Am I way off here?

[Intaris]

No, no catching user events.

I want to be able to apply graphics to the FP without influencing the operation of the VI.

Essentially, it's access to the display buffer of the system which is used for the actual visual rendering of the FP.

What I would like is exactly like the picture control but without the picture control...... Native access to a non-interactive display method to overlay over (or at different Z levels) the actual FP of the VI.  Like I said, it's simply messing with the display engine of the VI.

Shane.

[Thoric]

If you don't want this graphical overlay to capture user events then I presume you still want them to pass through it to the underlying controls beneath, even though they may not be visible. Much like applying a 'skin' to a front panel to change the overall look and feel of an application without altering the location of selectable buttons etc.

I can't see there being much call for this, not in the manner you desribe anyway. If I wanted to achieve this today I would just use the picture control and pull out the coords of any user interactions and programmatically interpret them.