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Numeric constant type visualization

Probing a typedef results in a vertical list showing all the fields in the cluster. Creating the typedef cluster often involves organizing the fields in a particular layout, setting units etc. It seems like probing the data and displaying it in the same format makes more sense.

For instance, I have a cluster of camera information set up as a strict typedef:

When I probe a wire of this information I get:

This cluster isn't too big so getting to all the information doesn't require a lot of searching and scrolling, but that can be an issue. What's more of a pain is that the default unit for angles is rad and I cannot mentally convert them quickly so I end up having to double-click each 'rad' label in the probe window and change them to 'deg' so I can confirm the data is what I expect.

I know I can create a custom probe to display the typedef, but having to constantly create custom probes for each cluster is a bit of a burden.

Am I missing something? Is there a good reason to NOT display the probe using the typedef?

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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.

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In the old days the digital display was automatically aligned with the plot legend (if I remember well). Now it is by default not.

It takes some manual alignment actions to get them right. But don't resize your chart!! You can start all over again.

I propose the option to align the digital display as shown in the last picture.

(BTW, looking for duplicates I found one comment in http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Assembly-of-the-graph-s-plots/idc-p/1085440)

(Inspired by this discussion)

The Index & Bundle Cluster Array function currently discards any labels of the input data. I think it would be more useful if it would try to retain the names (i.e. copy the original array labels (if available) to the element labels of the output).

The picture illustrates the idea. On the left we see the current behavior and on the right what we would get after this idea is implemented.

If you copy a group of controls/indicators from a front panel to another, the layout of their terminals on the block diagram is not maintained (instead it is typically messy...)

Vice versa: If you copy terminals from a block diagram to block diagram the block diagram remains the same, but the control layout is messed up.

Why not just keep both as they were when copying?

Bonus-idea: If you try to fix this by using the diagram clean-up function controls with the same name, but an iterative suffix (which the IDE is able to automatically generate itself as well, so it has a relation to it alread) the clean-up ignores the order of the names when ordering the controls...(so it might stack them nicely, but then control ...<n+1> is not put after/below ...<n> e.g. Perhaps it could be a bit more intelligent and include that in the ordering algorithm too?

If I have a standard VI that's hung, I can highlight execution, and then drill into the hung VI (reentrant or not) to see what's going on:

But...if it's a class override method, I can't do this:

(There is technically an exception: If the override is not reentrant, and you guess the correct override in the popup, then you can debug it.)

This experience would be so much better if I could drill into the overrides seamlessly, without being prompted for which override to look at, and with the correct runtime instance of the override popping up. This is the kind of thing where, on complex projects, this improved debugging could literally save me hours on some bugs.

This is a really basic thing, but it would be helpful if the qualified name (as seen in VI Properties) was enabled so it could be copy and pasted into documentation.

When I'm writing detailed documentation to tell other developers how the software works I often use the qualified name as opposed to VI name. For example "Send Creep Command.vi" doesn't tell the developer where to find it, but "Motion Control UI.lvlib:Motion Card 2 Data.lvclass:Send Creep Command.vi" does.

I would be happy with the string being enabled (so it can be selected and copied), or a button that copies the string into clipboard.

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Many common functions include a "found" or "exists" output. Examples include:

Get Variant Attribute
Element of Set?
Config file VIs (Read Key, Write Key, Get Key Names, etc)
Chek if File or Folder Exists

Why then does Look In Map provide an inverted ("not found") output? Wouldn't it be better if it was consistent with other similar functions??

This is most frustrating when replacing existing code using variant attribute lookups with equivalent maps. "Look In Map" is pin compatible with "Get Variant Attribute" except for that one inverted output! This has caught me out on more than one occasion...

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My request is for NI to review and develop the ability to select where (IP specifically) a NSV will deploy on a system (eg. PC) containing multiple networks.

After searching through various forums and issues, I understand that currently we can only choose LabView software's global default adapter via unusual Windows methods. What if other projects do need to use the primary NIC ? or what if in one project I need some NSV to go to primary NIC and some to use the secondary NIC ? As various hacks and workarounds did not fulfill my requirements I opened a request for technical support. After review, the case (#03609821) concluded that this was not possible and suggested I post here to see if others also would find this useful to boost development priority.

My example scenario is this. My company develops specialized motion products (mainly automotive transmissions for heavy duty and defense applications). We primarily use NI in our dyno and own a few NI hardware systems: cRIO, cDAQ, PXI.

I work in the dyno room here and am trying to set up a cRIO as a datalogger and RT OS to primarily measure analog and CANbus signals and thereby control testing.

The test fixture is operated on a PC with two network cards. One private LAN to talk to the cRIO to stream data and control. The network shared variables keep track of various statuses. The other network card is on the company LAN primarily so we can transfer data and share fixture status. The secondary purpose of being on the company LAN is that we have 6 configurable dyno motors (usually used in pairs) in the room that run on a shared master controller (non-NI). Currently that is done via PC RS232 to the cRIO, but we’re planning eventually to transition that to a more open ethernet architecture. NSVs would be ideal for sharing each dynos’ status as the serial is limited in 1-1 connection and bandwidth.

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Editing the Font Styles and Size of a text, can't it be Simpler? rather than a lot of mouse clicks each time??

Many had suggested the use of Key board shortcuts, but it may be used for some other things. But Why shouldnt we use a dialogue box instead?

The problem is lot of mouse clicks to go to Dialogue font, Styles/size and then to the respective selection like,

The Key board shortcuts are being used for other functions., But Why shouldnt we have solution like this??

I am not sure whether it can be done or someone already suggested., but i didnt come accross anything like this when i searched for.

Thank You..

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Showing Mouse Coordinates on FP

Since most (if not all) controls and indicators can be moved around with "position" property node programatically, the X and Y coordinates on the front panel are useful information to have.

As of right now, users have to adjust the position values by trial and error to know what values suit the UI, or maybe make a program to capture the mouse position programatically.

So I've been getting feedbacks from customer about a function where one can view the coordinates of the mouse all of the time. (meaning no programming is necessary)

I was thinking about two methods (see attached)

1. Show coordinates along with the mouse

2. Show coordinates at the bottom of the pane

Thanks,

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Add Target to VI Analyzer (API)

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Currently (in LabVIEW 2010), you can add labels to wires. Hurray!!

But it's painful. Boooo!

Curently => Right-Click wire, navigate to sub-menu of Show>>Label

It should be as easy as adding free text to block diagrams or front panels. For example: If your auto-tool is on then just double-click on freespace to add text.

So we should make it just as easy to add labels to wires:

Step 1: Single-Select Wire
Step 2: Start Typing
Step 3: Profits!

We don't need no stinkin' right-click menus.

PS: I am proposing a single click on the wire instead of double-click because that performs a different action.

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(Note that this idea has already been proposed and auto-declined. So I'm trying again, this time with a different UX, and pictures!)

I've got some code on my diagram:

I need to wrap the code in a case structure, so I do:

Then I connect a Boolean wire to the selector terminal and go on my merry wiring way. Unfortunately, I forgot to consider the fact that I need this code to run in the FALSE case, not the TRUE case. But since nothing is broken in my code, I don't realize my mistake until I start running things. I've made this mistake so many times over the years (the most recent being tonight), that I've decided to propose a solution.

There are plenty of times that I want the wrapped code to be in the TRUE case. There are also plenty of times I want the wrapped code to be in the FALSE case. With no obvious default that makes sense most of the time, here's what I propose:

If you interactively drop a case structure by dragging a rectangle around *existing* code, we float a button over where you let go of the mouse and give you a chance to make the visible frame the FALSE case instead of the TRUE case:

(I suck at Microsoft Paint, I'm sure somebody can come up with a better looking button or glyph)

If you click that button, then the case structure turns to the FALSE case. If you do *anything else*, the button goes away and the case stays TRUE.

With this proposed change, any time I wrap existing diagram code with a case structure, I'll be forced to think about whether the case needs to be TRUE or FALSE. And I'm given an easy out if it's supposed to be the TRUE case.

I have wasted ~~days~~ weeks of my life tracking down why dependencies are loaded in LabVIEW.

This is because the "Why is this item in Dependencies?" tool isn't particularly useful in larger projects. And it isn't particularly useful because it highlights any file in your project (and not in the dependencies) that is dependent (no matter how indirectly) on the chosen file.

In this example, if I click on "Why is this item in Dependencies?" on library C, I get pointed to a VI in the project (A.a) which has a very indirect dependency on library C.

It would be far more useful to me if I instead only got shown the VIs that directly depended on my dependency (even if they were in dependencies themselves). If I then wanted to follow this up the chain, I could just click on "Why is this item in Dependencies?" again, but on the found item.

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Numeric constant type visualization

Probe of a typedef cluster should use the typedef for display

Multiple dispatch / Function overloading

Allow vertical Case and Event selector lists.

Digital display locked to chart legend (as an option)

Index & Bundle Cluster array should retain element names

Expanding a block diagram should only affect the case that is shown

Keep block diagram layout when copying between front panels and vice versa

Drill-down debug capabilities for class overrides

Enable Qualified Name in VI Properties or add copy button

Output of "Look In Map" should NOT be inverted

MultiCard Network Shared Variables

Editing the Font Styles and Size of a text, can't it be Simpler? rather than a lot of mouse clicks each time??

Showing Mouse Coordinates on FP

On auto-generated class palette, properly scope available VIs

Add Target to VI Analyzer (API)

Make adding label wires super easy (Step 1: Select Wire, Step 2: Start Typing, Step 3: Profits!)

Overrides of interface methods that have error in/out terminals should wire the error by default

Optional (and easily-dismissable) prompt to change newly-dropped case structure frame to FALSE

"Why is this item in Dependencies" should only show items that are directly dependent on it