LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Wire a Case Structure with an enum. Now pop up on it and select "Add Case For Every Value." In today's LabVIEW, this adds new frames to the structure so that every enum value is handled by a unique frame. This makes creating the structure initially easy, and it gives you a way to walk through and make sure that you've filled in code for every frame. But today, the Case Structure has includes the "Default" case when the Case Structure is first wired. That is done so that wiring a Case Structure with an enum does not result in a broken VI. When a programmer provides a unique case for every value, the Default state is now redundant, and the only thing it does is create the potential for error if you ever add to the enum. Thus I would propose that if you use "Add Case For Every Value", then LV should remove the Default tag from the first case.

Currently the only image formats still commonly used today that can be imported into custom controls are non-scalable bitmap formats. The only supported vector formats that I know of are WMF and EMF, which is almost never used anymore to my knowledge. Even worse, it doesn't support features now expected in vector formats, such as gradients and alpha transparency. So if you're developing a custom control, you have to either use an antiquated format or a bitmap format.

LabVIEW 2011 introduced the new Silver control set, which to my knowledge still use LabVIEW's internal PICC format, which is completely undocumented. Rather than adding gradients and other new features to this private, undocumented format and using that, it would have made a lot more sense to add support for SVG, a modern, full-featured vector format that is commonly used, and used that for the Silver controls.

Not only are the two vector formats LabVIEW supports ancient formats, but their inclusion almost seems like an afterthought. Imported WMF and EMF images aren't anti-aliased like the Silver controls. Because of this, it's practically impossible to create any modern-looking custom controls that look good scaled unless you don't want any diagonal lines or curves, in which case you might as well just use a bitmap.

Sorry for the abrupt end!

Put a copy of the Empty String/Path? on the Variant palette since "this function is also designed to work with variants...; see https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview/page/glang/empty_string_path.html .

For an example of the difficulty in finding this function, see https://forums.ni.com/t5/forums/editpage/board-id/170/message-id/1248895

For precedent of the same functions on different palettes see the Array to Cluster and Cluster to Array functions on both the array and the cluster palettes.

It would be useful if QuickDrop supported a way of dropping multiple instances of the same item in one go. It is sometimes desirable to do so. For example, we may want to drop three numeric constants in one go.

The QuickDrop action above would result in three numeric constants being dropped, as seen below.

Selecting an error wire, then executing the sequence: Ctrl+Space >> typing "rn" >> increasing the Number of Items to x3 >> Ctrl+I would result in three property nodes being inserted into the error wire, as seen below.

Notes

• It would be great if the multiplier could be typed as part of the QuickDrop search string. For example, typing "rn x3" or "x3 rn" would then drop or insert three property nodes. This would mean that the whole action can be done from the keyboard, which would be quicker. However, it seems difficult to implement due to the search string needing to be intelligently split into two parts.
• Perhaps a much easier implementation that would be almost as quick would be to type "rn" >> press Tab (this would tab to the "Number of Instances" control) >> type "3".

Thanks

When customizing a boolean control, there are 6 pictures you can set. On, Off, On to Off transition, Off to On transition, Off Hover and On Hover. But setting those pictures can be a pain since they aren't labeled. Here is a screen shot of a page from the UI Interest group. Adding those labels to the menu would be very helpful when creating custom buttons.

This is related to this issue, https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Run-Code-Cleanup-profile-Nattify-VI-on-Save/idi-p/4291727

and is a more general request.

Have the ability to run custom scripting code on a save event.

What problem does it solve?

For me personally, I am working on an autoformatter. It would be nice to run that everytime something is saved. Right now I have to monitor the source folder from outside LabVIEW (using Python) and then use G-CLI to run my formatted. I'm sure there are probably other ways to do it and an onSave hook seems like the best choice. 

I'm sure there are plenty of other use cases. Perhaps some kind of linting or enforcing some sort of style guide. ie if you save a VI without a description, it won't let you unless you enter a description. Perhaps even every time you save a file, run some unit tests?

Ideal Solution

Ideally the scripting code would have access to the reference of the thing being saved. The easiest thing to envision is a VI, but why not also classes, libraries, the project itself? Maybe also some indication of what triggered the save. Was it a saveall, a save all this library, etc. Maybe if it is a saveall, you get a list of all the things being saved, before anything happens?

The IDE would then wait to continue until the scripting code completes, maybe even failing to save on an error or a boolean - not sure if that is the best behaviour as in a bug in your scripting code could cause you not to be able to save - so maybe some way to override the hook?

Maybe include a way to autogenerate a VI with the correct connector pane.

Maybe it makes sense to generalize this to add more hooks into LabVIEW? Perhaps a call to update the project provider to something more usable/less user-hostile?