TestStand UI SequenceView Control Properties

[mrbean]

I am customizing the LabVIEW8 version of the TestStand 3.5 operator interface.  In the Full OI - Top-Level VI.vi (attached), Right in the center of the front panel is the SequenceView control.  I've looked at the properties for this control and see a number of items that can be configured.  However, what I would like to do is have the Step Name, Step Description, Step Execution (currently beside each other in three adjoining columns) be separate boxes, each with their own scroll bar.  Is this something that can be done?  If so, how do I start?

[Josh_W]

Mrbean,

It is possible to have three separate sequence view windows, each showing a different column.  Attached at the end, find a zip of the three files that I had to change to get this to work.

The steps to follow are:

1) Resize and copy the sequence view control so that you have three of them.

2) Right click each of them, and go down to SequenceView>>Properties

3) Under the columns tab, choose which columns you would like displayed, and enter the width you would like.

4) Add the new SequenceView Controls to the bundle that goes to the ConfigSeqFileViewMgr VI.

5) Update that VI to accept the new bundle, add then add two new invoke nodes to register the new SequenceView Controls to the SequenceFile Manager

6) Open the Full OI – Resize Controls VI, and remove the width property from the SequenceView Control Reference (third one down) to make sure that the original control does not resize at runtime.

Hope this helps!

Josh W
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[mrbean]

I got to about step 4/5 and ran into some trouble.  I did Steps 1, 2, 3 and renamed the three sequenceview controls SequenceViewStep, SequenceViewDesc, SequenceViewFlow.  Now, step 4 is where I'm having problems.  I'm in the Full OI - Configure SequenceFileView Manager.vi but I'm not sure how to add my two new SequenceViews to the ctl/typedef?

[Dennis_Knutson]

Before this thread goes too far, I would like to ask if three separate SequenceView controls is what you really, really want. With a single control, the step, description, and flow are all lined up in a row and it's easy to associate one with another. With three different scrollable windows, it will be hard to do this association and I fail to see the utility. I'm afraid that once you figure out how to make the changes, the next question is how to make the scroll position on two windows match what someone has selected in the third window. If you do that, then you've added a lot of code to accomplish what the original single control provides. If you have a legimate reason for doing what you want, can you explain?

[mrbean]

We're a sub to another company.  We're both working on a similar test station (for different applications) for a common customer.  The customer has asked that our GUI have the same "look and feel" as theirs.  Although they are using CVI and we LabVIEW, I'm trying to match, where possible, what they've done.  Here are two snapshots of their UIR (I don't have their source code) that, I think, show that they spit the SequenceView into several individual pieces.  If you can tell (from the attached bitmaps) that they've done something different, please fill me in.  If they did, indeed, separate the SequenceView control out, are there any other pitfalls I need to be concerned with?

[Dennis_Knutson]

It does appear that is what they did but the functionality of the OI is impossible to know with just a .uir file. It likely (at least to me) that the two smaller windows are not controls at all but indicators, the top position in both is set by the top position in the step window, and they are not independently scrollable. That would make sense and would make your job easier.

[mrbean]

Can you explain how you know

1 - "the top position in both is set by the top position in the step window"

2 - "they are not independently scrollable"

3 - "That would make sense and would make your job easier."

[Dennis_Knutson]

I don't "know" anything. Without the source code or a working version of the OI, it's impossible to tell. A image of the uir isn't enough to know how the entire program has been written. It's just some logical guessing on my part. It's just makes the most sense that if you split the information into three separate windows, the only window that the user can scroll through as a control is the step window. It makes you job easier because you would only have to read the scroll position in the step window. Based on that, you would set the scroll position in the other two. If all three are controls, then you would have to read the scroll position of whichever window might be active and set the position of the inactive ones. You really need to get a running version of the other OI in order to duplicate the functionality. Without that, it's sort of like a person who has never used Excel trying to duplicate what it does from an image of an empty worksheet.

[mrbean]

I've been experimenting a bit just to try and learn, and I now have the Top-Level VI (attached) a little messed up.

1) I can't seem to select/edit the box at the bottom (I put a little label on it "this box --->").  Any idea what the purpose of this box is?

2) Now, when I run the app, my SequenceFile tab starts in the middle of the screen, and the rest is off-screen.  I'm sure this has something to do with me putting the SequenceFiles lisbox on the SequenceFile Tab sheet.  Any suggestions to fix this?

[Josh_W]

Are you still building off of the Full OI - Top level VI?  Because that VI has a subVI within it that resizes your controls at runtime.  This VI is the one I had you modify in step 6) of the procedure I posted last week.  If you don't want your controls to resize and reposition at runtime, you have to remove the property nodes corresponding to those controls in that VI. 

I believe that this resizing behavior does not exist in the Simpe OI, so you could try modifying that one to what you want instead.

Josh W. | National Instruments | Applications Engineering