What is MXAM?
MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) offers fast and reliable guideline compliance verification for Simulink®, Stateflow®, Embedded Coder®, TargetLink®, ASCET®, and Enterprise Architect® models, as well as Excel® data, using general and company-specific modeling guidelines and data rules.
Certified by TÜV SÜD for IEC 61508, ISO 25119, and ISO 26262
What's New?
Highlights in latest versions of MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.8.1
Automatic return of unused licenses
When licensed instances of the MXAM application remain idle for more than 6 hours, their licenses are automatically returned to the license server. This allows a more effective license usage and avoids unused licensed tool instances. The affected idle MXAM instances are blocked until user input requests a new license checkout.
Support of Linux operating systems (BETA)
New Guidelines for Targetlink (Versions 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2)
Six new guidelines focus on optimizing Targetlink code generation and MISRA C compliance.
Highlights in MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.8.0
Extended Reporting Details
Finding messages referencing additional model elements now include footnotes with link details when model links are not resolvable (e.g. in xlsx or PDF reports).
Report details are consolidated among report formats, adding the architectural metrics table to html and PDF reports, and parameter configuration details to xlsx reports.
Additional Guidelines
New guidelines are added focusing on implicit data type conversions, saturation settings of Integrator blocks, and layouts in Stateflow.
Highlights in MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.7.3
Clone Group Check
The clone group check identifies repetitive subsystems in the model and creates a finding for each group of subsystem clones. The finding contains model links to each member of a clone group to simplify navigation and review in the model.
Multiple Linking into the Model
Check findings now support the listing of multiple model links in the findings messages. This simplifies navigation in the model e.g. for findings that may be affected by several different elements in a model.
Highlights in MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.7.2
- The automatic port selection for the web service as well as the MATLAB connection makes installing and configuring MXAM much easier, and supports automated installation scripts.
- Better user feedback and error handling regarding configuration and runtime issues improve the overall MXAM experience.
- Four new checks added to the MAB 5.0 document and the dSPACE TargetLink 5.0/5.1 document has been updated.
Highlights in MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.7.1
Validation of Project Settings
Show validation details in pre-analysis validation in case of warnings/errors. Prevent execution of an analysis if there is any error detected.
New Checks for MAB
Additional MAB 5.0 guidelines are available.
Highlights in MES Model Examiner® (MXAM) v.7.0
dSPACE TargetLink users will benefit from significant runtime improvements of TargetLink checks and the support of TargetLink 5.1.
Newly available MAB 5.0 guidelines focus on the prevention of division by zero in Simulink and Stateflow.
Installation
Manual Installation
- Installer: Install MXAM by executing the setup file (.exe) and follow the setup instructions.
- The startup of the installation process might take a while depending on the security settings of the client machine.
- Installation to a write-protected directory: Right click the setup file and execute as administrator.
- Zip archive: Unzip the archive into any directory
Automatic Headless Installation
- Run the MXAM installation once on a machine and save your automatic installation data in the Finish Panel to auto-install.xml.
With this data, you will be able to run the same installation on another similar machine. - Configure the auto-install.xml
- Run the automatic installation: >>[installer-name].exe [ABSOLUTE-PATH/auto-install.xml]
License Configuration
Learn more about the MES Quality Tools License Configuration, general license questions and the MES licensing models as well as how to change your MAC-ID.
Update to the Latest Version
- If you added MXAM folders permanently to the MATLAB path, please remove all of these folders from the path.
- If you installed the old version in a folder with a version postfix (e.g. x:\project\matlab\mxam_x_x), you can keep that directory as a backup.
- If you installed without a version postfix, you could rename the old installation directory to one with a version postfix as a backup.
Update from MXAM 1 to a Current Version of MXAM
A migration kit to migrate customer-specific checksets and checks is available upon request.
Please contact sales@model-engineers.com.
System Requirements
The following system requirements must be in place to use MXAM:
- Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 (64-bit versions), or
- Linux (64-bit versions), tested with Ubuntu 20.04.1 Desktop.
- Java 8 to 15 needs to be installed on your system (the tested version to work with MXAM is AdoptOpenJDK 8).
- System requirements when using MXAM with MATLAB®/Simulink®/Stateflow®: MATLAB® version see table below
- System requirements when additionally using TargetLink®: TargetLink® (base suite) version see table below
- System requirements when using MXAM with ASCET: ASCET 6.1 to 6.4.6
- System requirements when using MXAM with EXCEL: Excel 2003 and higher
Compatibility of each MXAM release with MATLAB and TargetLink releases
| MXAM Release | MATLAB Release | TargetLink Release |
| 8.1 | R2015b - R2021b | TL 4.1 - TL 5.2 |
| 8.0 | R2015b - R2021b | TL 4.1 - TL 5.2 |
| 7.3 | R2013b - R2021b | TL 3.5 - TL 5.2 |
| 7.2 | R2013b - R2020b | TL 3.5 - TL 5.1 |
| 7.1 | R2013b - R2020b | TL 3.5 - TL 5.1 |
| 7.0 | R2013b - R2020b | TL 3.5 - TL 5.1 |
| 6.5 | R2011b - R2020b | TL 3.3 - TL 5.0 |
| 6.4 | R2011b - R2019b | TL 3.3 - TL 5.0 |
| 6.3 | R2011b - R2019b | TL 3.3 - TL 5.0 |
| 6.2 | R2011b - R2019b | TL 3.3 - TL 5.0 |
| 6.1 | R2011b - R2019a | TL 3.3 - TL 4.4 |
| 6.0 | R2011b - R2019a | TL 3.3 - TL 4.4 |
| 5.3 | R2011b - R2018b | TL 3.3 - TL 4.4 |
| 5.2 | R2011b - R2018b | TL 3.3 - TL 4.3 |
| 5.1 | R2011b - R2018b | TL 3.3 - TL 4.3 |
| 5.0 | R2011b - R2018a | TL 3.3 - TL 4.3 |
| 4.7 | R2009b - R2017b | TL 3.2 - TL 4.3 |
| 4.6 | R2009b - R2017b | TL 3.2 - TL 4.2 |
| 4.5 | R2009b - R2017a | TL 3.2 - TL 4.2 |
| 4.4 | R2009b - R2017a | TL 3.2 - TL 4.2 |
| 4.3 | R2009b - R2016b | TL 3.2 - TL 4.2 |
| 4.2 | R2009b - R2016b | TL 3.2 - TL 4.2 |
| 4.1 | R2007b - R2016b | TL 2.2 - TL 4.1 |
| 4.0 | R2007b - R2016a | TL 2.2 - TL 4.1 |
| 3.9 | R2007b - R2015b | TL 2.2 - TL 4.1 |
Quick Start
Starting MXAM
- For MATLAB platform: Open MATLAB, navigate to the MXAM installation directory, and execute >>mxam
- For other platforms: Start MXAM using the program shortcut or go to the MXAM installation directory and execute mxam.exe
Starting an Analysis
For MATLAB platform:
- Open a model in MATLAB
- Press "Analyze" in MXAM
- Select the model in the artifact dialog
- Press "Finish"
For ASCET:
- Press "Analyze" in MXAM
- Press "Open ASCET" in the artifact dialog if it is not yet open
- Press "Refresh" to fetch models from the database
- Press "Finish"
For Others:
- In the Project perspective, press "Add..." in the Artifact Section to add an artifact
- Select the artifact and press "Finish"
- Press "Analyze"
Guidelines
- Go to the "Project Guidelines" perspective to see which guidelines will be checked during the analysis.
- To see the pool of all available guidelines, go to the "Library Browser" perspective and select the "Guidelines" view.
Suggestions
If you have any suggestions to help us improve the MES Model Examiner®, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Email: mxam@model-engineers.com
User Instruction
User Guide
The MES User Guide presents clear instructions on how to work with the MES Model Examiner® (MXAM). It provides users with information about getting started and working with MXAM. You can easily call the User Guide by clicking on "Help > Help Contents" in the menu (see image).
MXAM Videos
In this video, Model Engineering Solutions (MES) will demonstrate how to set up an MXAM project as an mxmp-file. You will learn how to create and configure an MXAM project and how to save and load a project. Since this video is focused on the first step of the MXAM workflow, basic knowledge of the workflow is needed in order to watch this video.
In this video MES will explain how to understand reports and demonstrate how to work with them in order to make your model guideline compliant. You will need to have basic knowledge about the MXAM workflow to watch this video.
MES Webinar Series
Find all upcoming webinars. Participation in our webinars is of course free of charge. Webinars are held in English (unless otherwise stated).
Release Notes - MXAM v.8.1 (July 2022)
Tool Framework
Linux is supported as operating system to run MXAM (BETA)
Unused licenses are automatically returned to license server when no tool usage is detected
- When an open MXAM application instance is not used for 6 hours the checked out licenses are returned to license server, allowing other users to acquire this MXAM licenses.
The idling MXAM gets blocked until the user decides to continue its work with newly acquired licenses.
Improvements
- Updated ASCET Adapter to support version 6.4.6 of ASCET.
- Improved performance of logging initialization.
- Allow specification of java runtime to use with MATLAB API.
- Updated license module now bases on Flexera 11.16.
Bug fixes
- Fixed utility function for calculation of InputConnectors in ASCET Adapter in order to support StatementBlocks. (#10039)
Guidelines, Checks, and Documents
New dSPACE Guidelines for TargetLink (Versions 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2) available
- The new versions of the following guidelines are now automatically checkable (#9880, #9936)
- General Guidelines for Simulink, Stateflow, and TargetLink
- General Conventions: TL_RULE_GENERAL_OUTPORT_STATE_INIT
- Block-Specific Guidelines
- Look-Up Table Library: TL_RULE_LUT_LIB_NO_GENERAL_TENSORS
- Logic and Bit Operations Library: TL_RULE_LOGICBIT_LIB_RELOP_LOGOP_SL_TYPE
- Math Operations Library: TL_RULE_MATH_LIB_PROD_BLOCK_NUMBER_INPORTS, TL_RULE_MATH_LIB_PROD_BLOCK_SETTINGS, TL_RULE_MATH_LIB_TRIGO_DATATYPES
- Model Verification Library: TL_RULE_MODELVERIFY_LIB_ASSERT_SIGNAL
- Signal Attributes Library: TL_RULE_SIGNALATT_LIB_DATA_TYPE_CONV
- Signal Routing Library: TL_RULE_SIGNALROUT_LIB_DSMEMORY
- Ensure that the correct options are set for Platform-Specific Code Generation with guideline TL_RULE_SWDESIGN_ANSI_CODE_MISRA (mcheck_mes_cgtl_9004) (#9964)
- Ensure the setting of code generator option ‘UtilizeBitwiseShiftOperations’ to avoid shift operations and achieve compliance to MISRA-C:2004 Rule 12.7 and MISRA-C:2012 Rule 11.4 with guideline TL_RULE_SWDESIGN_MULT_VS_BITSHIFT_MISRA (mcheck_mes_cgtl_9003) (#9881)
- Ensure that all signal input signal ranges are contained in axis ranges of Look-up table blocks with guideline TL_RULE_LUT_LIB_SCALING_INPUT_VS_AXES (mcheck_mes_cgtl_4210) (#9367)
- Ensure the use of unique identifier names for functions and variables in compliance to MISRA-C:2004 Rule 5.6 and MISRA-C:2012 Rule 5.2 with guideline TL_RULE_SWDESIGN_AVOID_OVERLAPPING_NAMES (mcheck_mes_cgtl_4114) (#9887)
- Ensure the ‘Solver’ option in Simulink with guideline TL_RULE_GENERAL_SOLVER (mcheck_mes_slsf_9004) (#9953)
- Enforce the unique declaration of external variables and external functions in compliance to MISRA-C:2004 Rule 8.8 and MISRA-C:2012 Rule 8.5 with guideline TL_RULE_SWDESIGN_EXTERNALS (mcheck_mes cgtl_4303 and mcheck_mes cgtl_4304) (#10005, #10006)
Improvements
- mcheck_sdt_sc008: There is now an additional link to an input’s source block in the finding message. (#9705)
- mcheck_sdt_sc004_c: The range computation for the output of unit delay blocks is now based on the computed range of the input signal instead of the output data range. (#9883)
- Priorities of several dSPACE guidelines updated. (#9996)
Bug fixes
- mcheck_misra_slsf_048_g: When a Stateflow transition only contained delimiters or comments the check aborted. This has been fixed. (#9997)
- mcheck_misra_slsf_013_b: When a control input of a switch block originated from a Simulink bus object port, the data type was not analyzed correctly. This has been fixed. (#9919)
- mcheck_jc_0711: When a stateflow transition action or transition condition contained a syntax error the check aborted. This has been fixed. A review finding is now reported in this case. (#9926)
- mcheck_ds_0087: The position of annotations with text alignment other than ‘left’ is now calculated correctly for MATLAB versions greater than 2016b. (#9944)
- mcheck_misra_slsf_045_d: The check no longer aborts, if there is an event in the analyzed transitions. (#9604)
- mcheck_misra_slsf_048_g: The check no longer aborts on non-empty transition labels containing only formatting characters or comments. (#9997)