Cursor legned pains in the upgrade to LabVIEW 8.5

[Thomas_robertson]

We upgraded from LabVIEW 7 to LV 8.5 and have had significant problems with the change to the new cursor legend.  We essentially want suggestions on how to minimize the pain.

The attached word document shows an example of one of our GUI's and explains the problem we're having

[TroyK]

Yes the cursors have changed significantly from LV7 to 8.5.
You could hide the cursor legend and make your own with property nodes.
It's a bit of a pain but at least you have complete control.




Message Edited by Troy K on 07-10-2008 10:59 AM

[Thomas_robertson]

Making our own probably will be the way to go, and I like that example you pasted.  When they change the X of the cursor in the custom cursor legend, obviously I'll have to go back and modify the corresponding cursor via a property node, which would be best done through an event structure, that could require some painful modifications to the block diagram of our VI's

I'm not terribly familiar with them, but would this be a good place to use an Xcontrol?  Would that allow me to combine the graph and the custom cursor legend, and additionally define a background event structure that does the necessary cursor manipulation without having complexity spill over into my main VI?

[Ipshita_C]

Hi TJ,

You can use an XControl for your purpose as you want to design your graph for the front panel such that you can combine some methods. Please look at this link for more information on creating XControl Properties. Hope this helps.

Ipshita C.

[TroyK]

You could do it with an Xcontrol but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Creating one isn't as easy as you may think.
Xcontrols are only needed if you want to reduce the complexity of your UI code in your main diagram, or if you want to abstract complex UI code away from other developers.

An event stucture would be the way I'd do it. If you aren't already using one you could just have a parallel loop processing the UI events for the graph and cursors.

[Thomas_robertson]

Hmm, I hear what you're saying about being able to use a parallel loop and event structure.  The problem is there's at least 5 VIs where this has to be done.   If I can make an Xcontrol drop in replacement for the graph, that will be the easiest on the rest of the program.  I'm just a bit nerveous about how we're using all kinds of property nodes to manipulate the graphs, and I'm not sure if I can expose the graphs propertys through the Xcontrol, or whatever else might come up. 

I'll look at that article someone posted and if it's a nightmare I'll probably go with the parallel loop method you suggest.

[TroyK]

I wouldn't say implementing an Xcontrol would be a nightmare.
They can be tricky though. (It goes for over 70 pages in the training manual - including 3 exercises)

If memory serves me correctly, you will be able to expose any of the graphs properties you need through the Xcontrol.

[Ipshita_C]

Hi all,

Creating an Xcontrol mainly increases the levels and programs in the VI hierarchy of your project--other than that it is a flexible tool and can be used to customize most of the properties for your graph.

Ipshita C.