Check if Simulink is started (for faster use of find_system)

I have a function that calls

find_system('SearchDepth',0);

to check if there are any Simulink elements. As expected, if no models are open, it returns an empty cell array.

BUT Matlab spends ages (about 5 seconds) while "Starting Simulink...". I could omit the check if I knew that Simulink was not started and save the 5 Seconds.

• Is there a way to programmatically check if Simulink is already started?

Answer 1

[dbmn]

I found a workaround that I wanted to share

% check if Simulink was started in the past
current_licenses = license('inuse');

if strcmp('simulink', current_licenses)
  % code that calls findsystem
end

It is not the nicest way to check if simulink has been started in the past by checking the currently used licenses on the machine - but it works most of the time.

Attention: by doing this you will not catch any timeouts that might occur when you are using a server based license.

Answer 2

[Malcolm Wood]

Since R2020b there's a function called isSimulinkStarted which tells you whether the "Starting Simulink..." process has already run - which, as you've seen, isn't quite the same as whether a license has been checked out.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/slref/issimulinkstarted.html