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Many of us at some point have wondered "Why the heck is the default number of elements for Array To Cluster equal to nine?" No good explanation is forthcoming. My new question is "Why should there be a default setting?". I suggest that instead of defaulting to nine elements leading to some hidden bugs (I have at least 3 solutions involving this function), that the Array to Cluster function simply breaks the VI until a value is chosen. Some possibilities for discussion.

1) Pop up the dialog upon dropping the node? A bit Express-y

2) Double clicking the node should pop up the dialog? I'd like that.

3) A visual indication that the value has not been set? A few possibilities:

4) Make the value an editable text field along the lines of the comments here:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/labviewideas/article-id/2430/page/1#comments

If it is easy to do I say yes. Don't even start down the dynamic adaptation road, that is not going to happen any time soon.

My main point is that this function is not used very often by most of us which means that it is not worth a major overhaul, and it is all the more unlikely that we remember all of the hidden behavior. Therefore a simple tweak, breaking the code until a value is set makes sense. Making it easier to set the value is a nice bonus, but secondary.

Someday a better method will come along (cluster support for Coerce To Type?) and this function can be put out to pasture, until then I would suggest just a little tweak.

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Path Constant as ICON

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create a safe mode

If you happen to put something that LabVIEW doesn't quite like in folders like "~\LabVIEW xxx\project"
LabVIEW will crash at launch and give you a very helpful crash report as shown here : https://forums.ni.com/t5/Discussions-au-sujet-de-NI/Crash-de-LabVIEW-%C3%A0-son-lancement/m-p/4215135#M35349

In order to avoid being told by NI support that you have to re-install LabVIEW

Please add a "safe mode" that will ignore whatever was added by the user (or VIPM) in the subfolders of the LabVIEW folder.

And also fix CAR 732888

line decoration properties

For pilot plants, we make P&ID's, the plant's interface (not PID) with decorations.

Now it would be nice to have more then two widths. But the real pain starts when we need to draw tracing. The standard for this is a dashed line. There is no way to put a dashed line on the frond panel! Amazing, since we're using a graphical language!

Now I have to make a line in powerpoint, but it can't be resized. Or use a picture control, but that adds code and complexity. Or put 200 tiny solid lines evenly spaced on a line.

This is all I'm asking for (inthis post anyway):

Line endings would be niced too. Arrow, dot, etc. Like line endings in office.

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Disable Structure

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Array function - corrections

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In .NET each of the integer data types provides two constant fields, named MinValue and MaxValue. These constants return the minimum and maximum values that can be stored in that data type. For example, for Int32 MinValue would return -2147483648 and MaxValue would return 2147483647.

1 C# min and max values.png

It would be nice if there would be similar constants in LabVIEW for all eight integer data types. These constants would be similar to the DBL constants that already exist: +Inf, -Inf, Machine Epsilon and NaN, and would be similar in concept to string constants such as Space Constant and End Of Line Constant.

The new constants could be placed in the Numeric palette, or in a new sub palette of the Numeric palette, as shown in the image below. I would be happy with any location.

3 Where to place the constants in LabVIEW (edited).png

I am aware that I can easily create constant VIs to implement this functionality, which would be very similar to how Space Constant.vi is implemented, but it would be nice if the constants were built-in.

My current workaround when I need the min or max values of an integer data type is to drop a numeric constant and type something like -9999999999999999 or 9999999999999999, which after Enter is pressed LabVIEW correctly coerces to the min or max value.

Thanks

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This is a small thing but it drives me nuts. Whenever I place a case on the diagram, I always need to move the case seletor up or down so it aligns with the source output that will be driving the case. But, the newly placed case always has the seletor right in the middle of the left side. This is also where the drag hover control (?) is located. I seem to at least 50% of the time grab this drag control when I want to grab the case seletor and move it. If the selector was just placed above or below the middle of the left side, this issue would go away. I suggest placing it 1/4 of the way from the top, since most of the time the source of the selector is above the midpoint of the case block (at least in my code). YMMV.

I know it is a nit, but it is low hanging fruit to fix and it is annoying.

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Recently I've talked to companies that are already using LabVIEW and their organization has standardized on tools such as JIRA for bug tracking/project tracking as part of an organization-wide initiative. JIRA connects to other IDEs/programming tools such as VisualStudio, Eclipse, IntelliJ, etc. Atlassian (the company that makes JIRA) also provides tools that can part of a larger Agile process and can facilitate code reviews and other software development processes.

The idea up for vote is to offer more comprehensive LabVIEW interoperability with industry standard tools such as JIRA, or other software as part of an internal software design process. (feel free to specify a certain tool, if you have a preference)

I've been using block diagram cleanup extensively over the past year in an attempt to speed up my LabVIEW programming. I am definitely faster as a result of using the feature, but there are still some VIs that I have to arrange myself, because diagram cleanup's arrangement is unacceptable. So the feature still has a ways to go in making all my diagrams acceptably clean. It's my understanding that there are many more configuration options in diagram cleanup that could potentially be exposed to the user, but I think an easier way to conform diagram cleanup to my standards would be to point it at a folder of VIs that I have personally deemed "clean", and have diagram cleanup mimic the arrangement in those VIs when cleaning up other VIs.

As an example, I am ok with input tunnels into a case structure overlapping somewhat, if those tunnels are coming straight from subVI output terminals that are close together. Diagram cleanup insists on adding space between the tunnels so that they don't overlap, which results in unnecessarily crooked wires. Ideally, I would have VIs in my "clean" folder that have slightly overlapping tunnels, diagram cleanup would discover that I'm ok with this, and subsequent cleanups would allow this arrangement.

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A couple of recent ideas regarding the VI Hierarchy window are good, but do not go far enough, in my opinion. I would like to see the VI Hierarchy window annotated with a lot more status information about VIs, including:

A glyph showing if Execution Highlighting is enabled
A run arrow on any VI that is running top level.
A path from the top level VI through any currently executing subVIs (the path may be forking as there may be multiple subVIs running in parallel)
That path would have temporary lines going to VIs that are invoked using the Call By Reference node (as opposed to reordering the hierarchy tree to put such VIs as subVIs of the caller)
A glyph showing any VIs that have breakpoints on them and a different glyph if the VI is actually stopped at a breakpoint.
Reentrant clones of VIs, so that call chains can actually be seen, including the ability to double click on a particular reentrant clone to open its front panel
Any other execution state information that can be easily expressed as glyphs and highlighted connections among VIs and/or other file types shown in the hierarchy window (open to brainstorming).
Whether debugging is enabled or disabled on each VI

The VI Hierarchy window has already been updated in LV 2009 and 2010 to show all the connections among different files and resources. Finishing it out to show the full state of the system would make it a powerful debugging tool.