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Views support editors and provide alternative presentations and ways to navigate the information in your Workbench. For example, the Project Explorer and other navigation views display projects and other resources that you are working with.

• Views also have their own menus.

• To open the menu for a view, click the icon at the left end of the view's title bar. Some views also have their own toolbars.

• The actions represented by buttons on view toolbars only affect the items within that view. A view might appear by itself, or stacked with other views in a tabbed notebook.

• You can change the layout of a perspective by opening and closing views and by docking them in different positions in the Workbench window.

Fast Views

Fast views are hidden views that can be quickly opened and closed. They work like other views except they do not take up space in your Workbench window.

• Fast views are represented by toolbar buttons on the fast view bar, which is the toolbar initially on the bottom left of the Workbench window.

• When you click the toolbar button for a fast view, that view opens temporarily in the current perspective (overlaying it).

• As soon as you click outside that view or the view loses focus it is hidden again. The fast view bar can also be docked on the other sides of the Workbench window.

• You can create a new fast view by dragging any open view to the fast view bar or by selecting Fast View from the menu that opens when you right-click the icon of the view's tab.

• You can also click on the left-most button of the fast View bar to open a menu that will show a list of views.

• Selecting a view from this list (or from the dialog that appears if you select 'Other...' will result in the selected view being added to the fast view bar and activating (i.e. shown as the active part).

Detached Views

Detached views are views that are shown in a separate window with a smaller trim. They work like other views except they are always shown in front of the Workbench window.

You can create a new detached view by dragging any open view outside of the Workbench window or by selecting Detached from the menu that opens when you right-click the view's tab.

Project Explorer

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The Project Explorer is one of the most important parts of the RT-LAB workbench. It allows you to view, create and edit all the resources that you need to complete a simulation. 

Resources

There are two kinds of resources: some are specific to RT-LAB (like models and targets) while others are more common resources (like files and folders on the file system).

By default, only RT-LAB resources are shown in the Project Explorer. It is possible to display other resources by clicking on the Filter Resources button.

Each RT-LAB resource reflects an entity managed by the RT-LAB Controller.

Projects

Generally speaking, a project is a set of resources that interacts to achieve a common goal. Several types of projects exist and may appear in Project Explorer. The type of project is determined at project creation in the corresponding RT-LAB project wizard.

In order to interact with a simulator, you must create an RT-LAB project. This kind of project allows you to group several models or to attach model-related files, such as simulation results or test sequences, to the model itself. This makes it easier to share simulation settings and results.

You may take advantage of other project types if you want to develop specific applications. Project types are generally associated with a particular programming language. For example, create a Python project if you need advanced Python functionalities or create a C/C++ project if you plan to develop your own S-Function for Simulink.

Each project maps to a directory in the file system. This location is specified when you create a new project. See New RT-LAB project wizard. The content of this directory will be displayed in the Project Explorer only if you disable the corresponding filter (see Filter Resources below).
If you are done with a project, you can close it by right-clicking on it and clicking Close Project. Closed projects require less memory but their contents are not displayed in the Project Explorer. To re-open a project, right-click on it and select Open Project or simply double-click on it.

Models

Models are the main components of simulation since they determine the behavior of a simulator.

Within the RT-LAB context, the term model has to be clarified since it can refer to two distinct  elements:

• The model file, developed with external tools such as MATLAB/Simulink, is stored in the file system.

• The Model object, or simply Model, an interface to the model file in the RT-LAB simulator, resides in the Controller memory.

Each RT-LAB Model is closely linked to its original model file. For example, a MATLAB/Simulink model is saved to a file with the .mdl extension. Depending on currently active Filters, this file may appear in Project Explorer. Adding this file to an RT-LAB project creates a new model object which allows additional interaction such as compilation and execution. RT-LAB provides a New RT-LAB model wizard for the creation of a model. Simple templates are available and help you to create a basic skeleton for the real-time subsystems.

This wizard creates both the model file and the corresponding Model object. If you create a model file directly from external tools or if you want to use an existing model file, you must manually create the Model object for the simulation. This can be done using the Add entry of the Context menu or the Drag and Drop.

For convenience, all the Model objects that are part of a simulation are displayed as children of a special element named Models. This element is only a graphical container and is not considered a resource. Actions that can be handled by this element are described in the section named Model Folder below.

Before launching a simulation, a model needs to be built as described in Building models. Once built, a Model contains a list of Subsystems and possibly one Console.

Subsystems

The compilation process creates Subsystems based on the top-level elements of your model file. 

A Subsystem is a computation unit that can interact with other Subsystems and with the Console. In order to run a simulation, each subsystem must be assigned to an RT-LAB Target using the Assignation Page. Console

Like Subsystems, the Console is created during the compilation process. The Console provides basic interaction with the rest of the model: it allows the user to modify the values of control signals and to display the values of acquisition signals.

Targets

An RT-LAB Target represents a physical simulator designed to execute Models. They are identified by a name and are associated with an IP address.

Target icons indicate the platform and the state of the Targets. They also allow the identification of the different development nodes used for compilation. To manage the Development Nodes, use the RTLAB preference page or the context menu of a Target.

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From top to bottom: Target is down or not accessible. The Target is up and runs Windows.   The Target is up and runs OPAL-RTLinux (x86-based). The Target is up, runs OPAL-RTLinux (x86-based), and is the development node for the OPAL-RTLinux (x86-based) platform. The Target is up, runs OPAL-RTLinux (x86-based), and is the development node for several platforms.

Other Resources

The Project Explorer can be used to manipulate other resources such as files and folders. Except if they are filtered, all the files and folders present in a project’s directory appear as children of the File system container:

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If you need to use files or folders that are outside of the project’s directory, you can use linked resources. To do so, right-click on a project and select New > File or New > Folder. A dialog is then displayed: click on the Advanced button, select Link to file/folder in the file system and browse to the file or the folder you want to import.

Here is what this dialog looks like while creating a linked folder:

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Linking a folder

The selected, linked folder appears in the Project Explorer:

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Since linked resources are only links, deleting such a resource only removes the link. The original file or folder is not affected. However, children of a Linked Folder are not linked, so deleting them destroys the original files or folders.

Organizing Resources: Resources on the File System

Each project maps to a directory on the file system. By default, these directories are located in the workspace folder (<RTLAB_ROOT>/workspace/). A project’s directory has the same name as the project itself, so renaming a project in the RT-LAB Workbench renames its directory automatically. Similarly, deleting a project entirely deletes its directory.

When you create a resource in a project, for example when creating a new Model with the New RTLAB model wizard, this resource is stored in its mapped directory.

The default resource hierarchy of a project respects the following rules:

• There is one folder per Model, containing all model-related files

• All Model folders belong to a folder named models

• This models folder is a direct child of the project

Here is an example of this hierarchy:

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Standard resource hierarchy

Working with linked resources

Although respecting the previously described resource hierarchy is highly recommended for simpler resource management, sometimes it may be useful to manipulate resources located outside of a project’s directory. This is the case when several users want to share some files through a network or when several projects use the same files.

To add external files and folders to a project, you have to create linked resources, as described in the Other resources section.

Model and project states

A Model may be in different states depending on the actions performed by the user. The typical state sequence is: Not Loadable, Compiling, Loadable, Loading, Paused, Running, Resetting, Loadable.

Compiling, Loading and Resetting are transitional states. During these states, there are very few possible interactions with the model.

When a Model is in one of the following states: Compiling, Loading, Paused, Running or Resetting, its state is displayed as shown below:

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Model state: running

When an RT-LAB project is closed or collapsed, its state is displayed in three cases:

• If at least one of its Models is currently Loading, Paused, Running or Resetting, the project is in the global state Running

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Project state: running

• If no Models are running and if another application, such as a Python script, is connected to this project, its state is set to Active

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Project state: Active

• If at least one of its Model was Loading, Paused, Running or Resetting, but does not respond anymore, its state is set to Active & not responding

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Project state: Active but not responding

When an RT-LAB project is Active & not responding, it cannot be opened. If one of its models is definitely lost (for example, its target has crashed), you can right-click on this project and select Clean Project info as shown below:

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This resets the state of unreachable models and allows the project to be re-opened.

Label Decorations

Decorations display additional information on the elements of the Project Explorer by adding an overlay icon or a short suffix.

• They are used for example to display Model and project states or to show the platform of a Target.

• All these decorations are optional and can be disabled in the Label Decorations preference page.

• The Project Explorer’s menu provides quick access to the following decorations:

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View menu: Show Decorations

Model Platform

Adds an overlay icon to Models to show their current platform:

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Subsystem Assignation

Adds the name of the assigned target next to models (if applicable) or subsystems:

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Problem Icons

Adds an overlay icon to RT-LAB items to show errors and warnings:

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Problem Messages

Adds a message to RT-LAB items to describe errors and warnings:

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Target Problems

Adds a message to Targets to describe warnings:

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Active Projects

Project Explorer is not the only way to create RT-LAB projects. For example, a Python script can use RtlabApi.NewProject() to create its own RT-LAB project. Such projects are displayed in the Project Explorer as shown below:

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Active Project

myproject is not part of the workspace because it has been created by an external application. Note that it cannot be expanded and there is no interaction with it. If you want to see the content of this project and to interact with it, you need to import it to your
Workspace. The easiest way to realize this is to right-click on the Active Project and select Add to workspace. The Active Project is then replaced by a standard RT-LAB project:

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Imported Active Project

Working Sets

Working sets are useful to organize projects into groups. This is very helpful to identify related projects or when the Workspace contains a lot of projects. Working sets are managed through the View menu:

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Working Set Menu

Clicking Select Working Set... displays the following dialog:

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In this dialog, you can create, edit and select Working sets. Editing a Working set allows you to choose which projects are part of this Working set.

Working sets may affect the presentation of the Project Explorer in two different ways, depending on the Top Level Elements menu:

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Top Level Element menu

If Working Sets is selected, the selected Working sets appear in the Project Explorer as containers:

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Working Set display

If Projects is selected, only projects that are part of the currently selected Working sets appear in the Project Explorer. Other projects are hidden.

Clicking Deselect Working Set makes all existing projects appear in the Project Explorer again. 

Filters

The Project Explorer uses Filters to determine what types of resources must be displayed. In other words, applying a Filter makes the corresponding resources disappear from the Project Explorer.

To access Filters, choose Customize View... from the View Menu:

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Customize View menu

The following dialog is displayed:

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Customize View (Filters) dialog

Toolbar

The Toolbar of the Project Explorer contains the following elements:

Open	From top to bottom: Collapse All Link Editor Filter Resources Filter Targets View Menu

Collapse All	This command collapses the tree expansion state of all resources in the view.
Link Editor	This command toggles whether the Project Explorer view selection is linked to the active editor. When this option is selected, changing the active editor will automatically update the Project Explorer selection to the resource being edited.
Filter Resources	This command toggles whether the Resources filter is applied or not. When this filter is enabled, the files and the folders that are part of an RT-LAB project are hidden from the Project Explorer, as shown. When this filter is disabled, files and folders are visible: Open Project Explorer with Resources Note that some resources may remain hidden if other filters are active, such as the Internal files filter.
Filter Targets	This command toggles whether the Target filter is applied or not and allows the user to configure this filter. Clicking on this button displays the following dialog: Open Target Filter dialog In this example, only the Targets that run OPAL-RTLinux (x86-based) and whose IP address starts with 192.168.0. will be displayed in the Project Explorer.
View Menu	Displays a menu for managing Working sets and Filters.
Context menu	A Context Menu is displayed whenever a right-click is performed on the Project Explorer. The content of this menu depends on what element is selected and what Capabilities preference page are enabled.

Here are the menu entries that are common for files, folders, projects and some other resources: