Create a GUI with UI Designer

Create a graphical user interface with predefined objects from the UI Designer toolkit.

The UI Designer toolkit provides an easy drag-drop method to create graphical user interface designs without manual coding. The intuitive workflow lets you assemble a GUI design with predefined objects, preview and modify the design, then save the design as an OML code skeleton that you can further develop.

From the ribbon, select GUI Utilities > UI Designer.

The UI Designer opens in a new window.
Drag objects from the Widget box into the Dialog to create your GUI design.
The following example shows a simple GUI with a list box, slider, radio buttons, push button and labels.
Modify the location, name, and properties of each object as required for your design.
- To adjust location, select the object and move it with your mouse or arrow keys.
- To modify properties, select an object, then modify the desired properties in the Property Editor.
  
  You can also right-click an object and define a number of properties through the context menu.
From the UI Designer ribbon, select the Preview button.

A preview of your graphical user interface design is displayed. Review your design, then close the Preview window.

Save your design and specify your preferred file format:

Save As	Descrption
*.ui	Saves your design as a UI Designer file. Use this file format when you want to continue working on your design through UI Designer.
*.oml	Use this format to generate a code skeleton. Note: Once you save your design as code, you cannot load it back into the UI Designer. If you want to keep a working verision of your design that you can open through the UI Designer, save a version in .ui format before saving as code.

When the design example from above is saved as an .oml file, the following code is produced:

% Auto-generated code by UI Designer

%-----------------------------------
% GUI elements:
%-----------------------------------
Dialog = figure('units', 'pixels', 'position', [0 0 410 310] ...
    , 'numbertitle','off', 'name','Dialog');
undock(Dialog);

slider = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','slider' ...
    , 'callback','slider_callback', 'interruptible','off' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.25 0.50 0.21 0.07] ...
    , 'enable','on', 'max', 99 , 'min', 0 , 'orient','horizontal' ...
    , 'value', 0 , 'sliderstep', [1 10] ...
    , 'callbackdelay',0.000000, 'tag','slider', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

text = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','text' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.07 0.47 0.15 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'string','Fast' ...
    , 'horizontalalignment','left' ...
    , 'verticalalignment','middle', 'foregroundcolor', [20 20 20], 'backgroundcolor', [246 246 246] ...
    , 'tag','text', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

text_2 = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','text' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.47 0.47 0.15 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'string','Detailed' ...
    , 'horizontalalignment','left' ...
    , 'verticalalignment','middle', 'foregroundcolor', [20 20 20], 'backgroundcolor', [246 246 246] ...
    , 'tag','text_2', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

radioButton = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','radiobutton' ...
    , 'callback','radioButton_callback', 'interruptible','off' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.05 0.67 0.25 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'string','Create Log File', 'value', 0 , 'foregroundcolor', [20 20 20] ...
    , 'tag','radioButton', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

radioButton_2 = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','radiobutton' ...
    , 'callback','radioButton_2_callback', 'interruptible','off' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.05 0.77 0.38 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'string','Generate Animation', 'value', 0 , 'foregroundcolor', [20 20 20] ...
    , 'tag','radioButton_2', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

pushButton = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','pushbutton' ...
    , 'callback','pushButton_callback', 'interruptible','off' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.53 0.77 0.25 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'string','Run', 'value', 0  ...
    , 'foregroundcolor', [0 0 0] ...
    , 'backgroundimage','' ...
    , 'backgroundcolor',[246,246,246], 'tag','pushButton', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');

popupMenu = uicontrol('parent', Dialog, 'style','popupmenu' ...
    , 'callback','popupMenu_callback', 'interruptible','off' ...
    , 'units','normalized', 'position',[0.03 0.17 0.25 0.10] ...
    , 'fontname','MS Shell Dlg', 'fontangle','regular', 'fontweight','normal', 'fontsize',7.80  ...
    , 'enable','on', 'value', 1 , 'string', {'Model' } ...
    , 'foregroundcolor', [20 20 20], 'backgroundcolor', [255 255 255] ...
    , 'tag','popupMenu', 'userdata',[], 'tooltipstring','', 'visible','on');


%-----------------------------------
% Callback functions:
%-----------------------------------
function slider_callback(handle, callstate)
  % Add callback implementation: [slider]
end

function radioButton_callback(handle, callstate)
  % Add callback implementation: [radioButton]
end

function radioButton_2_callback(handle, callstate)
  % Add callback implementation: [radioButton_2]
end

function pushButton_callback(handle, callstate)
  % Add callback implementation: [pushButton]
end

function popupMenu_callback(handle, callstate)
  % Add callback implementation: [popupMenu]
end

Return to the Activate window and load the .oml file with your design.
Run the file.
The software produces a GUI based on the code file you saved through the UI Designer.