change apperance of controls

[munkifisht]

I have searched high up and low down for simple ways to change the apperance of controls. I have a project going here with one gauge that I don't want to hide everything apart from the scale and the needle. I have another vi where I want to change the colour the textboxes to match that of the background. Could someone tell me in a simple way how I can edit these features. I am a bit of a novice, so if it's a major operation, I will probably leave it.

[munkifisht]

sorry, just figured out (duh) how to change the colours using hte brush. Still having trouble with the other though. Also, is there a more precise way of aligning the gauge (what would be perfect would be a 360° scale with 90° in the 12 oclock position)

[Dennis_Knutson]

It sounds like all that you need is the paintbrush tool. Go to theView menu and select Tools Palette. When you select the paintbrush, right click on the object you want to color and pick what you want. If you select the 'T' in the upper right corner, it will be transparent. A lot of information is in the help. Use the keyword 'coloring' and pick a subject under that.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You are going to have be a bit more precise about 'other'.

You can rotate the gauge and change spacing. Move your mouse over the last number of the gauge until the cursor turns into a semi-circle. Move your mouse and watch the effect.

[munkifisht]

Well my VI is supposed to track the voltage change in a pot, and display the position of the pot to the client. I was tricking around with the method you talked about. I had a gauge setup and working, I set the scale to 0 to 360. I moved the 360 and expanded the scale to cover the 0, but I am worried that it is not correct, as the 0 disapears when the 360 gets close to it, so matching the two points is quite tricky.

The other thing I wanted to do with the gauge is remove some of the formating. The standard gauge is shown with a circular recessed portion, the dial, and the scale. Say, I wanted to hide the recesed box and the dial, so that only the scale would be shown. Is this possible, and if so, how.

One other problem that I have just run into is two fold. I need to show a different linear slide in a seperate window. I need this to be updated with values continously from my main VI, ie, I need it to run in sync with the main VI. I also need this linear slide to resize to occupy the available height in the window, so if the window is maximised it will resize to fill this window. It also need it to remain to scale (i.e. the height:width scale of the linear slide should stay the same) when the window is resized. The reason I need this is that the project is supposed to run on a dual screen system, one screen showing the main controls, and the other only showing the linear slide. The reason it needs to resize is that the other display size is unknown to me at present and the VI will be run on a number of different screen size comboniations.

[munkifisht]

if not possible to resize the control to the size of the window, is it possible to have a dial or up/down arrow to resize the slide manually?

[SMeserve]

munkifisht,

It is possible to resize objects on the front panel programatically using Property Nodes.  In your case, you can do what you desire in two steps.  First, you need to get the size of the front panel.  You can do this by placing a property node for the VI.  Then, you place a property node to set the size of the control.

You can create property nodes by right-clicking on controls and indicators on the block diagram and navigating to Create >> Property Node and then selecting the property you want to Read or Write.  You can right click on property nodes to modify what properties they correspond to and whether they read or write.

I have attached a sample VI to show how to use property nodes for the type of work you want to do.

Thanks!

[smercurio_fc]

The above example requires that you also have a loop with an event structure so you can respond to the panel's size change event. Another way to do this is to have the control scale with the pane automatically. If you have just one indicator this is quite easy to do:

1. Place your slider on the front panel.
2. Resize the front panel window to the initial size that you want.
3. Resize the slider to fill the pane.
4. Right-click on the slider and select "Scale object with pane".

Now as you resize the window the slider resizes automatically, even in edit mode.

If you have more than one control you can create subpanels.

[munkifisht]

thanks for that guys. I am having trouble though opening the vi. I run 8.5, could someone save it back for me, thanks.

[SMeserve]

Here is the VI in 8.5.

smercurio's solution is also a great one.  Consider the property node information a chunk of knowledge for the future.