active window into Frontend

[weitong]

I have a question on windows appearance.

Main VI calls and runs sub VIs through Invoke method. When running, several VIs windows are opened. But the window cannot be moved to the front by activing it through clicking the windows itself or the tab in Windows taskbar. I have to minimize all other VI windows to make the needed one into the front.

The other similar question is, in a SubVI, the popup "file saving" dialog (by "write to spreadsheet" function) is always hided behind the VI windows.

Attached is the main VI and one the Sub VI's Windows appearance settings.

Thanks.

WT

[intvsteve]

You have configured your VIs to float, and not be hidden when LV is not active. This combination of settings means that as long as LV is the active application, these windows will be "floaters" - even when dialogs are displayed.

A floating window is similar to the palettes, in that it will remain above all other windows in the Z-plane that are not marked as "floaters". So if your setup has some windows that are normal and some that are floating, the floating windows will remain on top.

Usually, floating windows hide when LV is not the active application. The "hide" setting also applies to behavior when dialogs are displayed. I.e. if "Hide when LV not active" is set, floating VIs hide when a dialog appears, too. Once could consider this a couple different ways:

• The description in the dialog needs to be improved (documentation)
• There should be a distinction between behavior when LV is not the active app and behavior when dialogs appear (new feature)
• Floating windows should *ALWAYS* become non-floating when a dialog appears (something that will be open to furious debate because some users will demand that a float should always float above everything - it's what they do)

In summary, it sounds like your VIs are behaving as intended, but not as you desire.