How can I pass a CAN_MESSAGE object as an input to a Model Reference block in Simulink 7.9 (R2012a)?

I have a model which is packing a CAN Message and then sending it into a Model Reference block which should do the unpacking. When I try to update this model, I get the following error:

Invalid root Inport block data type. Data type of root Inport block 'MYMODEL/MYBLOCK' in model 'MYMODEL' is 'CAN_MESSAGE'. This data type is not supported for referenced models; data types must be builtin, or fixed-point, or registered from Simulink.DataType or Simulink.Bus objects This error message is related to a hidden Inport block.

If I use a Subsystem instead of a Model Reference block, this model updates fine. Are there any workarounds besides this, so that I can keep the Referenced Model as a separate model for concurrent development?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to pass CAN_MESSAGE objects into a Model Reference block is not available in Simulink 7.9 (R2012a).

As a workaround, in order to preserve this referencing behavior, the Model Reference block could be converted to a subsystem and then placed into a Block Library. This way, any changes in the library block will also be automatically reflected in any model that is linked to this block.