Is there way to zoom in or redraw connection wires nicely when moving things

[Vishi Anand]

I am just a beginner as far as LV is concerned but think that I would be
real helpfull if I could zoom in on block diagrams. I open someones VIs and
for whatever reason, the block diagram is so small that I can't see clearly
where the wires go. I move some of the controls but then the wires go
left/right in a zig-zag rather than some clean path. I wish LV had some
button I can press and clean up the routing mess.

Any of the schematic capture/chip design tools do this.


vishi

[Mads]

Moving around wires can be done nicely if you just understand how LabVIEW decides what parts of the wires to move...play around with them; if you hold down control while selecting wires you can select multiple wires at the same time..that way they will move nicely together...In some cases it's necessary to select both the horisontal and the vertical part of one and the same wire for it to move around the way you want...

A good tip when tidying up G code is that you can create empty space wherever you need it by holding down Ctrl while drawing the space you need where you need it with the arrow tool...then LV will move the surrounding code so that the empty space is created.

There is no in-built zoom function as far as I'm aware, but you can probably use general zoo
m utilities...Normally wires are never that packet; either you can easily select them...or they are on top of eachother...in the latter case try selecting the wire where it starts or ends, or temporarily delete a section of one of the wires to move the other one...

[mikeporter]

To this point the LV design team has resisted the temptation to add a zoom function--which is a very good thing. I know that as a new user, that sounds strange, but if you are getting to the point where your code is so busy it needs a zoom function, it's way too complicated. If you use proper design techniques and create appropriate subvi's you'll never need a zoom function--and I'm saying this having developed very large applications containing more than a thousand subvis.

Now having said, all that about wanting an autorouter like in a schematic program--now there you've got something! It would be very worthwhile and is something I've been asking about since V2. Well maybe someday...

Mike...

[Ben]

I second Mads and Mikes comments.

It sounds like your predesesor left you with a mess.

Tips
1) Triple-click on a wire to see everwhere it runs.

2) THe only auto-route type function that LV has is the way a wire will follow a terminal it is attached to. You can slide an object up and down and all of the zig-zags will eventually be minimized.

3) When slide objects use "shift-uparrow" to slide faster.


I would like the ability to use the "arrange objects" functions on wires if ONLY wires were selected (other-wise the auto arrange would be hard to use).

Ben

[Vishi Anand]

Thanks guys.

"mikeporter" wrote in message
news:5065000000050000003CE90000-1042324653000@exchange.ni.com...
> To this point the LV design team has resisted the temptation to add a
> zoom function--which is a very good thing. I know that as a new user,
> that sounds strange, but if you are getting to the point where your
> code is so busy it needs a zoom function, it's way too complicated. If
> you use proper design techniques and create appropriate subvi's you'll
> never need a zoom function--and I'm saying this having developed very
> large applications containing more than a thousand subvis.
>
> Now having said, all that about wanting an autorouter like in a
> schematic program--now there you've got something! It would be very
> worthwhil
e and is something I've been asking about since V2. Well
> maybe someday...
>
> Mike...

[VIGuy]

I just want to comment that in these days of super high resolution monitors that a zoom wouldn't be all that bad for two reasons:

1) For those times when the new kid with the super-great eye-sight who insists on running her 17 inch monitor at 1600 x 1200 and, thus, making diagrams that are 1600 x 1200 in size, and when the senior guy goes to review the 'result' on his 21 inch monitor at 1280 x 1024 (or worse -- 1024 x 768), it would be nice to be able to zoom in and out at will. Zoom out to see the whole picture, zoom in to see the details.

1a) 32 pixels by 32 pixels is pretty darn small these days.

2) For those times when you have originally developed on a big monitor with a high resolution at your desk, but you are debugging on a small monitor w
ith a low resolution on the line.

I agree the temptation for abuse would be high. But what I have typically seen with high resolution monitors and new people isn't them making a VI that's too complicated. Its them making a VI that has 200 pixels between functions. So a relatively simple VI still takes up 1600 pixels in width. Or another technique I am fond of, the Case structure that is 1000 x 1000 with a single 32 x 32 sub-vi in the center.