non-LabVIEW look

[jp2labview]

First, I am relatively new to LV.

I've been assigned the GUI that our Customers will see whenever they use our product.

Often our Customers are not literate, much less computer literate; unfortunately, most of LV's controls resemble engineering tools. We need to make the controls look less technical, bigger and include numerous pictures to convey information.

Is there a tutorial that shows how to "disguise" the LV controls?

For example: The picture control (Classic | Classic Graph | Controls | Picture) wants me to enter rectangles, colors, etc. on the block diagram to draw on the control, but I need to select an image from a list. Also, this control defaults to a thick border with a white background, and I can't seem to find any info on how to edit this setting.

Next, I'm looking for something on how to make a custom Message Box (aka Dialog Box), because the standard 1, 2 and 3 button dialogs (Programming | Dialog & User Interface) would be too small on our screens and would require custom images (instead of the standard MB_ICONINFORMATION, MB_ICONQUESTION, and MB_ICONERROR images).

Where would be a good place for me to find information such as this? I am sure it has been covered before, but I have not seen anything like this when I searched.

[Pnt]

First you can use <right click a control>..Advanced...Customize to customize your control.

Second choice: you can use system controls.

It is very easy to customize a control, and i don't think that you will find something ready.. nothing that will suite your application at least..

[smercurio_fc]

Just about any control can be customized to look different, and sometimes even behave differently. There's a short section in the LabVIEW manual on customizing controls. There are also numerous places where customized controls can be downloaded. If you do a Google search you'll find a few. You may find a few on the LabVIEW Web Ring. A search on the NI site will also turn up several examples whipped up by NI and others.

For your specific questions:

• Picture control: It's not clear what you mean about the image in a list. Are you saying you want to select an image from the list and then have it drawn in the picture indicator, or something else? Are you wanting, instead the Picture Ring control?
• Picture control (2): You can change the border using the paintbrush tool. Select the tool, move it so that it's on the border, right-click, and select the "T" box, which means transparent, if you want to remove the border, or pick some other color. Background is done the same way.
• Custom message dialog: Right click on the block diagram, go to the "Dialog and User Interface" palette, and select the "Prompt User" or "Display Message" Express Dialog VIs. You can then right-click on the icon and select "Open Front Panel". This will convert it to a regular VI and you can customize the controls on it any way you see fit.
  

Side-note: Did you know your posts show up with a blue background and white text. It is very... odd.

[TCPlomp]

First I'll advice you to use system controls, this will give your application an OS compliant look (even if your OS is customized).
Here's a screeenshot of such a VI:

Secondly if you need pictures for controls you should use the Boolean XControl to create boolean buttons with an image. I've created a large set of VI's to load into the Boolean XControl with icons from the Tango projec here

There's even a book about creating LabVIEW GUIs with tips an tricks.
An excellent example of a LabVIEW non-LabVIEW looking application is VIPM


Good luck,

Ton



Message Edited by TonP on 12-05-2007 04:57 PM

[jp2labview]

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Pnt wrote: you can use ..Advanced...Customize to customize your control.

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A lot of controls (like the picture control) don't seem to have a way to edit them once you get to this Advanced Customize mode. It is all one piece.

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smercurio... wrote: Are you wanting, instead the Picture Ring control?

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Eureka! I'll look into that right now!

TonP: I haven't tried your yet, but I noticed a lot of the other links are non-functional. The book is not available any longer, either.

[TCPlomp]

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@jp2labview wrote:

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TonP: I haven't tried your yet, but I noticed a lot of the other links are non-functional. The book is not available any longer, either.

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Sorry to hear the book is unavailable, the tango link should be  this. What do you mean by 'non-functional'?

Ton

[RavensFan]

jp2labview:

Why is all of your text coming up white on a blue background?  It is kind of annoying.

[dpga]

Turns out the book is available still . . . if you have a Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/LabVIEW-GUI-Essential-Techniques/dp/B000QCQY0W/ref=ed_oe_o

Message Edited by dpga on 12-05-2007 10:32 AM

[DJDDA]

"A lot of controls (like the picture control) don't seem to have a way to edit them once you get to this Advanced Customize mode. It is all one piece."

Yeah, it took me a little while to work through that. You need to change the wrench to tweezers. Just a moment, editing in pictures...

Edit: Here you go.
Here's the button you need to hit to actually make useful changes.




Here's the menu that lets you change all of the pictures. (It took me a while to figure out why my big square black buttons turned small, round, and gray while in use. ^_^ )



Message Edited by DJDDA on 12-05-2007 01:32 PM

[jp2labview]

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@DJDDA wrote:
You need to change the wrench to tweezers.

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Thanks! That actually helps a *lot*! I'd been wondering how to edit those darned controls. 🙂

So you guys really don't like my pretty blue background with white text? Hmmm... well, aside from being normal, what would you prefer?