Displaying only the selected case on the front panel

[F.N]

I am writing a biomedical code for a pulse duplicator. At the moment, there are three methods of temperature acquisition, a user input, a signal from the sensor connected to the DAQ and as a picture. I have given users the option to choose which method they want however, on my front panel, I can see temperature selectors for all three methods. Is there a way to only display a control for the method selected by the user? Thank you

[BowenM · Accepted solution]

There are several ways to approach this.  The way I would do it is the "Visible" property node.

[F.N]

Thank you very much. Could you please provide some more detail to how this could be implemented? Thank you

[RavensFan]

The search box at the top of the forums page can help you with that.

[BowenM]

While RavensFan is correct, here is a place to start:

[F.N]

Thank you BowenM 

[altenbach]

A better way would be to use a tab control. Create three pages, each with the relevant controls and indicators for the current state. Hide the tabs and switch cases programmatically.

[BowenM]

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@altenbach wrote:

A better way would be to use a tab control. Create three pages, each with the relevant controls and indicators for the current state. Hide the tabs and switch cases programmatically.

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Out of curiosity, how is exactly that "better"?  Is it faster? More effecient? More versatile?

[crossrulz]

It would be A LOT easier to manage.  Instead of setting the visible property for every control and indicator, you just set the value of the tab control.

So faster programming time, faster executable time, and easier to manage.  Yeah, it really does cover all 3.

[0utlaw]

Hi Bowen,

I'd agree with Altenbach's suggested approach, for the following reasons:

- Tab controls and indicators are straightforward and easy to work with, they're great for beginners. There are no references to worry about, things like implicit vs. explicit property nodes, error handling, etc.

- A tab control allows you to place the controls in the same area of your front panel without needing to worry about things like performance hits from overlaid invisible controls or z-order.  Debugging why your buttons don't work because there's another invisible button on top of it is a big pain.

- Similar to the second point, you don't have to worry about enabling/disabling the controls when you set them to hidden, rather the tab itself takes care of this for you.

-The tab control itself can be used to determine execution states for case structures elsewhere in the application, rather than needing to maintain a separate operating state handler or something similar that controls the hidden/shown and enabled/disabled controls.

I'll definitely say that there are lots of good reasons for hiding or enabling/disabling individual controls- a good use case for that would be when one control is shared between multiple states but shouldn't be available for every state.  I don't think this is something F.N needs at this point, however.

-Edit- Interesting, it looks like controls with the Visible property set to False can actually be clicked through, you learn something new every day!  Scratch that as a need, then!

Best Regards,