Intelligent tool palette location

[Ray.R]

I am posting this idea because when you select "View > Tools Palette", you should see the tools palette!

The following knowledge base:  http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/84FCD62020BF074186256569008375E2  does not work or does not work all the time or does not work in my situation.

The issue is discussed here.

A brief description of the issue is when more than one person works on a remote station and one individual has a screen ;arger than the screen from the remote station and of the other person developing software remotely, the person with the widest and most resolution can bring the tools palette (and maybe other palettes) to a section of the screen which is not accessible by anyone else.  As a result, the tools palette I can no longer be used, until the person with the widest screen brings back the palette into view.

We cannot depend on a parameter within the  LabVIEW.ini file, as it is not always listed in the initialization file.

example:  toolPaletteLoc=400,1499,551,1577

The recommended idea is that when selecting "View > Tools Palette", either bring the palette to the center of the screen or implement an intelligent routine that determines the size of the screen and bring the palette within a viewable area.  Since others must also develop on remote stations, bringing the palette to the center of the screen would be the better option as their development screen may be of a different size than that of the remote screen.  Furthermore, it will make it easier to find the tools palette when requesting to view it.

Thanks!

[crossrulz]

I'm surprised there isn't a check at startup when reading the location from the ini file to make sure it is visible (ie within the veiwable monitor resolution).  I think (0,0) would be a better location to default it.  That is also less work for NI

[RavensFan]

I don't have that .ini item in any of my LabVIEW .ini files.  I've never had a problem because I've never used View>>Tools palette before.  I always use shift-right click.

But I don't think you have a new idea here.  I think you actually have a bug report.

When I hit View>>Tools palette, I don't get the tool palette at all.  Nothing happens.  I think that menu item might be broken.

I don't know how you ever managed to get that item into LabVIEW.ini. (Copy over from an older version of LabVIEW where that menu item worked?)   LabVIEW doesn't seem to be putting it in.

[X.]

I do have this item in the ini file of my brand spanking new LV2013 64 bits SP1 installation.

The View>>Tools palette item works fine. It just doesn't do anything if the tools palette is already visible.

And I think NI should expect posting of bugs in the Idea Exchange since there is no visibility for them in the regular LabVIEW forum (and obviously no bug reporting and tracking system to speak of in the first place). Notice how no blue guy has bothered checking in the thread linked to above.

[Ray.R]

We have multiple development machines.  Some have it in the ini file and some don't.  The strange part is that LabVIEW in many cases were installed by the same person with the same set of DVDs.  We're using site licenses.  I don't have an explanation for the variants.

Is it a bug?  Maybe..  Nonetheless, often, when I select "View> Tools Palette", it ends up at a location that is covered by some other window, thus I do not see it.  Putting it at the center of the screen (or a know location that can be defined in the Options) would make that feature better.  Also bringing it to the front would be another improvement.  It can be hidden by the probes window.

[Christina_R]

I can't reproduce the problem that you're seeing.

The problem described in that KB, where an invalid token value in the INI could cause the Tools palette to be off-screen, was fixed in 2002. I confirmed that it's fixed using LV2013: if I manually edit the toolPaletteLoc to large values and launch LabVIEW, the Tools palette appears in the lower right-hand corner of my screen.

If the toolPaletteLoc token is not in the INI file at all, it means the Tools palette was not open when LabVIEW last exited.

When you select View>>Tools Palette, the palette should come to the front if it is already open. If it's not open, it should open in front.

The probes window is intentionally allowed to obscure the Tools palette. All of the floating windows (e.g. the context help, the palettes, the probes window) can be placed on top of each other. Again, though, using the menu option should bring the palette to front.

[Ray.R]

Thanks Christina,

I still think this idea request is valid...

I do not know exactly what happens when the other remote person uses the LabVIEW development platform.  What I do know is that the tools palette does not appear when I select "View > Tools Palette".

From reading your description, I can only deduce that the palette was moved off screen, then closed before LabVIEW was closed.  The reason is that the ini file did not have the token.

Fortunately, I learned a new trick which is to use the Shift Right-Click to get a temporary tools palette.  That's been working fine.  However, it would be good to have the palette back without having to edit the ini file, add the token (manually), close and restart LabVIEW.

As Ravensfan mentionned.... maybe this is not necessarily an "idea", but more of a bug fix request.  If it's not a bug, then let's keep it as an idea, not a popular one, mostly because people do not share a test station to develop or test the developed software.  I knew it was not going to be popular.  It is high on the annoyance level.  😉

[Christina_R]

What you're describing is a bug. If your LabVIEW doesn't have the INI token for the Tools palette location (regardless of where it was located when it was last closed), then the palette should appear in the default location when you select View>Tools Palette.

Please submit this issue to our AEs, either through support or on the discussion forums, so they can work with you to determine under what conditions the Tools Palette fails to appear (e.g. OS, what product(s) you have installed, etc.)

[gosaure]

The problem appears when you're using large screen at the office. If you leave with the tools palette at the rigth end of the screen and then try to work with Windows remote desktop on a smaller screen from home or elsewhere, tools palette is no longer reachable unless you close all yours works, change the key values in ini file and restart LV.

I had many  experiences of this and it costs time each time. Not speaking of the times i didn't knew ini file tip.

It should be usefull if a simpler way to relocate tools palette exists.

[X.]

@gosaure: go ahead and kudo the idea?