How do I save Icon templates with the Project files?

[Bob_Schor]

My project files are stored in a folder, say, "My Documents\LabVIEW\My Project", and this folder, in turn, is saved under (Sub)Version Control.  I'd like to include a sub-folder called "Icon Templates" that could contain the icon templates I'm using in this project, but they seem to be "forced" into "My Documents\LabVIEW Data\Icon Templates" (almost the same, but the "owning folder" is different).

Is there any way to change, preferably on a Project-by-Project basis, the default location for Icon Editor templates?  I tried to figure this out, and saw that one could change where "3rd Party" templates were stored, but that didn't seem to do anything (maybe because I don't understand the concept of a "3rd Party"?).

An important (to me!) reason to accomplish this is that I want to commit my new icons when I commit the rest of the Project, and have them appear when I checkout the project on another machine (or do an update from the Repository).

Suggestions welcomed ...

Bob Schor

[ABCPrograms]

This might be a good reference :

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview-api-ref/page/resource/dialog/preferencesdialog/preferen...

[Bob_Schor]

Well, I thought of this as well.  I did change Default Data Documents (which seems to be where Icon Editor expects to find its Templates file) to My Documents\LabVIEW (instead of LabVIEW Data), and that worked (sort of).  But that still doesn't solve my problem.  I have multiple projects -- My Docs\LabVIEW\Project 1, say, and My Docs\LabVIEW\Project 2, and want to have a specific set of icon templates for each stored, say, as Project 1\Icon Templates and Project 2\Icon Templates.

My problem is two-fold.  First, there is a setting in Icon Editors, Tools, that seems to be designed to let you designate where your "special" templates are located, which I've set to, for example, My Docs\LabVIEW\Project 1\Icon Templates.  However, when using the Icon editor, these templates never appear!  It's as though it's still "locked" into the "3rd Party" sub-folder of the parent Icon Templates folder.  Second, even if this worked (which it doesn't), is there a way to "embed" this setting as part of Project so that the settings "stay with the Project" (and can thereby be customized)?  One important reason to do this is to simplify organizing Projects and folders on disk -- I keep them "together" (use the same structure for both, so a Project is contained, on disk, inside a single set of nested folders), which greatly simplifies and facilitates using Version Control to manage development.

Thanks for the reference.  I didn't know about all of the symbolic names.  It does appear that they are only used in the VI Search Path entry, correct?

Bob Schor

[Bob_Schor]

Bjorn noted "Haven't installed 2011 yet", but I have (but hadn't checked!).  Same behavior.  I can put all of my templates into a "My Templates" folder and put them in My Docs\LabVIEW Data\Icon Templates, and a My Templates folder will appear in the Icon Editor's list of Templates, but setting the "Third party template directory" in the Icon Editor's Tools still seems to have no effect.  Maybe I just don't understand what a "Third party template directory" is (or, as someone much more famous noted, maybe I don't know what "is" is).  It would seem to me to be very useful for the user to say "Please include these icons that I've saved over here with the rest of my files", and to be able to specify this on at least the Project level ...

Bob Schor

[Kevin_H.]

I've been looking into the concepts you're working with in these two help files:

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview/page/using-icon-templates.html

and

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview-api-ref/page/resource/plugins/lv-icon.html

and I'm not sure I completely understand what's going wrong. I think I get what you're trying to do, but I'm not sure you're currently able to store icons that way. I've found a few NI Idea Exchange suggestions which referrence what you're suggesting. If it's not a feature currently, you should suggest in on https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/idb-p/labviewideas

[Bob_Schor]

Kevin,

     Many thanks for the helpful references (I didn't stumble upon them -- are they part of LabVIEW Help?).  Now I (sort of) understand why there are folders called "VI" and "Framework", and why my attempt at using Third Party paths is not working (it's for something completely different!).  What I really want to do is to have a "User Templates" folder possibility, possibly a symbolic name that can link to the Project so that all of the files "stay together" and can be easily (sub)Versioned.

     Also, thanks for mentioning the Idea Exchange.  I think I posted something there this morning about this (or maybe it was on the Icon Editor forum ...).

Bob Schor