DropIn VI For Minimizing Splitter Panes

[TimS.]

Summary:

When creating a clean and organized user interface one common item to use in LabVIEW is the splitter. This enables the designer to section off portions of the display and group controls & indicators in a logical manor. In order to highlight the primary information that needs to be displayed to an end user it is often helpful to hide unwanted items on the front panel. Especially if they are configuration controls that won't be modified frequently after starting an application. One way to hide them but still have them actually be on the front panel is to collapse, or minimize, the pane which contains these controls and indicators. This example covers the use of a DropIn VI that can simply be placed on any user interface VI's block diagram which contains splitter panes that would benefit from being minimized. After placement, while the VI is running all a user needs to do is click on the splitter and it will minimize that pane. Current version only works with outer boundry splitter panes (can't collapse a splitter towards another splitter, only VI boundries) and comments about this are in the demo VI.

Code:

The code starts by grabbing a reference to all splitters contained on the front panel of the VI it has been placed in. After that it stores the needed attributes about the splitter (start position, vertical, etc.) and registers those splitters for the mouse down event that happens when a user clicks on it. Once inside the while loop the <Splitters>: Mouse Down event will handle collapsing splitter panes in the appropriate direction.

Example:

The demo attached already includes the DropIn VI placed on the block diagram. Run the demo and click on a splitter to minimize its pane. Try wiring up the SplitterIgnoreList to have the DropIn VI not minimize certain panes (i.e. Title Bar, status, etc.).

Notes:

Attached versions are in LV 2012 and 2009.

The current DropIn VI for collapsing the splitters does not work for unlocked ones or for splitters that would collapse towards another splitter. Prime example of this is the splitter between the two waveform graphs in the above Demo VI. It is both unlocked and has other splitter panes above and below it. This splitter would ideally collapse towards either the top or bottom splitter panes depending on its vertical position relative to the center of the front panel. If anyone has suggestions on handling this that would be great!