topic Re: newbie titled border control? in LabVIEW

newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:02:07 GMT

I would like to group a number of controls together in container that has a title, like the titled border in java. any controls avaiable for this?

Re: newbie titled border control?

Dennis_Knutson — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:09:38 GMT

It's called a cluster in LabVIEW. On the front panel and with the Controls palette, go to the Array and Cluster palette and drag an empty cluster to the front panel. You can then select controls or indicators to put in the cluster. Elements in a cluster must be either all controls or all indicators.

Re: newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:29:11 GMT

Thankx. When I group these controls, they all get the some property. That is, If I got 2 numeric controls and 2 numeric indicators, and place them into Cluster, all change to numeric controls. Addtionally, changing 1 numeric control to indicator changes all of the controls.

any thoughts?

Re: newbie titled border control?

Evan — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:32:34 GMT

Another route to look at is simple decorations. If you place controls in a cluster it becomes one control. You still have access to all the internal controls, however I am not sure if that is what you want.

I typically use a "Dialog Recessed Frame" and then a "Dialog label". See the attached VI. It visually groups the controls, however in the diagram they are not realted at all.

Re: newbie titled border control?

Darren — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:33:43 GMT

Hello,

As the previous poster indicated, a cluster can only contain all controls or all indicators. If you want to group controls and indicators together, you can use any of the decorations on the decorations palette to group them together on the front panel (even though they'll still be separate terminals on the block diagram), then you can use a free label to label the group. Attached is a screenshot of a VI demonstrating this technique.

Hope this helps,

-D

Re: newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:41:17 GMT

Thankx guys. going brain-dead. Looked right past the decoration panel.

Re: newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:04:56 GMT

Another silly question. What property makes the free text appear to be "in front" of another object. That is, odering of objects to front or to back. When I create a free text label, place this object on top of the recessed frame, frame shows through free text.

Re: newbie titled border control?

jasonhill — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:55:37 GMT

The tool on the far right of the toolbar is a "Reorder" tool. You can use it to send items to the front or back.

Re: newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:27:38 GMT

Reordering still produces same result. Is there a property that needs to apply to the free label?

Re: newbie titled border control?

Evan — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:32:45 GMT

It depends on the style of label you used. If you are using a classic control then its background is filled in and it will look like our examples.

However, if you used Decoractions>>Label then the background of the label is transparent. So your label is in fron its just see through. Either use the other label or select the paint brush tool in the tools pallette and right click on the label. You can then select a color.

Re: newbie titled border control?

ronyd — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:20:39 GMT

sorry for my ignorance. Need to read more (using Help) about these controls and behavior, such as using the color picker. I'm always close to my problem before I ask, but always missing some minute point. Now a color picker expert (well, you know). controls appear the way I would like. I'm sure you;ll be hearing from me again.

thankx again