LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Despite being growable for adding outputs (capturing groups), the "Match Regular Expression" XNode is missing some convenient features from other growable functions:

1. Cannot add a new element at the top while resizing the node:

2. Missing "Add/Remove Element" right-click menus:

The lack of these features forces us to rewire everything manually.

This idea has the same motivation as this previous one: making the editor more ergonomic and predictable.

Regards,

Raphaël.

Having consistent (and therefore predictable) right-click menus is essential for maximizing coding efficiency.

Most structures have the following right-click menu items:

Visible Items
Help
Examples
Description and Tip...
---------------------------
Add Breakpoint
---------------------------
Structures Palette
Auto Grow
Exclude from Diagram Cleanup
<specific menu 1>
⋮
<specific menu N>
Replace with <other structure type 1>
⋮
Replace with <other structure type N>
Remove <structure type>
---------------------------
<other specific menus>

The right-click menu however has some inconsistencies regarding item order and menu separators for certain structure types:

1. "In Place Element Structure" has "Replace" and "Remove" items reversed:

The "Remove" item should always be the last one in the item group (right before the separator) since it is a very common action and the separator offers a quick visual reference point.

2. Depending on whether you click on the structure border, the frame name label or the subdiagram label, sometimes an extra item separator appears for no reason:

The grouping of the generic items shouldn't vary depending on where you click on the structure. Here we sometimes have 4 item groups instead of 3, which hinders quick menu identification and selection.

3. This is more a general remark, but I think items specific to a structure type shouldn't be mixed with the generic ones in the first 3 groups (except maybe for the "Replace" items, since they are related to the "Remove" action).

So any specific menu item should belong after the first 3 groups:

This last remark could be subject to discussion though, as configuring iteration parallelism and shared clone allocation could be considered a "primary" action (therefore requiring to be closest to the top), even if it is specific to certain structure types.

Regards,

Raphaël.

This idea is an extension of an existing one.  Here the idea is to have alpha layer support in the Picture Control.  But the truth is NI already added it in 2020 but never put it on the palette, or documented it.  I made a quick demo showing how you can have a highlight over an element of an array showing which one is moused over here. The main VI that powers this is here:

https://youtu.be/gqJWBbqoR4s?si=_JT8-K7FoNfaPVhz

National Instruments\LabVIEW 2020\vi.lib\picture\PNG\Draw Flattened Blended Pixmap.vi

But I would like this idea to extend beyond just putting this VI on the palette or documenting it.  I think NI should add more alpha layer functions too.  Things like convert LV Data to 32 bit, set or adjust the transparency level, and make a single VI that can call the normal Draw Flatten for a 24 bit or less image, and call the Blended one if 32 bit so that a single VI can be used.  I have a couple of these type of features in a pack on VIPM.IO but I'd rather they be built in to LabVIEW.

And lastly. If we are going to think about places that alpha information can be used, I think the first place I'd like it is to be able to get an image of a control, but have the background be transparent using something like this:

Combining this with the other tools would mean there's more flexibility in making image based controls.