rustylink

This crate parses Simulink slx files into a JSON representation and optionally provides code to display or analyze the model.

Important note: At the moment, we only support the R2025a+ file format. At the moment, there are no plans to support older formats, but contributions are welcome.

This viewer is intended to be a starting point for building your own tools around Simulink models. While it does not intend to be a complete Simulink viewer (many features are unsupported), it is still useful for automation tasks.

You don't need a MATLAB or Simulink license or installation to use this tool.

Quick start

Build:

cargo build

Run against your workspace root system:

cargo run --features egui,highlight --example egui_viewer -- MyModel.slx

Non-GUI examples

Print an ASCII tree of SubSystems in a model (works with .slx or individual XML):

cargo run --example tree -- ASXTest.slx

Or point to an XML system file:

cargo run --example tree -- simulink/systems/system_root.xml

Library usage

use rustylink::parser::SimulinkParser;
use camino::Utf8PathBuf;

let parser = SimulinkParser::new(".");
let system = parser.parse_system_file(Utf8PathBuf::from("simulink/systems/system_root.xml"))?;
println!("{}", serde_json::to_string_pretty(&system)?);

Notes

The data model is intentionally generic (maps for properties) to accommodate varying Simulink versions.
Extend model.rs to add more explicit types for blocks you care about.

Optional Features

egui: Interactive viewer UI.
highlight: Syntax highlighting support inside viewer.
mask: (Experimental) Simple mask display evaluation. When enabled, blocks with a mask whose <Display> is of the form disp(var{param}) and whose <Initialization> defines var={'A','B',...}; plus a popup <MaskParameter Name="param"> with a numeric leading index in its <Value> will render the selected entry text inside the block instead of the default icon. This is a tiny custom parser – no MATLAB engine required.

Example mask snippet supported:

<Mask>
	<Display>disp(mytab{control})</Display>
	<Initialization>mytab={'Position','Zero Torque','OFF'};</Initialization>
	<MaskParameter Name="control" Type="popup">
		<Value>1. Position Control</Value>
	</MaskParameter>
</Mask>

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