New Blocks

• audioIn: Reads audio data from a .WAV file or a Windows audio device installed on your computer.
• audioOut: Writes audio data to a .WAV file or a Windows audio device installed on your computer.
• delayedSwitch: Provides the option to delay an “on” command (transition from 0 to 1) and delay an “off” command (transition from 1 to 0). It is often the case in industrial control that a system must wait for some other process to settle or come up to speed before executing. This block makes that easy.
• display: Provides new options for more accurate control over how data is displayed. These options are:
  • Total Digits: The number of displayed digits varies depending on whether the Specify Fractional Digits option is activated:
  • When the Specify Fractional Digits option is not activated, the Total Digits option indicates the total number of digits that can be displayed. When the total number of displayable digits is greater than the Total Digits value, fractional digits are rounded up.
  • When the Specify Fractional Digits option is activated, the Total Digits option indicates the total number of magnitudinal digits that can be displayed (that is, nonfractional digits). The Fractional Digits options allows you to enter the total number of fractional digits displayed.
  • The value you enter in the Total Digits option overrides the setting of the High Precision Display parameter under Preferences in the dialogue box for the Edit > Preferences command. The default is 6.
  • Specify Fractional Digits: Indicates that digits to the right of the decimal point will be displayed. You specify the number of fractional digits in the Fractional Digits box.
  • Fractional Digits: Indicates the total number of fractional digits that can be displayed.
  • Show Leading Zero For Fractions: Enables leading zero to be displayed.
  • Font: Selects a font for the display block. To activate the selected font, you must activate the Override Default Font option.
  • Override Default Font: Allows the selected font to be displayed on the display block.
• expression: Allows multi-algebraic expressions.
• maxElement: Produces a value and index of the maximum value in the matrix.
• minElement: Produces a value and index of the minimum value in the matrix.
• TimeOfDay: Gives you hour, minute, second, day, month, year with interactive update.
• video: Displays a coloured bit for every element in a matrix. The colour and intensity are mapped from values in the matrix.

 

Modelling Features

• VisSim Diagram Explorer Menu: Allows you to explore the VisSim menu hierarchy. This makes it easy and convenient to locate and insert blocks from nested menu trees.
• “Knobs and Gauges:” This new Add-on for VisSim 6 lets you specify various blocks to give high quality graphical behaviour of interactive gauges, meters, dials, switches and knobs. This provides a “dashboard” face plate to drive and monitor your VisSim model.

• Spectrum Display: Displays the amplitude of vector elements with a vertical bar for each element.
• Faster Plot Repaint: Plots with many data points now repaint many times faster.

 

Simulation Features

• Subsystem Superclocking: Allows all blocks within a Compound block to run at a user defined rate faster than the overall sym rate. It also allows for containment of high frequency components, iterating through matrices, or modelling of partial differential equations.
• Integration Algorithms: Adaptive Adams-Moulton and Adaptive BDF integration methods for solving adaptive step stiff systems have been added.
• Real Time Scale Factor: Allows you to run real time simulations at multiples or fractions of real time.
• Auto Checkpointing: Lets you automatically save the diagram state at given intervals to a unique file composed of the original file name plus a time stamp suffix. The file contains the current state of all variables in the diagram, so you can rerun simulations from any checkpointed state.
• Startup Scripting: Allows C or Matrix initialization syntax.
• VisSim-Maple Interface: Allows reading and writing of scalar and matrix data to the Maple (mathematical problem-solving software) workspace, as well as execution of Maple scripts. This brings a fast and smooth interface between VisSim and Maple.
• Import Block: Improved to allow use of comma (,) as a decimal point and allow full-stop (.) as a field separator. The import block now understands hh:mm:ss.ff as a time specification format.
• Export Block: New option to allow use of comma (,) as a decimal point and full-stop (.) as a field separator.

 

User Interface

• VisSim Tutor: Allows you to annotate a VisSim diagram with interactive Help balloons, so that other users can read and understand it better.
• Block Menu Tree: An alternative method to insert blocks into your VisSim diagram.
• Key shortcuts: Ctrl-TAB switches to the next window; Ctrl-F4 closes thecurrent window.
• Block display ordering: Allows “Bring Forward” or “Send to back:” of Bezel blocks.