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Searched briefly but couldn't find any ideas about this.

I know we have the ability #via_ignore comments to ignore specific tests for a specific VI, but I am looking at a different use case.

Here's the use case, I use DQMH. When you create a new DQMH module there is a lot of plumbing code that comes with it. It's standard stuff. Very rarely do I have to open or edit it. Much of it is scripting generated. It often fails tests but I don't care. In addition to failing, it takes up test time, which slows my feedback loop. I would a way to signal to VI analyzer to skip these files. I know I can use the VIAN API to limit the files it checks, but I was thinking there had to be a better way.

Implementation Ideas - I had 2 main ideas

- Regex matching on VI names - with the regex pulled out of a text file somewhere ala gitignore. Many of the DQMH generated VIs have standard names, so that is easy. When generating events, they don't but you could easily add a prefix/suffix or something that the regex would pick up.

- Using the Tag API to tag the VI. I like this because the scripting can just apply the tag or apply it to the template the scripter uses. Downside is: kind of hidden from the user and perhaps if I decide to make some edits to this VI I may want VIAN to stop ignoring it and it's not immediately obvious how to do that.

Note:

I picked the Execution and Performance Label because it didn't seem to fit any of the labels easily. If this is the wrong label and you are an admin, please relabel it.

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Control Reference Improvement

The current implementation of Control References on the Block Diagram could be improved. This Idea was first conceived over a year ago in a discussion on Smaller Static Refs, in the comments here.

Consider the following advantages:

It's generally bad style to have Ctl Refs with hidden labels. New implementation always demonstrates the label to comply with inherent self-documentation of G (just like a Local)
Smaller footprint combined with better visual distinction between Ctl Refs doubly improves information density
In general, the Control Class does not need to be shown at all times on the BD. Rather, it could be shown in Context Help (currently, CH is not useful when hovering over Controls Refs, but this is another topic), or determined by browsing Properties/Methods.
Eliminates the undesirable ability to rename/delete a Control Ref Label such that it no longer matches the Terminal Label.
Creates a better distinction between a Control Ref and a Control Class Constant (NULL Ref). The color of the Static Refs denote a "live link" with a control, while the muted tones of a Class Constant indicate no such link (NULL)
Complements the new LV2010 Local Variable upgrade (see image), yet remains distinct by having a different glyph, different background colors, and no directionality arrow

In summary, a Control Reference revamp could reduce the footprint, increase readability, and prevent obfuscation that decouples the Static Control Ref from the Control.

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I really hate having to dig through a long hierarchy of menus when I know what I want:

Visual Studio (and other MS and non-MS products) have a feature called Intellisense, which is meant to make this easier. Basically, as you type, it pops up a list of matching objects, based on context, so you can quickly select what you want:

It would be nice if LV had a similar feature - click on a property in the property node using the text tool (or Ctrl+click if using the auto-tool) and now you can type in the property name and you will get an Intellisense-like pop-up, which will have all the relevant properties.

Specific features it could have:

It should know all the relevant names - full names with the hierarchy (Boolean Text.Font.Color), long names (Mechanical Action) and short names (MechAction). This could probably be similar to how Quick Drop handles shortcuts or they could simply appear as separate items.
It should be context sensitive. If the class is Boolean, then there's no need to have Listbox properties in the list.
It should match all the properties which include the search string (so "in" on a boolean would match both "Indicator" and "Strings[]") and only them.
It should have the ability to use caps for acronyms (e.g. in the above screenshot you could use "BT" instead of "Boolean Text", similar to what appears in this video).
It could probably also work on the invoke node, although there it's less needed.
It could probably also be used to quickly select a class if you have a class specifier using the same basic mechanism.

This example (LV 2009) shows how useful this could be. You don't need anything installed. Just run the VI and start changing properties.

Caveats:

It will only work on the last property in the node.
It doesn't have the proper list of names and it doesn't implement all the features in the idea, as this is just a basic example.

Note - this is similar to this idea, but I think that it's much more usable. Also note that the second idea refers to a QDKS which ships with 2010, but that is far from perfect.

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Allow editing of map and set constants

Similar to how array and cluster constants on the block diagram can be edited, it would be useful to be able to edit map and set constants on the block diagram.

For example:

In the map constant above, the developer can scroll through and see all of the key value pairs in the map (plus an empty element at the end of the map).

It would be useful to also be able to edit the key-value pairs in the map (and add more key-value pairs to the map by changing the empty element at the end of the map).

While debugging LabVIEW, we often have many VI windows open. It can sometimes be difficult to manage these windows, especially once the debugging session is over. I think we can improve this situation greatly with a minor change to the All Windows dialog. This dialog (launched from the 'Window' pull-down or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-W) currently shows a list of all LabVIEW windows that are currently open:

There are several columns of information describing all the open windows, and the list is sortable by clicking a column header. You can multi-select in the list and click 'Close Window(s)' to close multiple windows at once.

Idea: If we add a "Time Opened" column that lists time stamps of when the windows were first opened, it would be easy to sort by that column, then close all the windows that were opened during a span of time, i.e. while debugging.

While we're at it, there are several other usability enhancements that could be made to this dialog that seem to be low-hanging fruit:

Make the window a non-modal floater, with the list dynamically updating as windows open and close.
Add a 'Minimize Window(s)' button.
Give useful key navigation to the 'Close Window(s)' button (and any other buttons we may add).

I know there are other ideas about making debugging easier (don't show panels, etc.). I'm scoping this idea to improvements we can make specifically to the All Windows dialog to make debugging easier.

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When I was newer to LabVIEW, I found it hard to understand how people could identify front panel object styles e.g. NXG style string control vs System string control.

I believe it is the sort of skill that takes experience and experimentation, and it only gets more complex when the appearance of the string control is customised. For example, modifying the above controls so they are the same size, they are practically identical...

I have never been able to find a good complete documentation of the differences in appearance and behaviour between different styles of front panel object - seems each style of each type of control has their quirks. So when presented with front panel objects that you did not make yourself, it is hard to 'reverse engineer' them if changes are needed. This makes it harder to learn how to make good UIs.

A potential solution would be to add a property which tells you which style a control or indicator was created as, or most recently replaced by. E.g. modern, classic, system, silver, NXG. An extension would be to add a 'reset to default style' which would behave as if replacing the customised object with an object of that style from the palette. A further extension would be to allow changing of style e.g. in this example from NXG to System via a dropdown box, although not all front panel objects are available in all styles so I can see this being more difficult to implement.

This is probably the ugliest UI mockup you will see all day but I hope it gets the idea across and sparks some conversation:

This would be accessed via 'properties' on the right click menu of the front panel object.

I'm not very experienced with XControls, QControls etc. so would welcome suggestions about how these should behave. Perhaps there is some nuance to do with styles that I am missing.

This idea is related to this one which talks about setting style for the whole front panel.

Let me know your thoughts!

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Often when I want to look at the structure of a complex data type containing nested typedefs, I find the data type description in the Context Help quite heavy/verbose.

For example, could you tell at first glance how many levels of hierarchy there are in this data structure ?

Well, actually there are 5 levels (including the root cluster), but this is obfuscated by the unnecessary levels added by typedefs.

The description could be much more concise:

Here is an alternative that keeps the typedef type descriptions and appends them after the typedef name. However I'm not sure about this one because it could create description texts that are too long to be displayed in a single line:

Also for the configuration, it could be an option in "Options > Environment" and/or a button in the Context Help:

What are your thoughts ?

Raphaël.

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After placing a new graph, we might want to go to the plot properties dialog and change the color, label, etc. of the plots we want.

Bzzzt. No go! We can only edit plots that have been added in some other way. (by resizing the plot legend, wiring and running once with data representing several plots, etc.)

For comparison, have a look at the cursor tab. Here we can add and remove cursors at will.

My suggestion is to add the ability to add or remove plots on the plots tab properties page of graphs and charts.

It could look like in the image on the left.

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After some searching, this ideas was already discussed in the comments of this declined idea. but I think it deserves to stand on its own, so here we go.

We have a nice menu entry "Menu...Edit...Make current values default" that (if nothing is selected) does just that. In 99% of my cases only the controls are important, because all the indicators, while often containing tons of data (graphs, arrays, etc) can be easily re-created from the control values at any time.

So while the control values are useful to be able to run a VI out-of-the-box with reasonable input values, default values for indicators just contribute to VI bloat, increasing the size on disk.

Making indicators default is useful for the rare cases where a forum users want to show what he gets or expects to get, but not in general development. Yes, we can of course select all controls first, but they might be scattered all over the panel and over several tab pages, so that's not a good solution. (We could also request a menu in addition to the "edit...select all" e.g. called "edit...select all controls", but that is probably a different idea.)

In summary, there should be a menu entry that ignores indicators when making values the default.

It should also work if multiple items are selected "Make Selected Control Values Default", in which case it would ignore any selected indicators.

Please let me opt out from this new feature, introduced in LabVIEW 2017, permanently in the setup dialog.

Using LabVIEW for a very long time (since LabVIEW 2.0), I never wished such a feature (it got only 27 Kudoes) - and - I am even using it's "anti feature", implemented up to now, constructively to detach objects (Pull control into a structure, connect it to the new target - and "Ctrl B").

This new feature, forced onto everybody, would be less annoying, if pressing "W" would reliably disable the feature. However, at least in vritual windows machines (Parallels) on a Mac, it does not work 50% of the time.

The top For loop + Unbundle is the current method to get the Keys and Values of all elements in a Map as arrays. If you need both, this is ok, but I'd prefer the second option, with a native node.

If you only want one (e.g. the Keys), then the For loop and Unbundle takes quite a bit more room than a similar-type of node (here the size is taken from the Collection Size node, and the paired outputs in the second row are from Matrix Size).

Can we have nodes to access the keys in particular, and perhaps the Keys + Values of a Map without requiring the For loop?

Navigating long lists in LabVIEW can get painful, e.g. for producer consumer design patterns and message handlers.

This idea is to add submenu parsing for dot notation items.

Now your case structure can do this:

I don't think it will effect ranges in the case selector as it requires two dots... e.g. "Init.Step1".."Init.Step4"

Credit: This thread for inspiration: https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Case-structure-easier-selection-for-structures-with-a-large/idc-p/4192417?profile.language=en#M43910

Suggestions required on how to handle a list in this situation where its a lot of numbered messages.

Also I just learned from a colleague that by grouping controls carefully (& some caveats) with the dot notation on FPGA it allows for a submenu. (And clusters on a FPGA can take up a lot of gates). So LabVIEW already has some code for this feature. Can it be leveraged? See below:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Group-FPGA-Controls-With-Dot-Naming/td-p/2767678?profile.language=e...

This post generated this idea which is the same problem in the FPGA space... grouping long lists to make them easier to use.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-FPGA-Idea-Exchange/Better-FPGA-FP-Control-Selection/idi-p/3074718

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Currently, for waveform/XY plots/graphs, the legend, graph palette, cursor window, etc are all "coupled" with the graph itself from a "graphical" perspective.

This means that all of these "addons" must be attached to the graph, and you can't put them in a different part of the panel. Screen resizing thus tends to screw things up, especially if your plot names can be defined by the user.

I'd like to decouple these somehow.

For example, I'd like to be able to put my legend and zoom tools in separate panes separated by splitter bars, or even in a right-click style menu (like a subpanel popping up). This feature would let you use automatic resizing on the plot itself and keep the legend separate.

You could theoretically program your own version of this, but:

-Recreating the legend functionality (line size/width/etc) would be a large undertaking, especially since there isn't a native Datagrid type control that could display a checkbox, string, and small image.

-I don't know of a way to get at the built-in zoom/pan tools programmatically (yes, you could create your own, but it's a big PITA)

-It wouldn't work at edit time, like the current features do, unless you baked all of it into an Xcontrol

Basically yes, you COULD get a lot of this done yourself... but it'd be nice to just use the tools NI already made, which work great. I don't want to reinvent the wheel just for some graphical convenience.

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The getting started windows fills with irrelevant entries if we open many VIs and projects from the forum. We probably never want to see them again. Also, if items exist that have the same name, but reside in different folders, they will show with the full (often very long!) path and the filename is not directly visible unless we e.g. hover over it or make the window gigantic. Here we want to remove the stale one, even if a copy still exists on disk.

We can currently do some cleanup by editing labview.ini but it is tedious. (just try it!)

I would like to request a feature that allows us to easily and permanently remove any entry in the list.
(...maybe it could even show for pinned entries?)

IDEA: I suggest to show a special glyph that, when clicked would remove that entry from the list.

It could also be e.g. an "X" (or similar) that shows next to the pin when hovering so we can either pin or thrash an entry.

These are just some suggestions, but there should be a way to easily weed out unwanted entries from the GSW. Of course the actual files will not be touched. We would just go back to the state before we opened that item.

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With a case structure I can place the mouse cursor over the structure and Ctrl + scroll wheel to cycle through the cases without it being active. If I try doing this on arrays it doesn't work.

For front panel arrays the numeric indicator must have focus for this to work. Doesn't work when the array data is selected. I understand that multidimensional arrays would be a problem, but for 1D arrays it would be nice if it cycled through the elements.

For array constant block diagram elements, no scroll action works regardless of what is active. Again it should allow the user to cycle through elements for 1D arrays simply by hovering over the item and Ctrl + scroll wheel.

Not a duplicate of http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Array-scrollbar-quot-scrollable-quot-with-scroll-wheel/idi-p/1009220

[admin edit: Adding animation image at the request of the OP]

On a For Loop that is configured to have parallel iterations there is a nifty feature when using errors on a shift register. This feature is explained in an article here. It basically ensures that For Loops that run 0 times, will preserve the incoming error as if the tunnel was a shift register. However this feature also means that errors from iteration 0, won't be passed into iteration 1. What is returned if the loop runs 0 times is just the incoming error. But if it runs for more than that, the errors are all merged and returned will be the first error seen.

This idea is just to allow this already existing feature to work on non-parallel configured For Loops. When would this be useful? Say I want to delete an array of files. I want to attempt to delete all files, even if there is an error in trying to delete some, just keep trying to delete the other files. Initially you may think this:

But that has the clear problem that if the incoming array is empty, then the error will be cleared. So we often do something like this.

And honestly this bit of code isn't that big of a deal, but this feature already exists. However it only works on For Loops that are configured to run iterations in parallel. In this case I might be attempting to delete files in a specific order due to their placement on disk, and running in parallel isn't what I want.

Since not everyone wants all errors in loops to act this way it would need to be a right click menu to turn the tunnel into a normal one, a shift registered one, or a preserve and merge one.

That is what I want.

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

VI Analyzer Ignore Certain VIs Completely

Control Reference Improvement

Add Intellisense support to the property node

Allow editing of map and set constants

Improved Window Management While Debugging

Front Panel Object's Style is shown under its properties

Option for compact data type description in Context Help

The ability to add and remove plots from the properties page

Split Number/Join Numbers primitive connector placement

Make Current Control Values Default

Opt out permanently from "maintain wires connected"

Directly access a Maps Keys and Values

Dot Notation for Auto Submenus for Easier Navigation of Long Lists

Decouple plot legend/tools/etc from the plot graphic itself

Make numeric display format auto-set to what you input

Unbundle By Name: Element Autopopulation

Let us easily cleanup the Getting Started Window (GSW)

Boolean Array to Number Right Click Menu

Ctrl + mouse wheel: Scroll through array elements when hovered over

Allow For Special Loop Error Shift Register on Non-Parallel For Loops