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Property node for push button LED color

I want to be able to programmatically change the color of the LEDs on push buttons.

The colors[4] property will change the color of the housing, but not the LED itself.

This push button is one of the controls that is both a control and an indicator rolled into one.

In my particular case, I want to represent a third state. I have a valve that can be open, closed, or in transit.

There are two actuation states of open and close, but three indicator states.

I think making it a property I can control is a powerful solution. Not only will it solve my use case, but I can have all different colors of Booleans without needing to use Customize Control and the Control Editor to modify the colors.

Extra credit request: Can we make just the LED blink? Right now, the blinking property blinks the entire control, but wouldn't it be cool if just the LED blinked? This is what those same two controls look like when blinking:

Maybe it's a new property just for LEDs that's separate from "Blinking". I'd be okay with that if you want to preserve current behavior.

Here are some related Idea Exchange posts related to a tri-state Boolean. They're not quite what I want, but I thought I'd link to them for reference:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Tri-State-Boolean/idi-p/1139952

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Special-LED-control-with-three-states-Default-ON-OFF/idi-p/991307

What is a strictly-typed reference?

A strictly-typed reference is a kind of reference whose type descriptor contains an inner, user-specified data type.

For example, a queue is a strictly-typed reference because it contains the data type for its elements, specified when creating the queue.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of such reference types:

- Queue

- Notifier

- User event

- DVR

- Datalog file reference

- Strictly-typed control refnum

- Strictly-typed VI refnum

- Shared variable

- Network stream (reader/writer)

- RT FIFO

- FPGA IO / register / memory / FIFO / handshake

- ...

Idea:

Add a new primitive that would output the inner data type of any strictly-typed reference.

Here is a design example of the primitive, which could be named "Get Contained Data Type of Strictly-Typed Reference":

It would work for all the strictly-typed references mentioned above.

Motivations:

The implementation of malleable VIs is sometimes limited (or made complicated) by the fact that we miss some basic "type operators", such as getting the contained data type of a strictly-typed reference. While this missing function could be implemented using some tricks for most strictly-typed reference types, it is for example impossible for user events (See this thread for more details).

Typical application:

A malleable VI that takes a user event (for its type) and outputs a newly created refnum with the same contained data type:

This simple code is currently impossible in the general case due to the nature of user events.

Remarks:

1. The output terminal of this primitive will have to be named exactly as the contained data type, which is crucial for user events.

2. The output would have the LabVIEW default value for the data type (False for booleans, 0 for numerics, "" for strings, ...).

3. The primitive could be placed in a dedicated "Malleable VI Tools" palette.

4. In case the FPGA-specific implementation creates a dependency to the FPGA module, we could have a separate primitive just for FPGA (and also for RT if required).

What do you think?

Regards,

Raphaël.

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The zooming feature in LabVIEW was way past due, particularly with the advent of 4k displays (and the rapid degradation of my sight!), but was implemented very poorly. As mentioned in other idea exchanges, the font size handling is awful, and regardless does not address the ancient-looking pixelated block diagram interface. Also the zoom resolution has too many steps for how drastically the view contorts with each step.

The entire system should be overhauled as vector-based so it looks crisp at any zoom level and zooms smoothly between zoom levels. The shining light example of smooth-zooming is Miro which handles text sizes and detail-loading even better than Google Maps.

I am really looking forward to not squinting at pixels, and LabVIEW is literally the last offender I work with.

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The new debug window in LabVIEW 2025 Q3 automatically expands arrays to show all elements across multiple lines. While this full view can be helpful, it often becomes disruptive during debugging.

I have attached a video that shows a side-by-side comparison. The left side is LabVIEW 2025 Q3, and the right side is LabVIEW 2024 Q3.

As you can see, when an array contains many elements, the new multi-line display consumes a large amount of vertical space on the block diagram. This pushes other probes and data displays down, causing their positions to shift and making it difficult to monitor them. There are many cases where I only need to see that the array contains data, not every single element, and I would prefer the more compact, single-line view.

I propose adding a feature to allow users to select the display mode for arrays in the debug window. It would be ideal to have a toggle or option to switch between the new multi-line view and the classic single-line view, similar to how it worked in LabVIEW 2024 Q3 and older versions.

This would provide the flexibility to choose the most appropriate view for the situation, greatly improving the debugging workflow and the visibility of other data on the diagram.

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It would be great if one could mark certain files as having an absolute path so that it is easier to move projects that use a common resource around in a multi developer/station environment.

A project might for example require a shared library or file that is installed by another application into c:\XXXX

Currently, all developers must place their project at the same relative folder depth to the shared resource to avoid linking issues. e.g If Developer A uses c:\Users\Dev A\Project\ then Developer B would need to use c:\Users\Dev B\Project\.. The project would complain about not finding the shared resource if Dev B was to use c:\Users\Dev B\Repos\Project instead for example.

Marking the shared files as having an absolute path would resolve this

A very common task when operating with 2D pictures are mouse down/move events where we are interested which pixel was just clicked. While there is an event data node for the clicked coordinates these are relative to the front panel and translating them into image pixel coordinates is a chore and requires ~~jumping through flaming hoops~~ tweaks. (i.e. label yes/no? zoom factor? etc.)

However, there is a "Mouse" property for 2D images that has all the information directly in pixel coordinates and mouse button states. Currently, we need to read that property inside the mouse event to easily get the information we always (always!!!) want in such an event!

It would be cleaner if mouse events on pictures would output these mouse properties directly as an additional event data node.

Two clear advantages:

Cleaner code for those who know how to work with this property.
Stop sending newbies on a snipe hunt trying to figure out how to translate the current "coords" event data node into something useful for the intended task.

Here is an example where this idea would have helped

Here's a picture for the graphical thinkers!

Thanks for voting!

It's hard to believe that this is the first post to request something like this (pun intended), but I couldn't find it after a few queries.

The base idea would be that both the static and dynamic connectors used to connect the methods to the owning class shall be defaulting to the owner class, a.k.a. this object in text based languages. The main problem is the use case for refactoring. When moving around methods the class controls and indicators have to be replaced every time. It doesn't matter if I'm moving methods between classes or to interfaces it is the same pain: replace the connectors (with QuickDrop), then change the names to class names, then update the icon, finally move the VI to the new location.

I know that this could and maybe is already solved with scripting, but I think the development environment shall grant the option to change the control and indicator to this object that will always default to the owning class, without manual updates. Even the labels could be This in and This out, and replaced in real time with the actual class implementation on the block diagram of the calling VIs.

The proposed solution would also get rid of the error telling about the dynamic dispatch controls shall reference the owning class, since it would happen automatically.

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You cannot currently install MAX as a standalone product- you need to install it along with something else. I need MAX on basically all computers I build my installers for, so I always go into the Additional Installers menu on the Application Builder, then pick (usually) "DAQmx with Configuration Support". Unfortunately, this also means I have to uncheck "Automatically select additional installers" so I can go find the "Configuration Support" item.

I almost always want to let the App Builder pick my additional installers for me, so I will check "Automatically select", then uncheck it, then go check the box for "...with Configuration Support" for one of the items that got automatically selected.

I'd like a box that lets me prefer the "With configuration support" version of whatever I'm building so I can make sure MAX gets installed. For my use, it doesn't seem to matter if I pick "DAQmx with config support", "VISA with config support", etc.

I'd ask to make MAX a standalone installer, but that would require me to uncheck the "automatic" box to add MAX to the list, which doesn't really help. I just want to say "Hey Appbuilder, figure out whatever you need, and ALSO install MAX."

Pro-grade mockup shown below:

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It's always a pleasure to uncover shared memory problems when working with base vi.lib methods that *should* work as preallocated clones and have uninitialized shift registers and then having to establish a chain of vi references to safely call those methods in an application with distributed/parallel threads. It feels like extra work but does fix the problem. It's a major unknown gotcha unless you're already familiar with the vi you are calling.

My most recent hiccup: the NI PID library. I needed two closed loop controllers in actor framework, and was getting very strange timing, setpoint, process variable, and control output crossovers until I realized the stock .vi's had shared memory in the form of uninitialized shift registers (despite being in the context of a pre-allocated actor). Creating references of the vi's I needed and storing them in the actor at launch fixed the problem, but at that point the effort in writing my own PID .vi starts to be a favorable time tradeoff. At least I am able to peek under the hood of the PID library, other aspects of vi.lib... not so much.

Or maybe this is a teaching problem. I haven't come across ways of navigating this issue from official NI documentation, in fact the way I learned I needed to call the PID.vi by-reference was from the forum and rather matter-of-factly. There are a couple of great blogs that cover this issue in detail, so I don't feel alone in my ignorance. Maintaining State Information in LabVIEW Applications, Part 5 - LabVIEW Field Journal Archives | LabVIEW Field Journal Archives

Similar ideas have already been posted but non of them totally hits what I'm missing.

As always - what is the current situation?:
- LabVIEW is installed under "C:\Program Files (x86)\..." - this is a folder where admin rights are usually required to modify it.

- in the named folder the standard VIs are included: vi.lib / user.lib / instr.lib

- my project lays somewhere else - e.g. "C:\myLVProjects\project1", "C:\myLVProjects\project2", ...

- my first project is LabVIEW32 bit, my second is LV64bit,
- one project needs to have the binary code separated from the VI, the other one not
- one projects needs some toolkits from the VI Package manager, the other one not or maybe even incompatible ones to the first project

- one project needs VIs from an additional search path, the other one too but with a different version

long story short:
There are many situations where the configurations of two or more projects conflict with each other. Therefore, switching between two projects can be quite effortful — from adjusting configurations to (de)installing toolkits.

What I like to propose is the following:
Having a new option in the LabVIEW start screen "Create a new development environment".
The only the user has to do is to select a folder on a drive with enough free space.
LabVIEW shall now setup an entire code- and configuration environment. Means it copies vi.lib, user.lib, instruments.lib to this folder. It create a LabVIEW.ini and a link to the exe using this INI. It creates a folder for the compiled object code cache and so on. Installing add-ons from VI package manager shall also be stored in this new folder structure.
And of course, there shall be a place where I can manually add some libraries, my project files and finally also my build results.
If LabVIEW is now started from the named link it only uses the VIs from the environment folder as long relative paths are used (which shall be default).

Again in short: I expect an encapsulated environment that contains everything that is needed to develop one project entirely independent from a second and third project.

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For string controls and indicators please add a vertical alignment option. We have applications where we will programmatically change the font size, which requires a string control/indicator to be sized for the largest option. Since there isn't a vertical alignment option, the string is always aligned to the top and it can make the front panel layout look strange.

Other applications have long strings that may be a single line or may be a variable number of multiple lines, but we'd like to be able to center the text vertically. Again, this requires the control/indicator to be sized for the largest option, but all the text is always vertically aligned to the top of the front panel object.

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Currently, when right-clicking a Messenger channel tunnel in LabVIEW, the context menu only offers the option to create a channel reader. However, Messenger channels support multiple writers, so it would be both logical and convenient to include a "Create Channel Writer" option directly in the popup menu.

At present, users must manually insert an element of the channel wire’s type and then create a writer from its output—an unnecessarily cumbersome workaround for a simple task.

This seems like an oversight rather than a technical limitation, and adding this feature would streamline development and improve usability for anyone working with Messenger channels.

If we want a ring of a string type we can use a combo box and if undefined items are not to be allowed it *could* behave as a regular ring (integer type) with no text editing/input, but that is not an option in LabVIEW now. Having such an option would allow us the keep the behaviour of multiple ring controls identical (and hence more intuitive to the users) although their types behind the scene for programmatic convenience are different.

If you want to keep the ring as a string (to not have to deal with it indirectly though the ring/enum string array property, which would be the current workaround...) you are currently forced to accept that the this ring will behave differently than other ring controls or enums:

In Microsoft applications the suggested feature is available by setting the style of the combo box to DropDropDownList.

At the moment, using Diagram Disable Structure with Channel Wires results in a broken arrow, which prevents compilation. However, it would be highly beneficial to allow temporarily disabling the transmission of values or messages to different parts of a program—for example, during debugging.

A tedious workaround used in the past involved connecting ))Channel.vi with ChannelOp.ctl from the generated Channel Wire library to the channel in the enabled case. This allowed bypassing the broken arrow issue.

However, since around 2025, these components have become natively private, making the workaround even more cumbersome and less viable.

I’d like to propose the following improvements:

Native compatibility between Channel Wires and Diagram Disable Structure.
Optional front panel connection for Channel Wire controls—i.e., they shouldn’t require a wired connection to function or compile.

These changes would streamline debugging and development workflows and reduce unnecessary complexity.

For anyone that has used CAD software, you know how much of a timesaver this feature is. It is very similar to quick drop but relies more on graphical selection than keyboard input (although, these shortcuts often allow text entry as well and have a configurable menu).

For example, pressing the "S" key in SolidWorks pops up a contextual, configurable menu at the current cursor position that allows you to rapidly click on common operations as well as customized shortcuts.

I have my own janky extension to quickdrop that makes a graphical menu present after pressing multiple buttons (ctrl+space, ctrl+q, then one of WASD or a mouse click on the popup .vi front panel), but it would be nice if I didn't have to go through multiple shortcut selections to hit my toolbar-of-target. Said another way, a more extensible quickdrop-like shortcut bar would be nice. Something like the right click and shortcut keypresses for Autodesk Fusion and Solidworks are the inspiration.

I couldn't find this explicitly mentioned here, but it seems related to:

Block diagram references should be 16 pixels tall (currently 19 pixels) - NI Community

Same Height of Unbundle by Name / Terminal / Local Variable - NI Community

Although making changes like this could hurt legacy code, earlier implementation is preferable. Local variables are already the same size as bundles and property nodes, but constants are not. My suggestion is to increase the size of bundle/unbundle elements by one pixel and decrease the size of constants by two pixels by reducing their border thickness. Since numerics require a type indicator, a 1 px border wouldn't compromise recognition. Numeric constant type visualization - NI Community

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Property node for push button LED color

New primitive to get the contained data type of a strictly-typed reference

Make block diagram vector-based - for cleaner view on high res monitors, cleaner zooming

Add an Option to Display Arrays in a Single Line in the Debug Window

Add support for Absolute Paths to LabVIEW Projects

Mouse events on 2D pictures should have an event data node for mouse information

Class controls and indicators shall default to "this" class

Checkbox to let the App Builder prefer the "x with Configuration Support" to auto-install MAX

The properties page of "boolean array to number" must include the "sign extension mode" setting.

Eliminate uninitialized shift registers from vi.lib

Support "Development Environments" / "Development Sand Boxes"

Add vertical alignment property for string controls

Add "Create Channel Writer" Option to Messenger Channel Tunnel Context Menu

Add dropdownlist style option to LabVIEW combo boxes

Make Channel Wires Compatible with Diagram Disable Structure

Graphical context menu at mouse pointer, super-duper quick drop

Allow file renaming to record changes to capitalization only in Windows

Abortable recompile when closing project

Match Property Node height to constants

right-click -> Find In Project