SubPanel Transparency (Transparent Sub Panel)

[JackDunaway]

I am developing an HMI wrapper that contains a few SubPanels. These SubPanels correctly swap between called VIs using "Insert VI" and "Remove VI" Invoke nodes. Now, I would like to add a visual effect to fade these VIs into and out of the SubPanel. Currently, the VIs that are being inserted will fade from transparent to opaque using a For Loop and the "FP:Transparency" property node when run independently. Once they are inserted into the main wrapper as a SubPanel, the transparency effect ceases to work (remains opaque).

I am aware of the "Make Panel Transparent" property of SubPanels and the "Window runs transparently" property of a VI, and have tried several configurations toggling these properties. Any suggestions on how to enable transparency of a VI inserted into a SubPanel?

Regards,

Jack

[MikeS81]

Hi Jack,
i tried it, but i can´t get it work. I think another solution for you could be to insert a picture indicator in your sub vi and program the transparency effect by your own. After the picutre shows 100% of the sub vi you can hide the picture indicator and work with the original vi.

Hope it helps.
Mike

[Aashish_M]

Hey Jack,

Have you looked into setting the background of a vi running in a subpanel to transparent   [ NEW ]?

It seems that you've already been working with Subpanel properties. Could you post up and example of what you're trying to do?

[JackDunaway]

Setting the background of the subpanel to transparent is fairly straightforward and has worked well on my system. What I am trying to do is separate from that abilitiy: to fade the entire front panel (controls and all) from 100% transparency to 0% transparency - in other words from transparent to translucent to opaque. Attached is a small snippet that will properly fade a window from transparent to opaque. When you run this VI by reference and immediately insert it into a subpanel inside the "caller" VI, the transparency property (FP:Transparency) seemingly ceases to have any effect - the window inserted remains opaque.

By the way, I am running LabVIEW 8.5.1 on Windows Vista.

Cheers,

Jack

[Aashish_M]

Hey Jack,

You might want to try using some VI server methods and properties to run another VI.

Have a look at the attached example.

Message Edited by Aashish_M on 06-26-2008 09:05 AM

[JackDunaway]

Aashish,

Thank you for your suggestions. The method I am using to insert the VI into the SubPanel is attached in the code snippet below. It is not much different than your method, except I am using a static reference to the VI to be inserted. This snippet is in the "caller" VI that contains the SubPanel, and the static VI reference is to the VI that is to "fade in" using the FP:Transparency property (like the snippet in my previous post).

This code will properly insert a VI that is opaque, and the previous code will properly fade a window from transparent to opaque. However, I have not been able to insert a VI that uses the FP:Transparency property into a SubPanel.

Can anyone properly do this?

Thanks again,

Jack 

[Ben]

After a short search I could not find anything to back this up but....

I believe I read that transparency of FP's in sub-panels is not supported.

Ben