About This File
Author:
Christian Berger
--see readme file for contact information
Description
1. What is this tool good for?
This tool was made to set front panel properties in LabVIEW 8.20 programmatically. You can define in a text-comment how the front panel should look like, place this comment in the block-diagram and let the tool do the rest
2. Why was this tool made?
I have created this tool, for one main reason:
Sometimes it's annoying to debug running code, if you have dialogs with the FP properties "open when called" and "modal" set. With this tool you can define, how the FP should look like at runtime, e.g. in your compiled release, and work with the default VI front panel appearance during the development.
3. How to install and use this tool?
just drop the ibbfptool.llb into your \project directory, restart LabVIEW and use the "Frontpanel Tool" entry from the "tools" palette.
4. How is this working?
just create a text comment on the block-diagram which must have the following format:
First Line: WINDOW APPEARANCE
n++ Line(s):
SetPanes2Zero={TRUE | FALSE} - Set Origin of all Panes to 0:0?
TitleBarVisible={TRUE | FALSE} - Window has title bar?
MenuBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show menu bar?
vScrollBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show vertical scroll bar?
hScrollBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show horizontal scroll bar?
ToolBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show toolbar when running?
AbortBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Abort button?
RunBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Run button?
ContRunBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Run Continuously button?
ShowWhenCalled={TRUE | FALSE} - Show front panel when called?
CloseAfterCall={TRUE | FALSE} - Close afterwards if originally closed?
ShowWhenLoaded={TRUE | FALSE} - Show front panel when loaded?
Behaviour={1..4} - Window behaviour: 1=default, 2=floating 3=floating & auto hide, 4=modal
RunTransparently={TRUE | FALSE} - Window runs transparently?
transparency={0..100} - Transparency: from 0 to 100 [maybe no good idea?]
Closeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to close window?
Resizeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to resize window?
Minimizeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to minimize window?
RunTimeShortCutMenus={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow default run-time shortcut menus?
HiliteReturnButton={TRUE | FALSE} - Highlight Boolean
for example:
WINDOW APPEARANCE
SetPanes2Zero=TRUE
TitleBarVisible=TRUE
MenuBar=TRUE
vScrollBar=FALSE
hScrollBar=FALSE
ToolBar=FALSE
which would set the properties, when you run the tool.
The Properties NOT mentioned in the text are set to DEFAULT Properties!
5. create (own) Shortcuts and modify the code
This tool has already built in 2 Shortcuts:
WINDOW APPEARANCE
DIALOG
which sets the FP Appearance to LV Dialog default
and
WINDOW APPEARANCE
STANDARD
which sets the FP Appearance to LV default
You can create your own shortcuts, if you want/need to:
Open the VI IBBTools_Search FP Behaviour Desc.vi and add a case after "DIALOG" and set the properties according to your needs.
6. how do I use that tool?
Run the tool from the Tools palette, select the TOP LEVEL VI and choose "set" or "unset", the tool will go down the COMPLETE VI HIERARCHY and set the FP Properties for every VI, where it can find a valid "WINDOW APPEARANCE" comment.
Use the "set" / "unset" checkbox to choose whether to SET the Properties as described in the comment or UNSET the properties, which means, that the Window appearance is set to LabVIEW default Window Appearance.
There are 2 example VIs (testVI.vi and 2ndtestVI.vi) where you can check this out!