LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Top Authors

User

Kudos

Post an idea

Currently, the only object that we have access to in an Event Structure it the control itself:

This is not what I am interested in, most of the case, when I am working on the BD.

Rather, I'd like to either find the terminal, or local variables, references, etc.

Moreover, going to the control using the above shortcut may result in a messed up FP, not mentioning cases like this:

where the control may be hidden or invisible because it is in another tab than the one currently selected.

Now, I know that some will argue that the control terminal is most of the time in the event structure (see for instance this thread)...

But read the thread's comments for counter arguments: we would be talking about the Value Change event, but this is not what I am talking aboutin general: any event for that control should give access to the control's terminal (and BTW, it could very well be an indicator) and, as for a terminal, to this list of related objects:

(The last one courtesy of this shortcut plugin)

View All (3)

Visible Cluster AutoSizing Style

Add a Visible Item to the cluster container to enable the display of the currently selected AutoSizing style

Similar to the other Visible Items (enabled above on "source" string & "code" integer) like

"Radix" for a numeric integer (d-Decimal, o-Octal, x-Hex, b-Binary, p-SI Display)
"Display Style" for a string (n-Normal, \-\ codes, x-Hexadecimal, p-Password)

For consistency with others similar above:

also available on Block Diagram cluster constants
Visibility only selectable in edit mode
If Style is visible, it is changable in BOTH edit AND run modes

View All (4)

View All (3)

I've been wondering for years now why the LV Save (& Save All) dialog is quite unusual in terms of its layout & usability.

Redesign the "Save Changes?" dialogin accordance with the standard dialog design criteria as follows.

Resize the dialog to be somewhat bigger than now.
Place the Apply same action checkbox & the Affected items list at the top half of the dialog. Remove these items from the tabbing list, so the user can easily tab among the other 3 buttons, with Save highlighted by default.
The Affected items list is not sorted properly, but in the Explain Changes dialog, it seems the VI List is alphabatically sorted. So when you select a VI in the Affected Items list & click the "List unsaved changes..." hyperlink-like text, the selections are confusing to the user. PFB snapshot.

Save Changes Dialog.jpg

Additionally, the selection in the Affected Items list is not actually a selection, but looks like only a marquee. It gives a false impression that the selected item can be edited. Fix this.
Make the Affected Items list to be vertically scrollable, instead of the current horizontally scrollable style, which is highly cumbersome.
Change the "List unsaved changes..." hyperlink-like text into a button that is prominently visible. New users think that this would open a web browser.
Place the Save (All), Defer Decision / Don't Save (All) & Cancel buttons at the bottm right of the dialog in a horizontal fashion.
Add the Help button, like in many other dialogs in LV.
Keep the name of the dialog to be consistent - "Save changes before closing?", instead of like "Save changes? (Close Project)" - The Close Project text is misleading.

Clear indication of handled User Events

When working with User Events as an API between modules there is a nasty little thing which unfortunately keeps rearing its ugly head.

If we retrieve a cluster of User Events (or an Event registration refnum) from a module with events we should be listening to and wire this to an event structure we get a memory leak if not all events are handled. This particularly occurs whenever the API is extended and not all listeners have been updated.

It would be much easier to track down these kinds of problems if the Event Structure would display which User Events are in the associated Registration Refnum but are NOT yet handled. This would be a great too in tracking down rogue Events and eliminating possible memory leaks due to implementation errors.

Currently one has to iterate through ALL of the user events and observe the warning "this event is handled in another case" in order to find out if all have been handled or not.

So, due to massive lag in the project environment, borked graphics drivers on the virtual machine and the resulting random rearrengement of objects on the front panels, i've Locked all objects.

Now, trying to delete a control from the block diagram nothing happens, which is technically correct. No information or warning, however, is borderline Bug in my book. I'd expect a popup "Object is locked", not just a silent denial.

LV2014SP1f3 (which for some reason is 14.0.1.3 instead of 14.1.3.x, but that is another discussion)

Right now the only way possible to set the tabbing order of controls on the front panel of a (sub)VI is to use Edit >> Set Tabbing Order.

I would like a VI Server property/method to be able to programmatically set the tabbing order of the controls on the front panel the way I want. This way I can write a script to fix a large number of VIs without needing to manually click through each one. (Of course I would be responsible for programmatically figuring out the order I wanted, but I could make some general assumptions like following the top-bottom left-right on the front panel existing layout, or following how they are connected to the connector pane, etc)

Add index -1 or +1 in Loops

The Open/Create/Replace file I/O primitive is pretty powerful. It will check to see if the file is there for you, and, if not, create a new one. I use the "Open or Create" option often when generating multiple delimited text files in long term tests. When a new file is created, I need know so I can add a header, and I need to skip the header operation if the file is being appended. Sure, I could check to see if the file exists before trying to open it, but then wouldn't that just make the power of the Open/Replace/Create function redundant? Some operation took place based on my input to the "operation" terminal, and whether or not the file exists. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that operation was, because the function doesn't tell me. Let me know if the Open/Create/Replace function created a new file so I can add my header.

This is not without precedent. For example, the "Obtain Queue" primitive has an option to create a new queue if a queue of the given name is not found. It let's you know if the new queue was created:

View All (4)

Multiple Line Pattern in the Browse Options

As requested by this fellow 8 years ago: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Multiple-pattern-lines-in-path-s-Browse-Option/m-p/776968/highlight/true#M355522, it would simplify some GUI if the user could select from a drop-down list, which files to look for in a File Dialog pop-up window.

Currently, we get a single line:

This results in this kind of mess courtesy of the IMAQ Load Image Dialog.vi):

To update the snapshot illustrating this other thread, here is an example of MS Word in action, illustrating the desired behavior:

In other words, it helps cleaning up the results, while using a single dialog window for all kinds of different files (which will be dealt with differently down the line).

I am not sure how multiplatform that can be, but here is the file open dialog options from TextWrangler on MacOS:

so it seems that can be done.

The thread I am referring to had a link to a Windows API call, but the link is dead (probably the result of the recent disastrous site cleanup). And of course is not multiplatform.

View All (2)

error source includes case name

Kill Resetting VI-process

Expanding Linux Support

Currently I use LabView through a Windows VirtualBox on a Linux Mint machine. I was told by a customer support employee that I should bring this idea to this forum. I chose this method because of the limited support for Linux even with the supported distro discs. I encourage NI to expand their Linux-compatible software to have the full capabilities that the Windows and Mac versions do for the distros that are currently out, and to expand the number of distros supported. Linux Mint is one of the most widely used flavors, and yet there is no support from NI.

View All (3)

free label format

How often do you find the need to orginize data into a table format while documenting your vi? I for one, could & would use it all the time! Creating a resizable table free label we all use in word & excel seems like a simple task and would aid in organizing and documenting data into a more readable format. A ctrl+double-click or shift+double-click could serve as an easy access method, tab through the contents, and resize rows and colulmns vis a cursor change while hovering at the specific borders. Free Label, New type, table format, organize data, rows, columns.

wire cleanup by double-click

View All (5)

I often get this dialog when a class is locked because a VI is still in use by some running process. It might be a reentrant process that for some reason didn't shut down as expected, but in a system with 3000 VIs and lots of asynchronous processes it can be very hard to guess what code is still running. And this dialog doesn't give much information. It would be great if this dialog could show exactly which VI (with full information of what reentrant copy of the VI it is) is still using the class/VI. Even better if you could click on the filename in the dialog to open the VI.

I often run into this dialog, asking if I want to continue with prompts or continue without prompts when saving all. Sometimes I want to continue with prompts because I don't want to check out (Subversion) and save all of the changed files, just some of them. (I might have files with some debug changes, for example, that I don't want to save.) But it would be great if this dialog also showed a list of all VIs that need to be saved, so I know if it's only 2 more that will get a prompt, or if it's 35. Two more are okay to do a manual check out for, 35 not. Then I probably will check out a whole class or folder of classes. So please take away the guesswork of how much there is to save!

Create a Picture Ring Constant

I feel like in a few cases, my code could be more readable, if a picture ring constant existed. By that I mean if I could have a block diagram object, that showed an image, and clicking it would allow me to select one of the other images in the ring, which correspond to a numeric value, just like the picture ring control does.

I've come into a few cases were I want to know if my picture ring on the front panel is equal to some case. So I will use the equal primitive and compare my picture ring control value to a constant. Problem is my constant is just a numeric, because that is what the data type of the picture ring is. I then usually need to put down a comment explaining what the value of 2 or 3 is supposed to be. I feel like a better solution for readability would be to have an equal function, and wired to it, is another instance of that picture ring type def, where you can see the image that the value is being compared to.

Now sure this doesn't come up often, and in most cases it is recommended you convert that ring into an enum, and then you get a bunch more benefits, but in a few cases I feel like adding a picture ring constant would only make the code more readable.

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Add "Find Terminal" (and more) in Event Structure context menu

Visible Cluster AutoSizing Style

Abort Button should indicate the last execution point in source

Improvements for the "Save Changes?" dialog

Rename the "Enqueue Element At Opposite End" Queue primitive as "Enqueue Element At The Front"

Clear indication of handled User Events

input of conditional terminal should be "pass through."

Locked objects should give info when trying to delete

Add ability to programmatically set tabbing order of controls

Add index -1 or +1 in Loops

Add "Created New?" output to Open/Create/Replace file I/O Primitive

Multiple Line Pattern in the Browse Options

error source includes case name

Kill Resetting VI-process

Expanding Linux Support

free label format

wire cleanup by double-click

Library is locked - more information, please!!!

Show list of files that need to be saved

Create a Picture Ring Constant