Insert or Replace from Clipboard?

[Wart]

Is there a way to insert or replace a VI from the clipboard?  Or maybe a quick drop plugin to do this?

Is it possible to do with a quick drop plugin?

I ran into a situation earlier where I needed to insert a simple VI to a number of wires in different cases.  The VI was named in a way that made it a little tedious to find in quick drop over and over, but if I could have inserted it from the clipboard I could have knocked out the task in just a few seconds.

I just want to make sure I'm not over looking anything before I tackle writing my first QD plug in or suggesting it on the idea exchange.

[GregFreeman]

Dunno bout from the clipboard, but if the VI you want to use to replace another one is in your project or user.lib or any other location that will show up in QD, highlight the VI you want to replace on the BD, open quick drop, select the VI in quickdrop you want to use to replace the old one, then the quickdrop shortcut control + p should do it.

[Wart]

I knew that one, but then I have to type the name of the VI in quickdrop.. Same with Ctrl+I for insert into a wire.  I'm looking to make "Fast" -> "Faster!"

[GregFreeman]

I believe you can get data from the clipboard using a property node, but you may have to know how to parse it. LabVIEW obviously knows if something was copied from LabVIEW or not, because if you copy a VI to the clipboard then paste back into LabVIEW, it pastes as a VI. But if you paste it into paint, it pastes the image of the VI.

[Mark_Yedinak]

Not exactly the clip board but here is a fairly easy work around. Create a blank VI and place the VI you want to copy in it. Then, simply select that VI and drag it into the VIs you want to insert it. You will get a copy of the VI.

I have also used Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V with VIs and it works just fine.

[Wart]

That doesn't handle inserting it into existing wires though.  Or replacing existing VIs with the one on the clipboard.  For the sake of completion I use Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V with VIs all the time 🙂

Something I just discovered as a reasonable workaround is to copy and paste the VI name from the Quick Drop dialog box.. Then I can Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+I to insert.  I'd like to eliminate a key stroke combo, but that's at least reasonable.  I could follow the same process with Ctrl+P at the end to replace an existing VI.

[Mark_Yedinak]

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@Wart wrote:

That doesn't handle inserting it into existing wires though.  Or replacing existing VIs with the one on the clipboard.  For the sake of completion I use Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V with VIs all the time 🙂

Something I just discovered as a reasonable workaround is to copy and paste the VI name from the Quick Drop dialog box.. Then I can Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+I to insert.  I'd like to eliminate a key stroke combo, but that's at least reasonable.  I could follow the same process with Ctrl+P at the end to replace an existing VI.

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Have you used the Findand Replace? It will search and replace VIs for you. Yes, the Ctrl-V does not replace an existing VI or insert it into existing wires.

BTW, you might want to kudo this idea.

[Wart]

I have used find and replace in the past, but today my situation really applied to inserting a VI into an existing wire in a few different places.  The replace from clipboard was really just an extension of my desire to insert quickly from the clipboard.

The idea is pretty close to what I'm wishing for.  I'll add my desire for copy+insert to Darren's Copy+Replace comment.  Nice find! 🙂

[Mark_Yedinak]

I just added this idea as a result of this thread.