other signal insertions techniques.

Author Signal — Author signal using MATLAB expressions or workspace variables

button

Author signal using MATLAB expressions or workspace variables by clicking . The dialog box displays:

• Time — Enter the range of time for the data.

• Data — Enter the MATLAB expression for the signal.

• Data type — Select or enter the signal data type.

  • double

  • single

  • int8

  • uint8

  • int16

  • uin16

  • int32

  • uint32

  • boolean

  • fixdt(1,16)

  • fixdt(1,16,0)

  • fixdt(1,16,2^0,0)

  • string

  • Enum: <class name>

  If you enter your time and data and then select a fixed-point data type, the Signal Editor displays a fixed-point proposed data type for your data.

  • To help you select a fixed-point data type, click the Show Histogram button (). Clicking this button displays a plot of the signal data using the selected fixed-point data type. The graph displays:

    Column	Information
    Values	The negative, positive, and zero signal values.
    Potential Overflows	Bins the signal values that may overflow.
    In-Range	Bins the signal values that are within acceptable range.
    Potential Underflows	Bins the signal values that may underflow.

    To see the difference that a data type may have on the histogram, select:

    • User Specified

    • Binary Scaling

    • Slope & Bias Scaling

    For more information, see Histogram Plot of Signal (Fixed-Point Designer).

  • To apply the proposed fixed-point data type to your data, click the Use proposed data type button ().

For more information, see Create Signals with MATLAB Expressions and Variables.

Step — Insert step waveform signal

button

Insert step waveform signal with an initial value of 0 and a final value of 1 by clicking .

Ground — Insert ground signal

button

Insert ground signal by clicking .

Pulse — Insert pulse waveform signal

button

Insert pulse signal waveform signal with an initial value of 0, trigger value of 1, and initial pulse duration of 1 by clicking .

Adjust

Duplicate — Copy signal

button

Copy signal and paste it under original signal.

Move Up — Move signal up the signal hierarchy

button

Move signal up the signal hierarchy in a bus or scenario by clicking the signal and then clicking Move Up.

Move Down — Move signal down the signal hierarchy

button

Move signal down the signal hierarchy in a bus or scenario by clicking the signal and then clicking Move Down.

Delete — Delete signal

button

Delete signal by selecting one or more signals and clicking .

Programmatic Use

signalEditor opens the Signal Editor from the MATLAB Command Window.

Tip

Load the model first with load_system.

signalEditor(Model="modelName"); opens the Signal Editor for the model, 'modelName'. You can specify one model per call to the signalEditor function.

Note

Load the model before starting the Signal Editor for the model.

signalEditor(___,DataSource="dataSourceName"); opens the Signal Editor for the data source, 'dataSourceName'. You can specify one data set file per call to the signalEditor function.

Note

You can start multiple sessions of Signal Editor for the same model. However, you can associate a data set file with only one Signal Editor at a time. A data set file cannot have multiple Signal Editor sessions associated with it.

signalEditor(___,InitialScenario="scenario_name"); opens the Signal Editor with the signals from "scenario_name" already plotted.

Version History

Introduced in R2017b

R2026a: Signal Editor tool and block synchronization

The Open Signal Editor button in the Signal Editor block now opens a version of the Signal Editor tool that is synchronized with the Signal Editor block. In releases prior to R2026a, all instances of the Signal Editor tool had the same characteristics. For more information, see Differences Between the Signal Editors.

The block version of the Signal Editor tool has these changes:

• When you click Open Signal Editor, the Signal Editor tool now opens populated with the active scenario. The active plot shows the last signal in the scenario.

• A new Active column in the hierarchy shows the active scenario for the block. To change the active scenario, click the associated button.

• New input properties support the corresponding block parameters.

  Signal Editor Block	Signal Editor Interface
  Output as bus object	Output a bus signal
  Bus object	Select bus object
  Enable zero-crossing detection	Enable zero-crossing detection
  Form output after final data value by	Form output after final data value by
  Sample time	Sample time

  Note

  The Interpolate data and Unit parameters of the Signal Editor tool are only reflected in the Signal Editor block when the block parameter Use properties from is set to Signal data in MAT file.

• To change the active scenario in the Signal Editor tool, click the associated button in the hierarchy Active column, and then click Save. Closing the tool updates the Signal Editor block.

• Block parameters become read-only when you open the Signal Editor tool. To change control from the Signal Editor tool to the Signal Editor block, close the Signal Editor tool.

• To see parameter changes for an active signal from the Signal Editor block in the associated Signal Editor tool, click the active signal in the signal hierarchy.

R2026a: Signal Editor tool updates

The Signal Editor has these updates:

• The tool now supports multisignal and multiscenario selections in the Inputs signal hierarchy pane:

  • Select all signals with same name under all scenarios

  • Select all signals under same scenario

  • Select all scenario children

  • Select all scenarios

• The tool has smoother selection and move point actions. You can now click and drag a point on the canvas. Prior to R2026a, to select and move a point, you clicked and released the point, and then clicked and dragged it.

• The Supported File Types table has a new column, File Extension, that lists the file extensions supported by the respective import file type.

R2025a: Signal Editor tool updates

The Signal Editor tool has these updates:

• Replace a signal with a waveform — In the Inputs hierarchy pane, right-click on the signal you want to replace, select Replace the signal with from the context menu, and select one of these waveforms.

  • Constant

  • Step

  • Pulse

  • MATLAB expression, which starts the Author and Replace Signal Data dialog box.

• Copy and paste signal names, properties, and data

  • To copy all signal information, including name, properties and data, in the Inputs hierarchy pane, right-click on the signal you want to replace and select Copy. Then paste in another area of the Inputs hierarchy pane. In the hierarchy pane, you can paste to the same scenario, a different scenario, or outside a scenario.

  • To copy signal data and time only, in the signal pane, copy the signal and data from the table and paste it into another row and/or column of the signal pane. The size of the pasted data and signal must match the size of the copied signal and data.

  • To replace all signal data with the contents of the clipboard, copy signal data from another source, such as a Microsoft^® Excel spreadsheet or another Signal Editor signal data table, and then in the signal pane, right-click and select Replace signal data with > Clipboard data. Note:

    • Signal data table and clipboard data table must have the same number of columns.

    • The first column of the clipboard data table must be monotonically increasing.

    • The data type of the existing signal data must be able to cast to the clipboard data.

• Update a signal in the signal pane. If the signal value is outside the plot area, apply Fit to view to the plot associated with the signal in the signal pane without leaving the signal pane. To apply Fit to view to the associated plot from the signal pane, in the signal pane press Spacebar.

• The signal data table now accepts hexadecimal (0x) and binary (0b) data formats. To see the data in hexadecimal or binary, the Display Format parameter now lets you set the display format for floating-point and fixed-point data to binary or hexadecimal.

R2024b: Signal Editor tool updates

The Signal Editor tool has these updates:

• Set up and preserve the display format for the scenario data table that contains the TIME and DATA columns using the Display Format parameter. The Signal Editor tool remembers up to five signal data settings. The Display Format parameter sets the display format for time and for floating-point and fixed-point data. For more information, see Change Signal Data Output Format Settings.

• To programmatically open the Signal Editor tool with the active scenario signals already plotted, use the new signalEditor function InitialScenario argument with an existing scenario.

• When you click Browse in the Export dialog box, the Save as type parameter now provides a list of supported file extensions to which to export the file.

• When you start the Signal Editor interface separately from the block, you can now provide the model parameter to access variables from the MAT-file attached to the model. Prior to R2024b, you could provide the model parameter to access variables from only the model workspace or data dictionary.

R2024a: Signal Editor tool updates

The Signal Editor tool has these updates:

• Move signals in Signal Editor — See Move Signal Points in Signal Editor.

• Change x- and y-axes limits — See Change x- and y-axes Limits.

• Synchronize signals by time — See Add and Edit Multidimensional Signals.

• Signal and associated table data selection now linked — See Add and Edit Multidimensional Signals.