Using two monitors with LV

[MogaRaghu]

For an application that I am developing, there is need to do the following :

The main PC monitor will be used for all operator interactions and machine related commands and displays.

I want to configure a secondary montior to display six analogue gauges. These gauges will display the engineering values of the six analog channels that are acquired and processed  by the  main LV code running on the PC. And this Sub-VI with six guages will be called by the Main VI displayed on the primary monitor.

I will be connecting the secondary monitor to the VGA port of a PCI Video card in the main PC.

While I am aware of displaying one VI, on two monitors set up side by side, this is not what I want. I want to be able to display the Main VI in the primary monitor and the sub VI in the secondary monitor.

Thanks for any tips.

Raghunathan

[Eugen_Graf]

Hello Raghunathan,

you can do it in VI Settings->Run Time Window Position, see screenshot.

Message Edited by Eugen Graf on 02-17-2008 05:17 AM

[MogaRaghu]

I saw a good way to port the sub-vi to secondary monitor in another forum message.

I developed the VI to suit my requirements and checked out. The same is enclosed as a zipped file. It works fine except for the following small flaw :

- Open the SecondMon_Main.vi and select the path of the SecondaryDisp.vi.
- Make sure the secondary monitor refernce is also proper in the block diagram of SecondMon_Main. It is now "1".
- Run the VI.
- You will notice that first the sub VI loads in your primary monitor and then shifts to the secondary monitor. From then on its fine.

You also will notice some funny  coding in SecondMon_Main.vi with a flat sequence structure. If you remove the instance of the sub.vi from the first frame and run, you will notice that the sub.vi does not shift to the secondary monitor at all. I don't know why ??

( The 2 sec time delay in the second frame is just to show that the sub.vi first loads in the primary monitor and then shifts to the secondary. Otherwise it has no use...)

How to get the sub.vi load on to the second monitor directly ?

Raghunathan

[johnsold]

Try unchecking "Show Font Panel when called." Use the FP.Open method (invoke node) to open the panel in the Hidden state. Then set the bounds followed by another invoke node to change the FP.Open state to Standard.

This works on my Mac with two monitors.

Lynn

[Neil.Pate]

Lynn,

Is this a LabVIEW Mac-ism that the method suggested by Eugen Graf not work then? Why go to the trouble of repositioning the front panel manually if you can do it from within the VI (this is not flamebait, just curiosity).

Setting the monitor seems to work fine on Windows XP and a dual monitor setup.

[johnsold]

Eugen's method works on the Mac. The question I was trying to address was how to avoid having it show up on the primary monitor before jumping to the secondary monitor. By not opening when called, the VI does not show up before the Invoke nodes take control. Opening hidden is required because the panel bounds property cannot be set on a VI with the FP not open.

I just mentioned the Mac because dual monitor things are usually pretty easy on the Mac and I don't know how they work on other OSes.

Lynn

[Neil.Pate]

OK, thanks for clarifying.

But as I mentioned, on my WinXP setup, if I have a subVI set to open on the second monitor, you dont need to do any tricks, if you save the VI while it is on the second monitor during development, and have it set to open on the second monitor it opens there without appearing on the primary monitor. Maybe I am missing something here???

[MogaRaghu]

nrp,

Could you please recompile the code in LV 8.0 and post back.

Thanks

Raghunathan

[Neil.Pate]

sure,

attached in LV8.0

[Neil.Pate]

Raghunathan, did you try the 8.0 VIs? I would be interested in hearing if it worked.