By name: simulink-layout-tidy description: Tidy the layout of an already-built Simulink model — make it compact and readable, remove block overlaps and lines that cut through blocks, and honestly minimize line-line crossings without ever falsely promising zero. Quantifies block overlaps, line-through-block hits, line-line crossings, model extent, and graph planarity (K3,3/K5 detection) before and after arranging, then exports a screenshot for human sign-off. Use when a Simulink or .slx block diagram looks messy, cluttered, overlapping, or tangled; when asked to clean up, arrange, beautify, declutter, or improve the readability of a Simulink diagram; or after auto-building a model that needs visual polish. General-purpose across any domain (not motor-specific). Local MATLAB only. Skip for non-Simulink diagrams, pure simulation or numerical questions, or any request that changes model behavior or port connections. metadata: version: "1.0"
simulink-layout-tidy
Make an already-built Simulink model compact, readable, and overlap-free — and report line crossings honestly, never promising a zero that the graph's topology forbids.
Safety invariants (read first)
In Simulink a block's Position and a line's Points are purely cosmetic and orthogonal to the port connections. That fact is the whole basis for this skill being safe.
- L1 contract (default, zero-risk). This skill MUST only modify block
Positionand linePoints. It MUST NOT add or remove blocks and MUST NOT change any port connection. Why: the compiled model is then byte-for-byte identical, so simulation results cannot change and no functional re-test is needed. - L2 contract (opt-in, explicit only). L2 additionally allows (a) replacing long-range / multi-consumer wires with
Goto/Fromand (b) wrapping a functional cluster into aSubsystem. These are logically equivalent but change the block set, so after enabling L2 you MUST run one smoke simulation and confirm noNaN/Infand unchanged behavior. See references/l2_contract.md. - NEVER hard-gate "zero line crossings." A non-planar graph (one containing a
K3,3orK5minor) cannot be drawn crossing-free on a plane (Kuratowski). Forcing zero would reject mathematically-valid models. Use the tiered gates below instead.
Quick start (L1)
addpath('scripts');
load_system('my_model');
rpt = tidy_layout('my_model'); % diagnose -> arrange -> de-overlap -> re-measure -> screenshot
% rpt.before / rpt.after hold the metric structs; rpt.screenshot is the PNG path.
Diagnose planarity (decides whether zero crossings is even reachable):
extract_graph('my_model', 'graph.json'); % blocks=nodes, lines=edges
% then, from a venv/env with networkx:
% python3 scripts/planarity_check.py graph.json (exit 2 == proven non-planar)
Workflow
| Step | Action | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Measure BEFORE: overlaps, line-block hits, crossings, extent | layout_metrics.m |
| 2 | Diagnose planarity → is zero-crossing reachable at all? | extract_graph.m + planarity_check.py |
| 3 | Build two candidates: minimal-move (de-overlap only) and arrange | tidy_layout.m |
| 4 | Keep whichever has fewer crossings; NEVER accept an arrange regression | tidy_layout.m |
| 5 | Measure AFTER + assert hard gates + export PNG for human sign-off | tidy_layout.m |
arrangeSystem optimizes placement and orthogonal routing but not crossing number — on a non-planar graph it can increase crossings (the fixture goes 9→15). So tidy_layout measures the arrange cost on a throwaway copy and falls back to the minimal-move layout (original routing + just-enough de-overlap) whenever arrange is strictly worse on crossings. The reported after never regresses crossings vs before; crossings remain a soft reported metric, never a hard gate.
Acceptance gates (tiered by reachability)
| Criterion | Gate type |
|---|---|
| block-block overlaps == 0 | hard assert (always achievable) |
| line-through-block hits == 0 (or tiny threshold) | hard assert |
| line-line crossings | soft report + soft gate: planar graph → expect ~0; non-planar → only require ≤ L1 floor, or resolved via L2 |
| screenshot "not ugly" | human-in-the-loop — user eyeballs the PNG |
Full rationale and thresholds: references/gates.md. Metric algorithms (overlap / crossing / planarity, with the verified cross-product test): references/algorithms.md.
Self-contained fixture
make_dirty_fixture.m programmatically builds an ugly model (overlapping blocks, long crossing lines, a non-planar K3,3 fan-in). selftest.m runs the full L1 flow + planarity check against it — no external model needed:
addpath('scripts'); selftest % builds fixture, tidies, asserts gates, prints planarity verdict