When refactoring a large projects I've run into this several times. One of the first things I like to do is fix VIs that have outputs on the left hand side. Before I actually rewire the connector panel I'll use the search function on that VI and look at all the usage points to see how my planned changes will influence all of the code. Each time I search in the project I get a list of VIs. Once I open one of those and look I have to scroll back through the project to find the initial VI again and repeat the search.
There are a lot of other times I've run into situations when it would be nice to have the project search window not be modal and stay open as well.
Agreed - It should not be modal. Additionally, it would be great if it stayed OPEN as you browsed search results (much like the standard Search Results window).
It seems like these updates would be best implemented along wiith Jack's idea to allow the Find Callers window to be resizable. I'd say that idea is worth some kudos too!
I'll go one further and say that when double clicking on the caller in the popup window, the behavior should be to open the block diagram of the caller and highlight all locations where the VI is being called rather than just highlighting the caller VI in the project window. Every time I've used this feature this is the end result I've wanted, and I find it somewhat annoying that I then have to 1.) double click the item in the project window, 2.) Ctrl + E to get to the block diagram, and 3.) play "Where's Waldo?" for the call sites of the VI. If there are multiple call sites in the VI, it would be even better if the find window created a nested view where I could see each instance and click to go to each one separately.
I've looked a bit into making this dialog non-modal, because I too have run into the pain of needing it to stay up when wanting to browse the results. As I recall, there are complicating factors arising from situations where you change the contents of the project while the Find dialog is open. I'll try to find some time in a future release to investigate further.
@Darren: The standard Search Results window disables (bleaches) certain results if they cease to be valid. Maybe that sort of behaviour would work well with Find Callers results that become stale due to misbehaving project items.
Unfortunately, Darren is right: there are complicating factors that make this difficult to implement. I'm afraid the project infrastructure just isn't there get live updates (enabling do the "bleaching" functionality, etc).
On the bright side, note that some of the keyboard shortcuts from the VI find system do work in the project. With the project in focus, try:
CTRL-SHIFT-F: Bring back the last shown search results.
CTRL-G: Auto-navigate to next result in the list.
CTRL-SHIFT-G: Auto-navigate to previous result in the list.
