LabVIEW Idea Exchange

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Kudos

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I've just run into a "feature" of the LV2009 Parallel For Loops which is a bit of a nuisance! The number of loop instances is determined by two values: 1) the number of instances in the Configure Iteration Parallelism dialog, and 2) the number wired to the P terminal of the loop. It turns out that the number of instances created is the smaller of these two.

The nuisance is that if I wire the number of processors from CPU Information to P (as recommended) then when my new 16-core machine arrives (I wish!) I don't get that benefit unless the dialog value is also >= 16. And the 64-core machine that arrives next requires the dialog value to be reset in every Parallel For Loop - or I set it to be some unreasonably large number now, and therefore it's pretty much meaningless.

My suggestion is that the default number of instances set in the dialog is "Maximum" - i.e. it will use the maximum number of processors available. It should still be able to be set lower should the programmer wish to restrict the number below that. Then the default case works transparently as the programmer would usually want without needing to wire from CPU Information, and there are no surprises down the track when loops don't speed up on a new machine as expected.

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How about adding a new text formatting ribbon within the toolbar in the next LabVIEW release as in Microscoft Word? I believe such a functionality would significantly improve a developer's everyday life when it comes to edit one by one commands and indicators... I apologize in advance for the poor quality of my screenshot but still I'm sure you'll get my point.

I have written and read code that sets Disabled property many times, and it always looks the same.

Enabled or Disabled and Grayed Out.jpg

I wish I cold say the same thing with two nodes and one wire instead of five nodes and four wires. This is what I have in mind.

EZ Enabled.jpg

I am not attached to the name of the proposed property. I am partial to the Boolean data type and I prefer to go with positive language (enabled as opposed to disabled).

One alternative for naming is to use plain "Enabled" for the proposed property, and change the name of the old property to "Disabled Mode" or "Enabled Mode".

HyperLink control in boolean palette

some time there is need to display your menu item in application like hyperlinks.

Labview doesnot provide direct solution for this. If you want to customize button control to look like hyperlink, It will add too much code including event structure(please Suggest if anyone have efficient solution) which is not really afforadble if you have multiple hypelinks.

So I suggest that labview should have a built in hyperlink control which will behave like hypelinks when mouse enter and leaves over control and gives Boolean TRUE when pressed. ....

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Allow plot legend mouse events

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How many times do you end up having a spelling mistake in your VI documentation.

Let's change this to What percentage of the VI documentation that you actually do write has a spelling mistake in it?

I've found in my arena it's pretty likely to have a spelling mistake. I can solve this by copy/pasting in and out of MS Word, or using VI analyzer, but who really wants to go through all that effort of also having MS Word open, or running VI analyzer after EVERY change to my documentation (that will just make me like documenting even less).

How about if the documentation window for the VI worked like any other editor with spell check and put those red squiggly lines under the spelling mistakes. (and even better if you can right click and accept suggestions)

Kinda like this:

Smart DAQmx/MAX

So, having a new computer and installing the 4 versions i currently need i ofcourse missed to reinstall DaqMx after the last and most important LV install. After alot of time i managed to get hold of a disc, ofc slightly lower version so i first have to uninstall my current DaqMx ... this cost alot unnessecary time, when e.g. MAX should be able to add/complement itself to installs.

When i run the installer, it feels which versions of LV has Daq and which doesn't, it'd be great if you could add/complement Daq to LV's without having to reinstall it!

If this is best handled by MAX or some DAQ-installer i dont know, but as MAX feels like a hub it sounds logical to add some Update/Add/Attach DAQ-function to that.

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I think the Size to Text right click menu needs some more functionality. I am constantly manually resizing text boxes and free labels to make them fit on my diagram or ensure they stay close to code they refer to.

I propose a change to the right click menu that would let you select the number of lines you want a text box to appear as:

This is similar JB's Idea to Size Vertically to Text but would be quicker than having to resize in one direction and then select to Size Vertically.

If this were added to Altenbach's idea of a Text Toolbar Or Guruthilak's Floating Text Formatting Tool I would be extremely happy. Everything in one.

Rob

I had the need in the past to draw isosurfaces from 3D volume data. My workaround was to export the data in xplor format (see also), then display the isosurfaces using molecular graphics software (such as UCSF Chimera). This is too indirect.

The code to do this directly in LabVIEW exists already in the NI Biomedical Startup Kit 3.0. Look under the section "source code":

Create isosurface from 3D volume data
Draw isosurface for 3D picture control

While the full biomedical startup kit requires quite a few extra toolkits to work, these two isosorface tools can work in plain LabVIEW.

My suggestion is to add these two tools (and maybe others?) to the standard 3D picture control palette of LabVIEW.

They are of general interest. 😄

Snap to origin when scrolling FP

Palette import/export tool

Setting up LV2010 today, it struck me how nice it would be to not have to spend time dealing with the clunky visibility/option dialog/palette file hacks necessary to get back to the environment that I like.

How about a built in import and export tool for palette settings?

If I were interested in, say, customer engagement and seeing what users actually do with their palettes, I might even add web-based cloud hosting, so users can upload and download their own palettes wherever they are.

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Alternative Licensing option

Is it possible to have a USB dongle license option rather than a registration key?

When the USB dongle is attached the user will have the full access to the Labview Version s/he has registered for, when it is not the program will only run in runtime engine mode. The advantage of this is that it would allow for system developers of multiple systems to be able to debug and test programs on the machines without needing to either have several licences or continually uninstall and reinstall labview from the machines everytime a change in the software is required.

At the same time, a USB dongle can only be used on one machine at any one time, thereby making it possible to ensure that there will not be more than one user of the same license.

I've seen this work for several small software companies as well as hardware companies with proprietary software. Why not for Labview?

Just a thought,

Karl

LabVIEW allow you to set unit to the numeric controls. But if you try to pass its value to some LabVIEW VIs or functions (e.g. "Simulate Signal"), the wire was broken. LabVIEW VIs doesn't handle the value with a unit. It makes the unit setting useless!

I got this idea from a Customer, here is his original comments:

"我编写了一个简单的程序，在前面板的旋钮输入控件附上单位vlot，然后在程序框图中放置了一个仿真信号控件，接下来将前面板中的旋钮控件的输出端连接至程序框图中的仿真信号控件的幅值输入端，但在即使帮助窗口中出现了一个错误，为：数据源的数值单位为volt，数据接收的单位为no Nuit，当然程序就不能运行了。于是我采用通用单位符$1的办法也没成功，最后从网友那儿得知在LabVIEW中只能够对数值型控件进行附单位。后来我仔细想了想，按照LabVIEW现在的思维方式，只能够对数值控件附单位，那么在其他运算中就不能够进行单位转换了（例如微积分运算），因此每遇到这种情况后，先要仔细排查一番所给出数值的单位，然后再写出适当的程序，这样岂不是很麻烦？能不能够在其他控件中也加入单位转换功能，这样在今后写程序就不再这样麻烦了！ "

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Probe property node

A lot of times while debugging I want to know what the value of a certain property is at different points in VI execution. The more complicated the code the harder it is to keep track of changes to the value of any property.

It will be cool if we could probe over any property node. Simple eg. would be probing over the "Value" property of the indicator below to know how it is being updated at different times in execution.

or really any other property, that even if is not being written to explicitly in the code anywhere, one wants to keep a track of....like

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LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Change definition of the number of parallel instances in For Loops

Text formatting ribbon within the toolbar (word style)

Add "power" button to Silver controls

Easy Way to Enable and Disable Controls with VI Server

HyperLink control in boolean palette

Have data type colors in color pallet of icon editor available by default.

New page in application builder to configer the default values of the ini file of the executable

Allow plot legend mouse events

Have automatic spell check in VI documentation

Smart DAQmx/MAX

Highlight the Entire Wire with Key or Click Combination

Size to Text Needs to Support Multiple Lines

Support for 3D isosurfaces from 3D volume data as part of the 3D picture control

Tie Stop Terminal of a While Loop to a different Loop

Snap to origin when scrolling FP

Option to have default data type (without wiring a constant) at the input of Select function.

Palette import/export tool

Alternative Licensing option

Support Unit in all controls and functions

Probe property node