Stateflow Tip : The Power of Symbols Pane

Many of you who use Stateflow, might already be familiar with the symbols pane, but I guarantee that there is something for you too, please stick with me while I brush up the symbols pane for who are new to it. It's that small window that pops up on the left side of a Stateflow chart, showing all the interfaces in that chart. You can open the Symbols pane inside the Stateflow chart by clicking the button highlighted above (Modeling tab > Design Data > Symbols Pane).

Symbols pane can be opened inside the stateflow chart by clicking the button highlighted above.

I've seen many modelers try to bypass this Symbols pane by jumping straight to the Property Inspector, which is dangerous and can lead to mismatched types or unresolved symbols that only show up at simulation time. MathWorks clearly advises using the Symbols pane as the single source of truth for declaring or changing any interface in the chart—it ensures everything stays consistent across your model hierarchy.

Now for the ones who already knew about this, a tip for you --> Events! Yes, there's a powerful feature hiding right inside Stateflow charts called Events, and I've rarely seen modelers actually use it, even though it's a game changer for cleaner designs. Unlike data inputs that create persistent ports, events are triggered signals, think of them as "wake-up calls" for your chart logic.

Events enable you to offload logic from chart to subsytems

This is especially for people who prefer Simulink modeling over heavy Stateflow charts. With events, you can offload complex Stateflow logic into Simulink diagrams using Triggered Subsystems.

In automotive power steering models (like what I work on), use events for fault triggers or mode switches which keeps charts lean, buses clean, and HIL runs fast. No more bloated input data fighting your sample times. Try it on your next chart; you'll wonder why you didn't switch sooner.