How can I make my front panel transparent (Opaque)?

[NIDave]

I know of the transparent "color" to make a front panel item transparent but is there a way to make the entire front panel transparent except for the text?  Im trying to do something like with the desktop widgets that you can set the opacity.  Has anyone found a way to do this in LabVIEW?

Thanks,

Dave

[Yukee]

I think this goal cann't achieve(maybe future LV would), I am seeking it too !

[rolfk]

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@NIDave wrote:

I know of the transparent "color" to make a front panel item transparent but is there a way to make the entire front panel transparent except for the text?  Im trying to do something like with the desktop widgets that you can set the opacity.  Has anyone found a way to do this in LabVIEW?

Thanks,

Dave

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LabVIEW does not support that yet since some OSes it is running on do not support transparent windows. If you are using Windows 2000 or XP or better you can achieve this by calling Windows API functions. Go hop over to Lavausergroup and search for transparent there and you eventually get to http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?showtopic=199 which is a thread just about this topic.

Rolf Kalbermatter

Message Edited by rolfk on 04-08-2006 10:02 AM

[Conseils]

 Perhaps the following may be suitable

SemiTransparent Window Demo 34 kb, for LV5.1 & 6i
http://www.geocities.com/gzou999/dl/SemiTransparent.zip

Of course this version is for an old version of Labview but perhaps the site contains other versions or you could contact the author.

[JeffBoettcher]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the entire front panel being transparent except for the text, but LabVIEW 8 (on Mac and Windows at least) introduced front panel transparency.  It can be set on the VI Properties window in the Window Appearance section.  The same properties can be set programmatically via VI Server as well.

Good luck!

[allaba]

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@Jeff B wrote:

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the entire front panel being transparent except for the text, but LabVIEW 8 (on Mac and Windows at least) introduced front panel transparency.  It can be set on the VI Properties window in the Window Appearance section.  The same properties can be set programmatically via VI Server as well.

Good luck!

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Nice new feature!
But it makes everything transparent...

[NIDave]

Thanks for the replies guys, I got what I needed working.

I used a post from the lavausergroup forum and used the more transparency vi.  Thanks rolfk and everyone else for their ideas.

[Khalid]

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@Jeff B wrote:

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the entire front panel being transparent except for the text, but LabVIEW 8 (on Mac and Windows at least) introduced front panel transparency.  It can be set on the VI Properties window in the Window Appearance section.  The same properties can be set programmatically via VI Server as well.

Good luck!

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Jeff,

With this transparency feature, I noticed couple of things (pun intended  )...

1.  When I enable the transparency option, but leave the setting to 0% (i.e., not transparent), the VI panel goes black for a fraction of a second before displaying normally.  Anybody else seen this behaviour? 

2.  The field for the transparency is not wide enough to show three digits.  So, if I want to enter 100%, it displays only 10. 

Nice feature though -- especially with the programmatic access to this property, I can think of all sorts of neat things that can use this...

-Khalid

[JeffBoettcher]

Hey Khalid,

Thanks for the feedback!  I believe the window flicker on run (even when set to 0%) is expected.  If you were to change the transparency programmatically, this allows you to not get the flicker when changing the number while the VI is running.  Whenever the overriding boolean is set to enable transparency, this flicker will occur when running the VI.  If you don't like it and don't want to use transparency, turn off the boolean. 

I'll pass the second issue along to the developer to fix in a future release.  Clearly not a major functional issue, but I agree it looks kinda bad and makes it hard to use.  Incidentally, if you do set 100% transparency, it internally sets the window state to "hidden".