LabVIEW Idea Exchange

The Project Explorer Files view already contains the useful "Move on Disk..." option. It would be useful if, when a VI or CTL is owned by a lvclass or lvlib, an option named "Move to Owner Folder" (or similar) existed. This option would move the selected file to the folder that contains the lvclass or lvlib that owns that file. This action would be equivalent to using the "Move on Disk..." option, but would save the user from navigating the (potentially large) folder structure to find the right folder. In short, it would save a few seconds and would help ensure consistency. It would also encourage the best practice of storing owned VIs and CTLs in the same folder as their owner lvlib or lvclass (actions that are easy to do are performed more often).

For example

Screenshot 1: A project that contains two libraries

Screenshot 2: In the Items view, the mouse was used to drag C.vi from Library 1.lvlib to Library 2.lvlib

Screenshot 3: Typically, I would now press Ctrl + E to switch to the Files view, right-click the file, and select "Move on Disk...".

Notes

• It would be great if the "Move to Owner Folder" menu item was also available when multiple items that are owned by the same owner are selected.
• A related idea: It would be useful if, when using the Items view to move an item from an owner to another, LabVIEW would pop up a dialogue message similar to the following "Would you also like to move the file on disk to folder <insert here the folder path of the new owner>?". The dialogue would contain Yes and No buttons. This would save the user from having to switch to the Files view altogether.

Thanks!

Currently, when you right-click -> "Make Type Def" on a control / constant in a library VI, the new unnamed type definition is created outside

the library.

Also, it has the default control icon: 

instead of a library control icon:       

This leads to 3 additional tasks:

1. Drag and drop the control inside the library from the project explorer.

2. Edit the control icon to make it have the library control icon (with the horizontal slider glyph).

This is annoying because you need to copy it from another library control icon.

3. Go to the library properties and make "Apply Icon To VIs".

Bonus bug: If your new type contains a library-private subtype, the new control magically disappears from the project explorer when you click on it.

In comparison, the "Create SubVI" function works perfectly inside a library, i.e. it creates a VI inside the library and with the icon banner.

I think the "Make Type Def" function should behave the same to make library development more coherent and intuitive.

Excel displays the number of selected cells.

VS Code displays the number of selected characters.

LabVIEW should display the number of selected items in the Project Explorer.

LabVIEW should also display the number of selected items on the block diagram and the front panel.

Notes

• In the Project Explorer the functionality would be useful to count/monitor/audit the number of VIs and CTLs in a lvclass, lvlib, or in a virtual folder of these owners, etc. It would be nice to know at a glance "oh, there are 12 public VIs in this class".
• The block diagram count functionality can become more useful in large projects and VIs. For example, I recently edited the block diagram of a VI in a DQMH-based project. The project contains 16 DQMH modules at the moment (more to be added). I wanted to check that the VI I was editing was calling the Start Module.vi public VI of each of the 16 modules (wanted to check that the VI would launch all DQMH modules). The only way to do this was to "manually" count the VIs on the block diagram. Selecting them and LabVIEW displaying "Count: 16" would have been easier.
• In the block diagram the information displayed by LabVIEW could be more nuanced. For example, it could display the total number of items selected (subVIs, nodes, property nodes, etc), but also a breakdown based on item type: number of VIs, number of nodes, number of property nodes, etc. All these selection stats may occupy too much space for all to be displayed at once. Perhaps they could be displayed in an element that, when clicked, expands to present all the information.
• The block diagram and front panel count functionality would enable programmers to quickly estimate the complexity of a VI. Pressing Ctrl + A on a block diagram to select all items, then looking at the selection stats would reveal the relative complexity of that VI.
• If a whole structure is selected on the block diagram, then the count should return the count of all items contained in the diagram, not just the items displayed to the user. For example, if a case structure is selected, the number of items contained in all cases should be displayed.

Thanks

Right now, there's no way to easily open show a LabVIEW project file in the "native operating system file explorer" on Linux (for me on Ubuntu, that's the the Gnome "Files" Nautilus app and I can easily open a folder from a terminal/shell by executing an `open .` command).

Side Note: In VS Code (as described in the documentation), you can open to the location of a file or folder in the native operating system file explorer by right-clicking on a file or folder and selecting Reveal in File Explorer on Windows, Reveal in Finder on macOS, or Open Containing Folder on Linux.

Let's please add this to LabVIEW for Linux! 🙂

Scroll bar should be disabled if all elements are visible! Kudo here to get a big bang for the buck sooner than the 2nd in TOP KUDOED IDEAS from 2013 with 600+ kudos (https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Indicate-that-array-constant-contains-more-elements-than/idi-p/2299860). It points out that the scroll bars are not a viable method because it looks the same when all elements are visible. That is EASY to fix; disable the scroll bar if ALL elements are visible! Currently it is disabled only if an empty element is visible. Perhaps the behavior was originally by design like block diagram scroll bars as mentioned in the reason that the following was Declined, '...without this "boundary", it is impossible to create more space...' but constants can easily be stretched by border handles to create more elements (https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Make-window-scroll-bars-reflect-actual-contents-of-window/idi-p/1844127).

                                            "Build Path" should be Growable

                              something like this,