We have an internal tool at Erdos Miller that we've turned into a product. It's a node that outputs a cluster of references to all controls on the front panel. A free trial is available for download here:
http://info.erdosmiller.com/node-control-references-software-download-v1
It replaces code like this:
With a single node:
It also lets you:
Bind the output type to a typedef.
Include a reference to the owning VI and/or the owning VI's front panel.
Exclude references to controls above or to the left of the origin.
Optionally exclude controls individually.
Controls on tabs are organized into page clusters. Try it out and let us know what you think!