Tab Control/Display Data

[Kenneth.Miller]

Hello All,

I have an issue with displaying large amounts of data. What my program does is calculate INL/DNL errors on analog to digital converters, when the program runs it generates 3 graphs and a couple of numbers. The idea is to be able to run the program a couple of times and be able to compare data from run to run. My idea was to use the property nodes of a "TAB CONTROL" and create a new tab each run through and store the new graphs and data there. Is this possible? I have not yet figured out how to do so. If anyone has a solution to this or advice on how best arrange such items so they can be easily accessed I'm open for suggestions. Thank you for your time.


Regards,
Kenneth Miller

[LV_Pro]

To the best of my knowledge you can't spawn new tabs,like new work sheets in Excel, but that having been said, why not do just that, have the LabVIEW program write its data to new worksheets in Excel? Another possibility is to spawn a new sub-vi with the data for each run, but this would get messy quickly. One concern is how much data is being captured? If it is a lot your going to start to have memory/performance issues pretty quickly. Also remember that there is a major performance hit for anything done on the user interface vs. in "unseen code" and that when you graph data your screen resolution is the limiting factor so there is no point in "displaying" a 3" wide graph that actually contains 20000 pts (you probably only have a couple of hundred pixels) as this will REALLY slow down everything (as I unfortunately forgot a short time ago).

Putnam Monroe

[Ben]

Quick thougt that are inspired by LV-Pro's replies.

First, as LV-Pro mentioned system resources are always an issue when dealing with an unlimited amount of data.

1) If you can put an upper limit on the # of runs you can create a max number of tabs at development time and hide any that are not active.

2) Use sub-panel to show the spawned sub-VI's the Pro mentioned. A set of radio buttons aranged above sub-panel could trigger uloads and loads.

2a) Use picture control to simulate radio buttons for run selection to avoid issue of unbounded # of runs.

2b) Use an index control to select dispalyed sub-panel.

3) Use a 3-d graph to display all of your runs at once to easily compare variations, run to run.

4) Use 2-d graph and add new plots for each run. Code plot selection support to allow user to add and delete runs.

Please share with us how you solve this challenge.

Ben

[altenbach]

It seems you not only want a new tab, but new graphs on each new tab. This is extremely wasteful!
I would assume that the graphs of each run are similar in format.

You only need as many graphs as should be shown simultaneously. Then you load the approrpiate data according to the user selection. For example, you could place a descriptive tag (e.g. run #, time, etc.) for each run in a listbox or ring control. Selecting the the proper item will load the corresponding data in the graphs.

[altenbach]

OK, I spend a few minutes to wire up an example showing my idea above (LabVIEW 7.1). It can be easily adapted for more complex problems such as yours. (E.g. add timestamps, add events for printing, saving, etc. ...)

I think it is a better solution than layers of tabs. Enjoy! 🙂

[unclebump]

Take a look at this datamine article. I don't have 7.1 so I haven't used it yet.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/5e8689f60b84288786256f480065722d

[Kenneth.Miller]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, thanks for all the help, I incorporated your ideas into the VI and it is working beautifully! Thanks for the suggestions. I'd like to show you some screen shots or the block diagram but 95% of it is proprietary. >< Thanks again.