LabVIEW
Creating Custom Animations
I'm also concerned with the possible belief of the ME's that they won't have to "learn to code" to use LabVIEW. Do not let them make the mistake in thinking that LabVIEW somehow eliminates the need to understand good progamming practices. LabVIEW is a full featured, powerful computer language, as well as a development environment, but it doesn't imbue the user with some previously non-existent programming skills. The project will still have to be carefully thought out, broken down into the various parts, and those parts carefully constructed. The problems frequently occur when the new LabVIEW programmer comes in with preconceived ideas, either that LabVIEW will magically provide the missing links between an initial project definition and the finished program, or in the case of programmers experienced in other (usually text based, procedural languages) they will miss the different, I hate to use an overused word, paradigm that LabVIEW provides. As to the user interface not "looking like it was written in LabVIEW, well that just requires skill on the part of the programmers. The book LabVIEW GUI: Essential Techniques , by David Ritter shows how really impressive interfaces can be created. I haven't see any recent editions (if any have been released) so may be lot of things that have been added to LabVIEW that make UI "easier" to develop, or at least give the programmer more options. Much of the utilities that National Instruments uses within the LabVIEW environment have been developed in LabVIEW as well and many of those don't look "LabVIEWish". Good luck, ask lots of questions here.
