I uninstalled LabVIEW711 and 8 and all other NI stuff, cleaned up the registry, and started reinstalling things and eventually reproduced the problem. I did so without ever opening or running any of my old VIs. Specifically, everything I opened or built in LabVIEW I created from scratch today. Here's a detailed blow-by-blow:
1. Uninstalled everything NI and IVI, rebootted, manually removed most of the stuff in c:\program files\national instruments, cleaned the registry with TweakNow, rebooted, and installed LabVIEW 8 with the run-time engine. Didn't install anything from the driver disks yet. Rebooted.
2. I tried building a simple vi with a custom control with imported graphics. I created a new project and built an exe--it worked fine. I created an installer and installed it--the result in c:\program files worked fine.
3. I created a more complicated vi with nested clusters and a button with imported graphics and a numeric with its radix shown. (See the attachment "the vi before building.png")--still no problems with a build.
4. I added a tab control and put three copies of the cluster in its pages--still no problem.
5. Next I installed the NI drivers from the 2 disks, installing everything selected by default plus NI serial & IVI compliance.
6. I copied the last VI and its controls into a new folder, created a new project file for it, and built it. When I ran it, I first saw the problem again. (See the attachment "it happened again.png")
7. For consistancy, I created a fresh VI and project and built it, and yes, it seems to be a permanent change to my LabVIEW development environment. It seems that I am again in a state where I cannot successfully build a project containing more than one copy of a custom control with an imported picture.
8. I uninstalled everything Nat Inst and everything IVI, but this time I didn't manually delete files nor did I clean the registry. I reinstalled LabVIEW8, again NOT installing the driver disks.
9. I again copied the VIs from #4 & #6 above into a new folder, created a new project, built and ran and did NOT see the problem.
Just to be clear, I never did install any toolkits today. It seems that the problem started after I installed drivers and tried to build a VI involving nested clusters, a custom button with imported graphics, and a numeric with its radix turned on.
I've attached the VI and project where I saw the stretched-d graphic today.
