LabVIEW Idea Exchange

There are many times when I need to grab the last element or last n elements of an array.   This usually involves a call to Array Size and then a subtraction, costing me time and block diagram clutter.  Array reversal is essentially free, but again costs clutter and clicks.  For common array types I have personal VIs to do the job, but that is just a band-aid with the proliferation of data types that I use.  My idea would be to treat negative values input to the index array or array subset VIs (for example) as counting from the end of the array.  The last value would have index -1 and so on.  To get the last n values I would put -n into the Array subset VI and that's it.   For


expanding 
the 
Array 
Index 
VI, my preference would be that it counts down (-2,-3,-4,...).

The installer build spec dialog should analyze the components being installed and suggest what additional installers will be needed to allow the EXE (or what ever else is being installed) to function on the target machine.

Also, the 'Additional Installers' catagory screen should have detailed help explaining what each installer is for and why you might want to include it.  Just looking at the names is not obvious enough.  A good example are the following installer from the list:

LV Web Services

NI LV Web Services Runtime

NI LabVIEW Run-Time Engine Web Server 

NI LabVIEW Web Server

Can you tell me which one(s) of these is needed to support the RESTful web services on a target machine?  I cannot find this documented anywhere and when I called NI application support they could not either. 

When building something from a build spec in the project, I want the option of having the build version included in the folder name where the output is placed.  That way new builds do not overwrite the previous builds and I have some way of knowing what version a build is without having to first install it and see what I get.

I will clean up the old builds manually myself, so that is not an issue for me. 

I want to be able to add a dynamic tag like <my exe version> to the Welcome title and Welcome message the installer displays to the user when they run the installation.  That way, they can see what version of the exe they are installing. 

It would be usefull to include information in the header of the image to indicate which version of LabVIEW was used to create the snippet. Users running older LabVIEW versions will not be able to embed the snippet onto their diagram.

To avoid localization issues, I suggest just using a simple numeric indicator: 2009, 2010, 2011 etc. Another option is to use a watermark. 

When you press 'Build All' in a project, it builds each build spec in the order they appear in the project.  This will cause some build specs, like an installer, to fail or package the wrong version of components if it appears in the list before one of the components it is packaging, like an exe or web service.

The process that performs the 'Build All' needs to inspect each item for dependants and build those first.

If this is too hard, at least add some documentation that warns developers of this issue. 

On the front panel of a VI, there is an origin dot (if you show the grid) that indicate the origin (0,0) of the panel.

I try to design all my VIs so that this dot is always in the upper left corner of the panel (it's starting point when you open a new VI).  This is key for dialog VIs where you might have a lot of controls and indicators that are 'off screen' but you need to scroll the panel to them while editing and testing.  Once you are done, you need to return the panel to this origin so only the items you want the user to see are in view.  Scrolling the panel with the scroll bars to get this dot exactly in the upper left of the panel is not always easy.

What I want is a right click menu option on the panel that is called 'return to origin' or 'reposition to origin' or 'scroll to origin'.  This would save me some unnessesary frustration and help keep my VIs neat and organized.

When I start LabIVEW, it will eventually ask me to log into my SCC (I use Perforce) as part of the startup process.  Unfortunatly, LabVIEW requires that I type my password into the Perforce login dialog and then Perforce responds within 60 seconds or this will fail and I will get the following dialog:

So, if I start LabVIEW and then go off to do some other task and miss the window, I get this error.  If I then open a project, it is not linked to my SCC system and none of the SCC status indicators show up on the project items.  The only way to fix this is to close LabVIEW and reopen it.

All I am asking for here is a 'RETRY' button next to the 'OK' button so I can get a second chance at this.  It is a small thing, but it would make my life much happier...  So, please vote for this idea, even if you don't have the same problem.