schinni

Haha... Sorry about that. I guess i should follow the KISS ideology in my language too. :laugh: Sure. If i am able to come up with one, i will definitely upload it. By the way, thanks for the great link! Hi Ben, I did look at what you guys did and was impressed. With regards to rotation for my XControls, you can have a look at the first Picture attachment This is how i need the orientations of the individual components to change when the overall thing is rotated. While some components might change, some might not - for example string indicators should not change orientation within the XControl no matter what. Only then will they remain readable. As regards the issue about tracing lines, have a look at the following picture. As the Popup VI is moved about on the screen, the tracing lines will have to readjust and keep pointing to the popup. The reason is that several popups (each represents the details of one XControl) might be opened at one time by the user. Thus, we need the tracing lines to tell them explicitly which one belongs to which. So far I am still trying to brainstorm. Thanks.

Hi, Thanks for the fast reply. I wont lie that i am not disappointed to hear that it is not possible to do in LabVIEW. However, i am still a bit heartened that we might be able to do so using a picturebox. I am a bit sceptical because there would be a lot of work involved but i will check out the link that you have given and then try it out. Actually i have two needs which are prompting me to explore this issue. In one, our clients need to be able to rotate the XControls that i have created. However, making separate objects and setting the visible property etc will cause a decent amount of overhead for each XControl (large number of constituent controls and indicators). Not to mention the extra work required to make the resizing work properly. To extend this to all the 40 over types of XControls will be a pain in the neck. This remains so even in the use of subpanels. Hence picture control seems viable but then again i am not sure if i will be able to abstract out the steps and create sub VIs to automate the tasks for me so that if i do it for one XControl - i have done it for all the rest. In the other need, we would actually need tracing lines from a control to a popup VI that comes up when the control is clicked. As and when the Popup VI is moved about, the tracing lines need to appropriately adjust. I think using a picture box would have done the trick for this but for the following two facts: - We will not be creating an exe since the clients will have the capability to edit many of the VIs we develop - The clients will only have the base package installed and since Picture Functions VIs are not available in the base package, we wont be able to use those. Thus, i am currently exploring the idea (incl. amount of overhead involved) of having a transparent cluster with several small square LEDs which i will position dynamically based on the popup's position to create the tracing line... Hope it all goes well and works out favourably.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me with two questions I have regarding the front panel display. I have searched and searched for answers to these questions - all to no avail. Is it at all possible to - 1. Rotate an object in LabVIEW? 2. Create/edit decorations programmatically (from within the block diagram)? Thanks so much.

I managed to get the solution. I had made a stupid error which was because i didnt read the help documentation carefully enough and thus didnt realise the impact the oversight could have :headbang: . It was that i was setting the BGColor property and the ActiveCell property for the listbox. However my ActiveCell property was below the BGColor propery in the property node. The processing takes place in a top to bottom order for property nodes. A simple reversal of the order and it now works like a charm :laugh:

You are probably right. In the case of a config file related operation, a sub-VI would probably be better.

Hi, I have a problem in communicating with global variables correctly using XControls. BACKGROUND ON THE TASK: - We have some global variables that store data dynamically (arrays of clusters) - Over time, the status of several variables is retrieved from our proprietary database and is written into these global variables using other processes. - We have XControls (among others) that react to this data. These variables are the stimuli for the XControls' appearance. ISSUE: - The XControls are not reading the dynamic data but instead the initial static data from the global variables - Upon stepping through the execution, we realised that in fact it seems like another instance of the global variables is being created for the XControls separate from the one that all the normal VIs are sharing. RESOLUTION: - I was thus forced to abandon the usage of the global variables for the XControl (the global variables still exist since they are being used system-wide) - I had to expand the data control for the XControl and send in the whole clunky set of arrays of clusters into the inputs so that i could use the data PROBLEM: - Since, for each one of these XControls, a new copy of the arrays of clusters will be created - the usage of many XControls in the system could cause system slow down => performance dip. Ours is a Real Time System and upon complete implementation, it could prove to be a costly problem. - Is there any way around this? Thanks so much.

Indeed. And after testing, it needs to be removed and resaved. It is a bit cumbersome but that is the only option - at least for now. By the way, it is off-topic, i am sorry - but just curious as to how you are using the XControls. What is the functionality that you are providing to your system using them? Maybe I can get some new idea for maximising their use. In my case, we are using it to provide the clients with customisation features...

Why dont you try putting a breakpoint in the Facade VI? When the execution pauses at the breakpoint, you can set up your probes and step from there. It worked for me (using LV 8.0)

Thanks for that. I too was having the same issue and I am using LV 8.0

Thanks Michael. Thats a nice creative idea that can be applied in so many other situations :thumbup:

Hi, I am using LV8.0 and we just upgraded one of our projects from LV7.1. I am having a problem and would be grateful if someone could help me out. BACKGROUND ON THE TASK: - We have a list of alarms that have been generated through several other processes. - This list needs to be displayed in a MultiColumn ListBox to the users. - Some alarms require user acknowledgement - Until the user acknowledges those alarms, they need to blink (to catch the users' attention) ISSUE: - In LV7.1, setting the ActiveCell property to the relevant rows (in a loop) and setting the Blinking property to true or false appropriately worked like a charm - In LV8 the whole listbox blinks - even those alarms that have already been acknowledged - NI support said that they do not have anything to help individual rows blink. Only the listbox as a whole can be set to blink or not. RESOLUTION: - I tried to simulate blinking by having an independent loop run indefinitely (until the Panel Close event) and toggle the background colours of the relevant rows. - It worked like a charm PROBLEM: - If the first row happens to be unacknowledged and hence needs to blink - it doesnt work. - My indices seem to be correct and in sync. (The indices of the array of alarms and the index of the listbox items) - Every thing works fine except the first row (The one immdly below the row headers). Instead, in a listbox with 20 rows, during runtime - a 21st row gets created at the bottom and that one blinks... The alarm data for the 1st row however still displays correctly in the 1st row. The 21st one at then end is an empty row that ends up blinking. I am really at a loss as to why this might be happening and would greatly appreciate any help/suggestions. Thanks so much.

Yes, i believe you can resize the individual elements that make up the XControl. However, it will be a bit tedious as you will have to do it programmatically. You can handle the Panel Resize event within your Facade VI and appropriately set the scaling factors/dimensions for whichever components you wish to.

Indeed, very true. However, in addition to this, XControls can prove very useful when you are deploying projects to clients and wish to provide some level of customisation to them. While it is very easy to learn and use labview's basic fucntions, it can be a little tougher to deal with more complex code and interactions for one who has little or no programming background. In such a case, XControls are a boon. We had been searching for this functionality since some time now and were eventually thinking of using ActiveX controls when NI released Labview 8 with XControls. So, i would say that it is definitely a very good feature.