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14 Kudos
falkpl

Optional "confirm" on icon editor cancel

Status: Declined Submitted by Trusted Enthusiast on 08-26-2009 01:44 PM 11 Comment

Maybe this is a personal problem but I do this all the time and It frustrates me every time.

Edit an icon go to hit OK a little too fast and catch the cancel by mistake, all my hard work GONE.  Yes this is only a loss of a few minutes but time is money.  Do this 1 out of 50 times I edit an icon, ant it happens a few times a week. 

 

Can we move the cancel button away from the OK or can we add an optional confirm on unsaved changes to the icon so I dont loose my work every time I make this mistake.

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6 Kudos
Chris_in_Colorado

"RETAIN WIRE VALUES" - global and VI setting

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-26-2009 12:14 PM 2 Comment

It's very rare for me to deal with large arrays, so it's seems very retarded when I'm debugging to 

find VIs have not retained their values. I must turn on the "retain values" and re-run and go through 

a huge test sequence again to trigger the problem.

 

All to save 100K of memory, when I've got 2G to through around.

 

How about a global setting "RETAIN WIRE VALUES" and per-VI setting to override the global.

 

Wouldn't take much...

 

 

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0 Kudos
Chris_in_Colorado

Tabs or Sheets like Microsoft Excel

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-26-2009 11:53 AM 8 Comment

Wow,

 

This would be super powerful.

 

It's a little hard to grasp at first.

 

If you have sheets or tabs like EXCEL, you could write clean code in small chunks without have all the overhead of many SUBVIs!!!!!

 

I would use "local variables" to get data back and forth from different tabs/sheets.

 

TAKE 1 MINUTE TO THINK ABOUT!!!!!!!!

 

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1 Kudos
Chris_in_Colorado

Clean Box to surround code to force cleanup to keep togeather

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-26-2009 11:47 AM 4 Comment

Problem: Sometimes, we really need to keep pieces of code together during cleanup.

 

Current Solution: You can force LV to do this by putting a "sequence" around it. 

 

Bad Effect: Those are ugly, distracting, and suggest complexity when there isn't.

 

SOLUTION: We need a nice clean light grey box that does nothing that we can wrap around code snippets.

 

 

MINOR CHANGE, HUGE DIFFERENCE.

 

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4 Kudos
JimboH

Block Diagram default window

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-26-2009 10:55 AM 6 Comment

By default the front panel opens when opening a vi, and you need to toggle the view to get to the back panel.  Although it probably doesn't make sense to switch the default behavior for all vis to open the back panel first, it would be nice to have an option to do this on a vi by vi basis.  The main advantage of this case would be the removal of a second window (the front panel), that doesn't need to be take up desktop or taskbar space when only editing code.  Closing the block diagram for a vi that has this option enabled would be equivalent to closing the front panel for those that don't (i.e. save prompting).

 

Note I found the same idea here, although mixed in with other elements. 

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/LabVIEW-IDE-Overhaul/idi-p/952251#M1160
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12 Kudos
Neil.Pate

application builder

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant Active Participant on 08-25-2009 05:26 PM 4 Comment

This is a wish.

 

Please NI, make the Application Builder multi-core capable. When I build apps, I see my CPU usage nailed to one core only. I have multiple cores, please feel free to use them. 

 

I don't want my builds now, I want them yesterday 😉

5 Kudos
ASTDan

Property Node Error Input and Output on the bottom

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant Active Participant on 08-25-2009 01:20 PM 9 Comment
It would be nice if the Error in and out of of a property node was on the bottom of the primitive instead of the top.  This would conform more to LabVIEW style.
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4 Kudos
minnellac

Time Control and Indicator display option to ignore time zone.

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant on 08-25-2009 12:56 PM 3 Comment
I'd like to see an option (either in the right-click menu, or in the Time Stamp Properties>>Display Format tab) to ignore the computers local time zone when displaying timestamps. If I receive data from another timezone that has timestamps saved in it, I may want to see those timestamps displayed in UTC instead of my time zone. This is achievable manually by added or substracting as appropriate, but it's annoying.
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50 Kudos
elset191

Do Not Save Option

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant on 08-25-2009 10:51 AM 28 Comment
I want a Do Not Save option in addition to Defer Decision and Save.  When I was checking to see if this has already been Idea'd I found this thread.  Dennis mentions the Revert option, which I didn't know of.  I will probably start using this.  But, I still think Do Not Save should be included in the dialog.
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6 Kudos
JimboH

unlock library of xcontrol from member of the control

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-25-2009 01:39 AM 1 Comment
When debugging an xcontrol it is annoying to constantly go back to the xcontrol .xctl window and to unlock the library for editing by right clicking on the .xctl icon and selecting it from the drop down menu.  I usually have lots of windows open for debugging and finding the control window, and then right clicking and selecting can get tiresome very quick.  It would be nice if vis that were a member of the xcontrol had a button, perhaps next to the context menu button, that you could click on for unlocking the control for editing, and similarly the converse, applying the changes to all instances.
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2 Kudos
JimboH

paste option to group copy/paste of variables to new vi

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-24-2009 02:21 PM 3 Comment

The current setup in Labview maintains the original spatial layout of front panel and back panel controls/indicators when copying and pasting to a new vi.  Although this behavior might be useful for some, I would prefer that all controls/indicators be grouped together on copying and pasting, as I am going to rearrange them anyways, and I would prefer them to be closer together.  To compromise, it would be nice to have a special paste option (not to just get rid of the current behavior) that would group the controls and indicators together with the copied code.

 

The first picture below shows the result of copying and pasting some code into a new vi.  The back panel controls/indicators weren't too far from the code, however the front panel objects were very far away from each other as seen in the navigator window. 


The second picture shows the result of the new pasting option.  As a secondary point, having an option that would attempt to convert local variables to controls/indicators based on the current connection direction would also be useful. In this case the result of that operation would remove both local variables, and switch the direction of both the indicator and control.

 

 

CURRENT BEHAVIOR 

 

CopyToNew1.PNG
 
BEHAVIOR WITH NEW PASTE OPTION

 

CopyToNew2.PNG 

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9 Kudos
Jim_Kring

Remove Window Tile Feature

Status: Declined Submitted by Trusted Enthusiast Trusted Enthusiast on 08-22-2009 06:07 PM 10 Comment

I REALLY don't like the Window Tile feature (Window>>Tile Left and Right, Window>>Tile Up and Down).  Mostly because Ctrl+T is right next to to Ctrl+R (which I use for showing the error dialog when a VI is broken), so I accidentally tile my windows all the time -- frustrating.   I vote to remove it altogether.

 

See also this Idea: Undo Tile (ctrl + T) 

Message Edited by Jim Kring on 08-22-2009 04:11 PM
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8 Kudos
Neil.Pate

property nodes should accept arrays for the reference

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant Active Participant on 08-22-2009 05:26 PM 9 Comment

Idea Subject really describes it.

 

Property nodes should allow arrays of references on the input so that the same property (i.e. disabled) can be applied to multiple controls without needing a for loop.

 

Errors could be handled much the same way as compound property nodes are now, ie with the option to ignore errors within the node. I imagine most errors would occur during development time anyway.

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4 Kudos
Mark_SAI

Colour Differentiation of Structure Levels...

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant on 08-21-2009 09:58 AM 14 Comment

I sometimes find it easier to understand a block diagram if I colour the background:

 

 structureDifferentiation1.PNG

 

Which got me thinking... what if I had something like this:

 

allWhite.PNG

 

It is not immediately obvious to me the levels of the structures... so perhaps I should colour the levels progressively darker:

 

multiLayer.PNG

 

Now it looks like you have multiple layers of tinted glass stacked up, and gives it an almost 3D look! I can now immediately tell which structure is innermost.

I think the enviroment should have the ability to specify colours of structure depth:

 

options.PNG

 

What do you think?

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0 Kudos
Siamak

Many-To-One Notification

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-20-2009 03:47 PM 10 Comment

None of the existing synchronization VIs work for "instantaneous" many-to-one notification, (or do they?)

  • Notifier is one-to-one or one-to-many,
  • Rendezvous is many-to-many
  • Occurances is one-to-many
  • Semaphore handles a different sync issue!

 

In many cases, one VI may need to wait for several other VIs before performing a task, simple example is on closing,

Even more specifically, other VIs could do the "notification" and continue, but the one VI must wait until those VIs have met (and passed) the "notification" point.

 

Although the mechanism can be built easily, it could be defined by NI as a standard VI.

 

Sia

3 Kudos
JICHFI

Pointers in LabVIEW

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-20-2009 02:28 AM 2 Comment

When I need to pass a data from a loop to another I need to create an indicator and local variables which create copies in memory for each variables. So we have at least 3 copies in memory for the same data. One for the wire itself, one for the indicator and one for the local variable. Why there is no kind of pointers which LabVIEW could handle from under the hood with the wire's memory adress. Imagine something like that. Then we don't need to use a hidden indicator only for data passing.

pointer.PNG

This example doesn't look very clever but you can see what I mean. 

2 Kudos
Cory_K

XYZ Graph

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant on 08-19-2009 01:48 PM 2 Comment

I recently had to graph some 3D data, and found it more trouble than anticipated.

It would be great if there was a graph similar to the XY graph, but for 3D.

Instead of clustering just a 1D x-array and a 1D y-array, you could cluster a 1D z-array as well.

Then send the whole cluster to the XYZ graph.
Or 3 inputs, 1D arrays each would work.

 

It is difficult manipulating the data for the current required inputs of:

- 1D x array

- 1D y array

- 2D z matrix

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0 Kudos
Galbrun

Automatically create new vi from selection

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-19-2009 09:55 AM 5 Comment

It would be very useful to have a way of automatically create subvis when a single vi become too large. What we usually do is :

1. Select the portion we want ton encapsulate in a new vi.

2. ctrl-X.

3. Create new VI, save as, chose name, change icon.

4. ctrl-V.

5. Connect the front panel.

6. Add the new vi to the original diagram.

7. Connect the new vi.

8. Debug mistakes.

 

I think steps 2 to 8 could be automated with a single function (e.g. 'transmute selected code into a single vi'), saving a little time many times.

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1 Kudos
JICHFI

Case Tunel "Variant to Data"

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 08-19-2009 05:54 AM 5 Comment

 Variant-Tunel.PNG

Wouldn't be nice to have a configurable tunel in case structure which receives a Variant?

 

Regarding each case we could specify which datatype it is, by right-clicking the tunel and getting a new window to define the type.

 

Then we wouldn't need to wire a "Variant to Data" sub-vi and a control/constant to define the datatype.
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255 Kudos
mfitzsimons

Property Nodes Should use Enums

Status: Declined Submitted by Active Participant on 08-18-2009 06:01 PM 15 Comment

All property nodes should use enums to make the code readable and not required to open help every time you need to set a properity.  I find myself creating typeDefs for my self so I don't have to look up what the properity does and to make my code easier to edit.  Example provided is to disable a control on the front panel.  This is in the LabVIEW style guide Smiley Wink

 

propertyNodesEnums.PNG

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