LabVIEW Idea Exchange
Background: We are in a situation where we have been supplied with a library of VIs we need call in our code, but they use silver controls. This means that in SubVIs that we write, if we have to create controls and indicators from these VIs, they are created as Silver. Our default control style is not silver so this looks very mismatched. We like our non-UI VIs to use system controls.
I am aware that one can create 'fresh' controls and indicators in another style matching the type and wire them up, or one can right click on the controls and indicators and replace them with a different style of the same type (although this isn't guaranteed to have the same appearance as dropping them fresh, as it may inherit modifications made to the control/indicator and other properties), but it would be handy to have a quick way of creating 'fresh' controls and indicators in the style chosen under Tools>Options>Front Panel>Control Style for New VIs .
Example: when I convert a Silver waveform graph to modern I get the graph on the right, whereas the graph on the left is a 'fresh' modern waveform graph.
So how could this 'default control' option be selected by the user? I had a look to see if this has been suggested before, and indeed altenbach suggested it here. I like both suggestions (Maybe a "shift-right-click...create" or similar? Maybe a preference setting or LabVIEW.ini entry?), though because shift is for the tools menu, perhaps ctrl+right click is better .I am posting it here as I cannot find an existing Ideas Exchange entry.
I understand that this might be difficult to implement due to the way controls and indicators work under the hood, and the fact that not all control/indicator types are available in all styles. I guess this is already handled in the Control Style for New VIs setting so might not need too much extra thought. Custom clusters might be trickier though, not sure.
Current behaviour: 'create (all) controls and indicators' applied to a subVI creates them in the style of the subVI
You can see that my 'silver' subVI creates silver controls on calling VI.
Desired Behaviour - If ini key to modify existing behaviour is applied (e.g. CreatedControlsAndIndicatorsAreDefaultStyle=True), or the VI is selected with shift+right click, the 'create control', 'create indicator' and 'create all controls and indicators' will create using the default style.
e.g.
I *think* when you have System selected, 'Error Out' drops down a Modern error control as there is no System error control, if I understand this correctly. It's worth thinking about cases like this.
When applied to my example above, if my default was modern, the subVI's 'Silver' style controls and indicators show as Modern style in the calling VI, and they are 'fresh' rather than converted :
Optional: LabVIEW *could* modify the menu item when you access via ctrl+right click, but this is not essential. I don't think these options should be added to the menu permanently alongside existing options otherwise it gets too cluttered.
It would also be nice to have a quick drop shortcut similar to Ctrl+D with this behaviour. Ctrl+shift+D is already taken.
Final thought: I could live without this feature if my other suggestion Front Panel Object's Style is shown under its properties (with the ability to change styles) was implemented, but it avoids the extra step of creating the controls and indicators before converting.
