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I realize that the DBCT is nearing its 20th birthday, and probably is not a priority for a fix, but this is so simple and has tripped up a number of LabVIEW programmers doing database applications for so many years.

 

The VI Rec Fetch Next Recordset (R).vi has a flaw which manifests itself in stepping past the last recordset in a multi-recordset return - then leaks a reference which causes mayhem in downstream code.  A simple test of the recordset reference would make this VI properly useful.

 

Among my other posts in reply to forum users about databases, the issue is captured succinctly here.

 

I long ago made the mods to the toolkit VI (actually, two), and reapply them with each new LabVIEW version as needed.  If anyone at NI/Emerson wants to look into this, I'd be happy to share the particulars.

 

Dave

The LabVIEW compiler currently appears to use one core of a multi-core processor.  It would be nice if it fully utilized multiple cores to speed building of large projects, and recompilation of VIs when editing/opening source code.

Please implicitly consider array index during index / replace elements in In Place Elements Structure if I am starting from Index 0

 

Present method:
image.png

 

Expected method:
image (1).png

 

[admin edit 2021-02-24]: placed images in-line with text and removed them as attachments

Providing additional Context Help information on Controls that contains information as to their "type" (Classic, System, Silver, etc.) as well as their font, font-size, and control-type (indicator, ring, enum, etc.) would be useful.  The utility of this is obvious if you have ever had to modify/update an existing GUI and want to maintain the look and feel when adding new controls -- this would allow you to easily see what was previously used for the existing controls on a GUI.  This "verbose" information could possibly be turned on/off as a Tools->Options->Front Panel setting.

I like compile time type safety checks. I dislike using variants. Occasionally, and increasingly more often, I find myself going to great lengths to provide compile time type safety. At a point, the type check gets lost in the inheritance hierarchy and I am back to depending on runtime checks for errors. It's not uncommon for me to have a class method that needs to "just work" across the bulk of the base types, but it sure is a pain to make wrapper classes, static inlined methods, and a nasty polymorphic .vi to mimic this behavior. Perhaps I am ignorant to some features of LV (do malleable vi's fit in here somewhere?), but multiple dispatch/function overloading sure seems like the silver bullet for this issue without messy inheritance trees.

 

I'm open to discussion on alternatives. This "problem" has come up in a couple of recent projects of mine, and I always feel dirty using a variant or making a static API for a class that ought to be extensible.

Many of us using graphical programming for scientific applications, where we dealing with numbers, measurements, etc.

How often we grab to Windows Calculator to compute simple equations?

What about ability to enter something like 3,75*2,8 into any constant or control (in principle everywhere where we can put numbers) and then get computation result in this place:

Screenshot 2024-03-06 09.16.22.png

In the past I've worked in desktop publishing industry and using the software called "Macromedia Freehand MX", and that was really "killer feature", which saves huge amount of time.

 

This is how it works:

resize.gif

Or for example, 5 rotated copies:

rotate.gif

Even in Color mixer simple computations are allowed:

mixer.gif

Everywhere where I can put some numbers, in any dialog:

guides.gif

So, my suggestion to have the same in every numeric control or constant.

 

This is what I mean:

numeric1.gif

So, it should be allowed to enter here something like "3*5" or "42+3*5" 

As MVP suggested to have the only (at least) base operations *, /, +, -, also combined as shown above, but may be "advanced" support (like fully offered by Formula String) is also not so bad, why not:

numeric2.gif

Anyway it should work everywhere, including constants on the Block Diagrams:

numeric3.gif

Also, for example, on Resize Objects Dialog:

Screenshot 2024-03-06 11.20.04.png

Or even in the Settings (in general everywhere for any numeric field across whole LabVIEW):

options.png

 

And also in Run-Time, of course, not only in Development Environment.

 

If you think that "always enabled" feature will be annoying, then I can suggest to make this optionally per Control/Constant Option:

Screenshot 2024-03-06 11.31.54.png

Or may be as global setting in the Options.

The title says it all.

In 2021 there was excitement about improvements to LVCompare and LVMerge, however there is still no way to compare classes or libraries.

I'm ok with not merging. I know that is a minefield. But at least show me what methods were added, what library or class settings were changed, which VIs moved from private to public and for classes, diff the private data and maybe show changes to the class heirarchy?

Preamble:

Just following up on a sub-idea raised within this recent idea from tst: LabVIEW should break VIs which have hidden code.  I *almost* like tst's idea, but IMO it is a bit too heavy-handed:

  • YES, I want better information when there is hidden code on my diagram, but...
  • NO, I don't want my code to break!

 

The Idea:

If a structure hides code beyound it's boundary, then provide a visual indication. For example, the edge of the structure could be coloured red to alert the user that something unexpected is going on.

hiddenCode.png 

It's not uncommon to accidentally leave a process hanging and to have a really hard time tracking it down.  Different folks seem to have made different "kill all VI" tools, but this should be a native LabVIEW feature supported by NI.  The tool should just work.  "Ctrl+." doesn't always work.  You should be able to push some shortcut that works even if you have a frozen modal dialog or whatever, and all running VIs are stopped, and log of which ones were stopped prints to the screen.

Edited Image 1.png

Notes

  • Replacing a node via Right-click >> Replace >> selecting item from palette results in the same outcome as replacing via QuickDrop. This idea should apply to both replacement methods.
  • Replacing a VI via either QuickDrop or right-click behaves correctly. The new VI label is visible only if the old VI's label was visible. In effect, the new VI retains the "Label >> Visible" setting of the VI that was replaced, which is desirable.
  • This idea is somewhat related to the following idea: "Show node names when dropped" option

In many programs you can open/close all children (neighbours?) of a Tree node by holding control. It'd be nice it that worked in LV as well. (atleast it doesn't in 2019)

I mean 1 level down, not _all_ if there's several.

Yamaeda_0-1746618810697.png

Ctrl+click the '+' and it should open all the neighbour classes, if it's open all should be closed. 

Using "Edit Palette Set" is cumbersome and painstaking.

 

Specific use case example:   I create a class library that has an embedded menu file that I want to distribute as a compiled packed library (PPL) or even as a source code distribution for re use by other developers.     To make the mnu available in the functions palette, you have to manually recreate the menu file to link to the versions of the functions inside the distributed functions, which is painstaking for a larger library.

 

It would  really nice if we had the ability to generate or easily edit mnu files.  In the example, a simple search and replace of the paths that the functions in the palette link to would work

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).

 

dwb_0-1703104642443.png

 

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

1.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

2 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

3 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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, the TDMS File api does not offer a way to get the TDMS file size.

 

Our use case is that we'd like to limit the size of the TDMS files and span them accross multiple individual files (and I've posted an idea suggestion for adding that as a native feature, too).  To do this, we need to be able to monitor the TDMS file size, so that we can save/close the current file and then create the next file in the span for continued use (until we hit the size limit again).

 

 

Jim_Kring_0-1707938415587.png

 

Excel displays the number of selected cells.

1 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VS Code displays the number of selected characters.

5 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

2 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

4 (edited).png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The default Data Directory path is set to "%Userprofile%\Documents" under windows. 

This is fine regarding custom probes, settings etc, but problematic when it comes to the compile cache and other "runtime" files.

 

In our corporate setting, this folder is always synced with onedrive AND with the roaming profile. So one problem is, that it bloats the synced volume, which by it self is annoying. But it often leads to corrupt files when onedrive blocks them or writes them in the wrong moment. 

 

So our workaround is to set this path to %programdata%\LabView Data. This, however, brings new problems, since now all users need write access to this folder.

 

I think a better way would be to save the folder under %localappdata%, but this can not be done with a symblic path and must be defined static, so it works just for one user.

 

Solution:

Provide a symbolic link to the %useroprofile% or %localappdata% folders. Additionally it would be nice, if the cache target folder could be seperately defined.

It can be difficult to go back to the Search Results window when searching for subVIs or text in a project with many open VIs.

 

It'd be great if the Search Results window had an "Always on top?" option. The screenshot below shows a possible implementation, using a tickbox.

1 (edited).png

I'd be happy for the default value of the tickbox to be false (unticked). The default behaviour would be identical to the current behaviour.

 

When the option is ticked the Search Results window would float on top of other VI windows, similar to how the Probe window floats on top.

 

This would make life easier when going back and forth between a few results, with many VIs already open, especially when so many VIs are open that all LabVIEW windows have collapsed into one tall list in the Windows taskbar.

 

This feature is not terribly impactful, but has a high benefit-to-effort ratio, due to the very small implementation effort.

 

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).

 

Jim_Kring_0-1715216735950.png

 

Jim_Kring_2-1715216863669.png

 

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! 🙂

LabVIEW 2021 now has this pop-up, which lets you know if you still have VIs running in the background when you try to close a project: 

_carl_0-1655215157557.png

Great!  Because previously you were alerted that some VIs were still running, but not which ones. So this helps substantially with debugging.

 

However, I usually just want to abort these VIs without closing my project. There's still no (obvious) way to either open or abort these still-running VIs. That leaves me twiddling my thumbs (often for several minutes on large projects) while I close and re-open the project.

 

The request: Add the ability to either open or abort these running VIs from this window.  It could be as simple as adding an "Abort All" button...or even adding documentation on how these could be closed:

_carl_1-1655216075971.png

 

(And yes, obviously the correct solution here is for me as the developer to fix the bug that's leaving these VIs running... however, in the real world, sometimes this is either lower priority than other issues, or falls onto someone else's plate...and in the meantime you're left regularly waiting for your project to reload.)