Get Started with Design Evolution Manager

Projects help you organize your work for large modeling projects. You can manage all the files you need in one place, including all MATLAB^® and Simulink^® files, and any other file types you need, such as data, requirements, reports, spreadsheets, tests, or generated files.

Design Evolution Manager helps you to manage different versions of a project. Evolutions capture the state of a project at key stages in your design process. Evolutions are organized within an evolution tree hierarchy. The relationships between evolutions and the metadata you associate with different components of an evolution tree help you model your design process, test alternative solutions, and understand the rationale of certain design decisions.

Note

The Design Evolution Manager is available on MATLAB Online™ only and requires a Simulink license.

Key Terms and Concepts

• An evolution is a snapshot of the files in a project. Evolutions are stored separately within the project by the Design Evolution Manager app.

• An evolution tree is a collection of related evolutions, organized in a tree structure. A child evolution is created from a parent evolution.

• The baseline evolution is the reference point for the evolution tree. When you create a new evolution tree, the Design Evolution Manager app creates a baseline evolution that captures a snapshot of the original state of your project.

• The current files indicator marks the evolution whose files are currently open in the project.

  You can get the version of files from any evolution in the tree to put them into the current project.

• The record indicator marks the active evolution tree and the active evolution in this tree. The active evolution automatically records changes you make to files in the current project.

  Non-active evolution trees can be viewed and their metadata updated, but do not record changes to project files.

• You can lock an evolution to prevent changes to project files from being recorded to the evolution. Metadata, such as the name of the evolution and notes, can still be edited.

  If you lock the active evolution, it will no longer record changes. You can either create a new active evolution or the Design Evolution Manager app will automatically create one for you when you make a change in the project.

Example Evolution Tree

This is an example of a small evolution tree. The tree starts with a project captured in the Baseline evolution. Evolution 1 and Evolution 2 capture two alternative solutions based on the Baseline evolution. Evolution 3 is the active evolution. Evolution 3 captures further improvements on Evolution 2.

The Design Evolution Manager app allows you to capture notes for the evolution tree, for each evolution within the tree, and for each connector between two evolutions. At any time, you can select an evolution to see the files and notes captured in that evolution. As you work, you can compare files from any two evolutions in the evolution tree.