Community Nugget 02/25/2007

[Ray.R]

next project... LV-skins

[tst]

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@JoeLabView wrote:

next project... LV-skins

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Can you elaborate?

[Ray.R]

skins similar to what certain applications support, like WinAmp. 

to give a non-labview look to the application and allow users to create their own 😉

[tst]

Two options:

1. Use the system controls, so that you get a system look instead of a LabVIEW look.
2. Do skins, as you suggested. I think this was suggested in the MP3 player coding challenge. If I remember correctly, my thoughts at the time were of creating a framework which would allow using a picture control as a generic interface (describe "buttons", "indicators" and so on in a seperate ASCII\XML file).
   With something like that you would have a skinable interface (actually, you would be able to completely change your interface just by loading another definition file), but I never moved forward with it.

Another option for skins would be to remove all code from the GUI VIs into other VIs and just leave the controls and indicators there. That way, creating a new skin would be a matter of replacing the controls in the VI.

[PhillipBrooks]

I just finished taking the Advanced I Architectures class. The instructor showed an example of the case where all of the code for the UI was in a separate VI. The UI had a single output; a cluster of control and indicator references.

I couldn't wrap my mind around this, so I've been tinkering. See attached...

[Kodeeswaran]

hai all,

          wow its wonderful, thank you for bringing out a options, but what i fear is does it reduce the performance of the labview or the application runn time,

[Ben]

" ... wow its wonderful, thank you for bringing out a options, but what i fear is does it reduce the performance ..." [emphesis added]

In your query above, what does "it" refer to?

Ben

PS Sounds similar to "It depends on the what the definition of "is" is." ( William Jeffferson Clinton)

[tst]

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@Phillip Brooks wrote:

I couldn't wrap my mind around this, so I've been tinkering. See attached...

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Very nice.

kodee, some of the customizations suggested in the original post could definitely slow down LV, as actually mentioned there. Drawing a large imported image will take time and so will drawing overlapping objects, but these should only take time when actually updating the display.

Philip's demo should not slow down the application because it deals with the GUI which is relatively slow anyway.

[THANG NGUYEN]

Hi,

I am trying to create a steering wheel from a knob but I still not have any luck. The moving part is the needle. I want to replace it with the steering picture created from MS Word but looks like I cannot replace it. Do you have any suggestion for this one? This part is really important with the GUI of my project.

I highly appreciate your helps.

Best regards,

Thang Nguyen

Message Edited by THANG NGUYEN on 11-10-2008 01:27 PM

[Ben]

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THANG NGUYEN wrote:

Hi,

I am trying to create a steering wheel from a knob but I still not have any luck. The moving part is the needle. I want to replace it with the steering picture created from MS Word but looks like I cannot replace it. Do you have any suggestion for this one? This part is really important with the GUI of my project.

I highly appreciate your helps.

Best regards,

Thang Nguyen

Message Edited by THANG NGUYEN on 11-10-2008 01:27 PM

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I did some checking with R&D and came away thinking that I should not hold my breath waiting for the ability to replace the needle.

I suggest you use a picture control to render the turning wheel.

Ben