Basic Tutorial

This tutorial provides a step by step walk-through of the RT-LAB Workbench.

The Workbench

• When RT-LAB is launched, the first thing you see is a dialog that allows you to select where the workspace should be located.
  • The workspace is the directory where your work will be stored. For now, just click OK to pick the default location.
• After the workspace location is chosen, a single Workbench window is displayed. A Workbench window offers one or more perspectives. A perspective contains editors and views, such as the Project Explorer.
• Initially, in the Workbench window that is opened, the RT-LAB Edition perspective is displayed, with only the Welcome view visible.
• Click the arrow labeled Workbench in the Welcome view to cause the other views in the perspective to become visible.
  • Note you can get the Welcome view back at any time by selecting Help > Welcome.
• A shortcut bar appears in the top right corner of the window. This allows you to open new perspectives and switch between ones already open. The name of the active perspective is shown in the title of the window and its item in the shortcut bar is highlighted.
• You should be seeing the RT-LAB Edition perspective.
• The following views should be visible: The Project Explorer, Compilation, Display, Properties, Matlab, Progress, Console.

Editors and Views

Prior to commencing the RT-LAB Workbench tutorials found in this section, it is important to first be familiar with the various elements of the Workbench.

A Workbench consists of:

• Some features are common to both views and editors. We use the term part to mean either a view or an editor. Parts can be active or inactive, but only one part can be active at any one time.
  • The active part is the one whose title bar is highlighted. The active part is the target for common operations like cut, copy, and paste.
  • The active part also determines the contents of the status line. If an editor tab is not highlighted it indicates the editor is not active, however views may show information based on the last active editor.

Editors

Depending on the type of file that is being edited, the appropriate editor is displayed in the editor area. For example, if a .TXT file is being edited, a text editor is displayed in the editor area.

The figure below shows an editor open on the file file1.txt. The name of the file appears in the tab of the editor. An asterisk (*) appearing at the left side of the tab indicates that the editor has unsaved changes.

If an attempt is made to close the editor or exit the Workbench with unsaved changes, a prompt to save the editor's changes will appear.

When an editor is active, the Workbench menu bar and toolbar contain operations applicable to the editor. When a view becomes active, the editor operations are disabled. However, certain operations may be appropriate in the context of a view and will remain enabled.

The editors can be stacked in the editor area and individual editors can be activated by clicking the tab for the editor. Editors can also be tiled side-by-side in the editor area so their content can be viewed simultaneously.

In the figure below, editors for JanesFile.txt and JanesFile2.txt have been placed above the editor for JanesText.txt. Instructions will be given later in this tutorial explaining how to rearrange views and editors.

If a resource does not have an associated editor, the Workbench will attempt to launch an external editor registered with the platform. These external editors are not tightly integrated with the Workbench and are not embedded in the Workbench's editor area.

On Windows, if the associated editor is an external editor, the Workbench may attempt to launch the editor in-place as an OLE document editor.

For example, editing a DOC file will cause Microsoft Word to be opened in-place within the Workbench if Microsoft Word is installed on the machine.

If Microsoft Word has not been installed, Word Pad will open instead.

Views

The primary use of Views is to provide navigation of the information in the Workbench.

For example:

• The Project Explorer view displays the RT-LAB Workbench projects, their folders, and files.
• The Compilation view displays the build outputs perform on models
• The properties view displays property names and values for a selected item such as a resource.

A view might appear by itself or stacked with other views in a tabbed notebook.

To activate a view that is part of a tabbed notebook, click its tab.

Views have two menus.

The first, which is accessed by right-clicking on the view's tab, allows the view to be manipulated in much the same manner as the menu associated with the Workbench window.

The second menu, called the view pull-down menu, is accessed by clicking the down arrow. The view pull-down menu typically contains operations that apply to the entire contents of the view, but not to a specific item shown in the view.

Operations for sorting and filtering are commonly found in the view pull-down.

A view can be displayed by selecting it from the Window > Show View menu. A perspective determines which views may be required and displays these on the Show View sub-menu.

Additional views are available by choosing Other... at the bottom of the Show View sub-menu. This is just one of the many features that provide for the creation of a custom work environment.

Through the normal course of using the Workbench, you will open, move, resize, and close views. If you'd like to restore the perspective back to its original state, you can select the Window > Reset Perspective menu operation.

A Simple Project

Now that the basic elements of the Workbench have been explained, here are some instructions for creating a simple project. New projects, folders, files, models and targets can be created using several different approaches.

In this section, resources are created using three different approaches:

• File menu
• Project Explorer's view context menu
• New Wizard button

A project can be created using the File menu. Once the project has been created a model and target can be created as well.