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It would be convenient if there was keyboard shortcuts to allign selected objects, instead of having to go into the Allign and Distribute drop-down boxes every time. We should economize mouse movement as much as possible. Maybe CTRL+arrows and CTRL+SHIFT+arrows for the most commonly used ones of each? I suggest (the unmarked ones remain without shortcuts):

I also like this idea about implementing the commonly used shortcuts for font attributes (bold, italic, underline):

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Use-standard-Windows-keyboard-shortcuts-to-change-font-styles/idi-p/941973

So kudo that one too, if you also like it. Even though CTRL+B, CTRL+I etc. are already used in LabVIEW, Darrens argument of these shortcuts only working as text modyfiers when text is selected saves the day.

Cheers,

Steen

In order to make publication quality graphs in another program, I needed to use "export simplified image" many times, each time exporting to the clipboard as emf with the grid hidden.

Every time, this dialog comes up, all settings are back at the default (bmp, grid shown) and I have to click a few places before being able to do what I want. I think it would be more user friendly if this dialog would remember the last used settings, at least during the current session.

(I also think that "hide grid" should be checked by default)

IDEA: This dialog should remember the last use settings during a session.

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Probe Watch Window: Mismatched radix

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Custom presentation of NaN

If you are using TCP to communicate to a different code environment, you may want to set some of the socket options. For example, for responsive control, you will want to disable Nagle's algorithm. There is currently no obvious or easy way to do this. TCP Get Raw Net Object.vi in <vi.lib>\utility\tcp.llb will provide the raw socket ID, but you then need to call setsockopt() on your particular platform using the call library node. You can do this with the code provide here. A much better way would be adding a property node to the TCP reference that allowed you to set and query the options directly.

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One of the cool new features in Windows 7 is the Jump List, which can provide application-specific shortcuts by right-clicking the icon in the taskbar. Some applications provide basic Jump List functionality. For example, LabVIEW provides a recent files list, which inherently supports "pinning" items so they appear permanently in the list, like so:

This is definitely a good start, but check out the jump list for Google Chrome:

They provide Jump Lists for most visited sites, recently closed webpages, and creating new Chrome windows. I think we should figure out some cool LabVIEW-specific stuff to add to LabVIEW's Jump List. Among the ideas I've had are:

New VI
New Project
Bring Project(s) to Front
Most Opened VIs (different from Most Recent)
Fix the Jump List to show VIs that were opened within LLBs (as opposed to the current behavior of just listing the containing LLBs)

Obviously we don't want to clutter up the Jump List, so we'd want to make sure whatever we add will be generally useful to all LabVIEW programmers. List any ideas you have for helpful, commonly-used LabVIEW-specific Jump List tasks in the comments below.

With the advent of scripting, it is possible to create some nifty tools to aid in code writing. Those that work on individual elements of the FP or BD can often work nicely in Quick Drop or the Right-Click Framework. Some of these tools however, work most naturally as an addition to to Tools menu. The missing piece of the puzzle for seamless integration into the IDE is the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts for those additions. I would simply like the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to any item which appears in the Tools menu. I have at least three things in there already more worthy of Ctrl-t.

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I'm sometimes amazed how lazy I get. As soon as a cool new feature comes out, like a For Loop with Break, I want something better. I'm tired of writing code to search through an array of clusters for some specific value that matches. I really want LabVIEW to do this for me. This could drastically improve coding efficiency in advanced applications.

Imagine we have a new primitive search function that can search an array of clusters for a specific item and return the index of the first match. Then instead of writing this code manually, I could just drop the function and select the type to search by.

This:

becomes this:

Easily Copy Mass Compile Output

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Hi,

Currently if a VI is set to subroutine priority you can only call subVIs within that which are also subroutine priority (to prevent priority inversion I guess).

It would be great if it was possible to also use inlined subVIs inside subroutine VIs.

As inlining basically defeats a VI's priority setting an inlined subVI would just "inherit" the subroutine priority of its caller. I configure many of my very small reuse VIs as inlined (most of those in the GPower Error & Warning toolset from v2.1 onwards for instance), since they typically perform much better than subroutine that way. But since they are configured as inlined, this effectively prevents them from being (re)used inside subroutine VIs.

Cheers,

Steen

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Resize Rearrange Cases window

Project #Defines or Project Variables

The concept is to have a project level #define or variable where a value of your type can be set. This is to allow the user to change constants across multiple targets. Wherever this is called in code it will be set when the run button is clicked and then be static until it is run again. The same would happen when a build is run that the value is set then and never again.

This would allow multi target configuration quite simply and make for some more readable code when you a constant referred to at multiple levels or across large chunks of code. Instead of having a wire to span these sections or being passed down multiple subVIs it would just refer to one point, much as a #define in C

Project

Then calling code for targets

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I am experimenting with the Idea Exchange here. I am suggesting a premise and leaving implementation details aside.

Premise: When a control is placed on the FP, its terminal must be placed on the top level diagram.

The rest are negotiable implementation details, I want to establish consensus on the premise and let NI do their job of figuring it out.

As you know, the current placement algorithm is some form of random dart tossing. No regard is given to structures, or other code which is lying around. It is easy to sneak a terminal into some random case structure resulting in an easter egg hunt or annoying visit to the FP.

This idea: at the very least, put them on empty space in the top level diagram.

One possibility is the following idea:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Unused-items-tray/idi-p/1391958

There are others.

Spoiler

Of course Icon View makes it much harder for them to hide....

It would be really nice if we had hooks into QuickDrop that let us modify how the search and filtering functions work.

For example, I use PPLs and Actor Framework together extensively. It would be nice if I could change the search algorithm to put the PPL versions of AF methods at the top instead of defaulting to the LVLIB methods.

I think a lot of developers probably have different search needs like this. Opening up the functionality for developers to tweak it in their own environments would be a great way to meet individual needs. And then we could share different improvements to search/filtering just as we do now with QuickDrop plugins.

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Invoke nodes can have lots of optional arguments, resulting in their taking up a lot of vertical space. I would like to recommend that the arguments portion of Invoke nodes be resizeable, allowing the developer to select the optional arguments to be displayed on the block diagram and, hence, have more control over the layout of the block diagram.

Consider the Save-As Invoke node from Microsoft Word:

which gets longer with each new version of Word.

Now imagine being able to show just the optional arguments that are needed:

And, as an added bonus, this Invoke node would not break when the VI is opened in a development environment that has a different version of Word with the same exposed optional arguments.

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With Application Builder installers there is no way to flag a file as a 'shared' component in the build specification. This feature is used in MSI installation when files are shared or common among multiple product installers; for example, the files located in \National Instruments\Shared are common dependencies for NI products or in LabVIEW-built EXEs this could be a shared dependency between two applications, like a DLL. Currently, if two product installers built in Application Builder install the same file, when either of these products is later removed the shared dependency goes with it and the second product is broken!

Some good news is you can use MSI editors like InstallShield to edit the MSI after creating it with Application Builder in order to enable a tag/setting for your shared files:

There are also open source MSI editors available, like Inst Edit, with similar options for tagging files as shared components.

What can be done in Application Builder?

Could an option be added to 'Source File Settings' to tag files as 'Shared' so a third-party MSI editor is no longer necessary?

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The In Place Element (IPE) is great and so are Data Value References (DVRs).... but... well sometimes I'm not such a great programmer and I will cause a dead lock in my code causing what looks like a "hang". Debugging can be hard in that case when trying to figure out which vi was trying to access the DVR. Also if I'm using the dvr for some sort of global storage, i may want an error to ocurr if some piece of code holds onto the DVR lock for too long.

I'd love for the IPE to have a timeout when you have 1 or more DVRs and if ALL of the references are not available in the specified time, the structure returns an error.

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Add keyboard shortcuts to allign and distribute objects

Export simplified image should retain settings during a session

Probe Watch Window: Mismatched radix

Custom presentation of NaN

Property Node to Set Socket Options for TCP

Index Array with type conversion function like “Scan from String"

Provide LabVIEW-specific Jump List Functionality in Windows 7

Allow Keyboard Shortcuts for User Items in Tools Menu

Replace the Invert Circles in Compound Arithmetic Nodes

New Primitive Function to Search Array of Clusters

Easily Copy Mass Compile Output

Subroutine VIs should accept inlined subVIs

Resize Rearrange Cases window

Project #Defines or Project Variables

Control terminals should always be created on the top level diagram

Provide hooks into the QuickDrop dialog to modify search, filtering and other behavior

Don't force all optional arguments in Invoke nodes to be shown

Autocomplete for block diagram bookmark comments

Add an option to Application Builder > Installer build specification to enable 'Shared' files in installers

Timeout for In Place Element Structure with DVR nodes