hooovahh

I redid your VI using an event structure. Search the online forums for state machines and look at the examples in LabVIEW under File...New. Then go to VI...From Template...Frameworks...Design Patterns and look at the examples there.

Bruce

This VI is different in that it doesn't prompt you to select a model, and if you cancel one it also doesn't ask to select a model. Also after a model is selected the button that was selected doesn't stay in the true position.

But if the original poster wanted this functionality I would suggest a radio button with 13 options. And a label saying "Please select a model"

I thought you were joking when you said it was empty there with 3/4'' of snow. Apparently this is being called snowpocalypse (taken at 8AM). And this was the site at 12:45PM. I heard there was over 200 accidents in San Antonio by 9:30?

I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing the whole "You only got an inch and had 200 accidents! We have XXX feet and I was fine." so I won't give my version. But oddly enough it took less time coming into work Wednesday then it did Thursday because Thursday there were more people on the road going half the speed limit, when on Wednesday I was mostly alone.

Yeah I was getting defensive at first when reading the "I hate LabView" post. I would read a bullet point then come up with a counter argument. Soon I realized that one reason why he hates LabVIEW is because he is uneducated on how to use LabVIEW. After coming to this realization I became less defensive, and felt sorry for him. I can hate anything that I don't know anything about. I hate the internet because it costs money, I hate movies because they are so long, I hate water because it has no taste, I have brocolli because it looks like small trees, I hate snow because it's cold (okay that one is valid).

And I just want to say that 7.1 was the best version of all time...in my opinion.

In their infinite wisdom, Microsoft have determined that file extensions are too hard for you, so the default is to hide them and show you an icon instead.

This bugs me too. We've had some files in our version control that are things like Document.doc.doc and a few times Document.doc.pdf.

Wow I don't know where to begin, lets see UAC in Windows 7 is easy. Once it's installed in the start menu is a section called Getting Started and in that is a button that says turn off UAC. Not easy enough? Type in UAC in the search bar and hit enter, move the slider down and click OK.

As for Winzip who uses winzip? I didn't know that was even still supported. What does it do that hasn't been bundled with the operating system since XP SP2? If you want to use something other than the built in zip utility install 7-zip. The interface is the same as it always has been. You can right click any archive in explorer and say extract here. Even with many EXE type compressed files that self extract to a specific directory can be extracted right there.

There's nothing wrong with running LabVIEW 32 bit in 64 bit OS (as I think others have said). I would actually prefer it unless I was developing for a machine that I knew would be running a 64 bit OS.

The other problems with the User.lib going to the wrong directory is a little your fault but I would also blame Microsoft if you wanted. If they must have two separate Program Files directories (and I'm not convinced they do) then why wouldn't they have the old Program Files be x86, and make a new directory called Program Files x64? I'm sure they knew that making the x86 folder renamed would break some code. I installed some printer software that installed inside C:\Program Files\Program Files (x86)\[printer software directory] I'm not sure who is to blame but on a 32 bit OS this installs to the right location.

And Shaun why are you activating modules manually? Does the activation wizard not work for you in Windows 7?

I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Came into the office an extra hour earlier because my laptop was in the wrong time zone after traveling. So don't take anything I say personally.

I think it's already been said here, but my RSS wasn't working for a while and I missed this topic.

I like what Wikileaks is doing, but I understand that what they do will upset alot of people. But these people should not get upset at Wikileaks, who haven't broken any law (someone correct me if I'm wrong). And personally attacking Julian Assange is not the right thing to do either. In my opinion they should go after those that gave the information to Wikileaks (if they can determine who) and they should be mad at the organizations responsible for the wrong doing that is in the leaked information.

It seems too often that someone exposing a problem with the system is attacked, instead of those who caused the problem. The recent story about the Ipad AT&T security flaw comes to mind. Where those that found the data using a web browser alone, with no "hacking" involved are being charged. That story is a little more complicated because telling AT&T about a flaw, is different from finding the flaw then running it for 5 days to get all the data from it.

My first exposure to programming (if you could call it that) was RPG Maker. It was great as a kid to be able to make a video game, using a video game, then play that video game I made (or share it with other friends). I think this is key to getting a child's interest in programming, finding a tool that enables them to create, and use their imagination. There's a feeling of satisfaction when you create something, and programming is a good example of that.

I agree that the younger the better, but at some point it can be too early. We don't want to affect a child's social skills by having them in front of a computer every spare moment.

Awesome, I don't need this right now but there have been times where something like this would have came in handy.

2. Compulsive saving (esp ctrl+shift+s)

I wouldn't call myself a compulsive saver, but I do save after several large changes to the code. But compulsively saving is a bad thing in terms of undo. I recently lost a whole days worth of work by deleting the wrong case in a disabled diagram structure and then saving...needless to say I put in some over time to re-do my work. Luckily it only took a few hours since all the trial and error had been done. If I had compulsively committed then I could have recovered it but this was mostly a prototyping VI (which is why parts were disabled). I hear 2011 now has undo after saving.

The maximize screen bugs me. When I was first using LabVIEW it was on a project where we were reviewing and changing someone elses code. They developed on a low resolution monitor and maximized every screen. So we would open it and have 60% of the screen in white space and would have to unmaximize, then reisize every VI. After this experience I almost never maximize a screen.

I'm unfamiliar with format painter, but am I correct in saying that it is the same functionality found in Shift + CTRL + C and Shift + CTRL + V, within office?

For those of you that didn't know you can copy a text format, and paste that format with these key presses.

The obvious answer is to use 2 graphs, but to use that answer you'd have to know what kind of signal you are expecting and where the discontinuity should occur.

I love LabVIEW's built in graph functions, for zooming and moving around so for alot of users I'd just expect them to zoom in on the parts of the graph they care about. Of course if this data is coming in, in real time this doesn't seem like a good option. I understand that they need to be able to take a look quickly and understand the information.

The maximum file size for FAT32 is actually 4GB so I wouldn't expect that to be the problem

Thanks I thought it was 2GB but it was 4GB. Also random but the maximum partition size of FAT16 is also 4GB.

I had to look that up.

Definition

pants adjective

/pænts/ adj [after verb] UK slang

not useful or of bad quality This music is pants.

(Definition of pants adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

Thanks, I read that sentence several times wondering if it was a spelling mistake.

I'm always a proponent of the program 7-zip. 7-zip can make zips, rars, gzips, tars, 7-zip files, cab files and several other compressions types.

In the download section they have a command line version (which also comes in the installer) which can be used to create archives. The command line switches are a little complicated but there's tons of documentation online. You could always go with the system exec option in LabVIEW calling this EXE. There is a 64-bit version as well but I don't know if the command line program would be 64 bit, probably just the UI application.

EDIT: Also one other thing to think about and that is if your file system is FAT32 then the maximum file size is 2GB so changing to using a rar wouldn't fix this. Ensure that if you are using windows that the file system is NTFS.

Not sure if she was going for this but I couldn't help but think of Zero Punctuation when listening to her, still very interesting.

I meant that ignoring such a basic feature (auto-tool) that is very good (I mean very good) just because you don't want to spent the time to use it, is like being Apple (or NI in some cases) wher they ignore the popularity of basic things of life (like a right mouse button for a long time.

In hindsight I might have been a bit harsh in that comment.

Anyway, it's good that there are several bad things in LabVIEW.

Ton

It's okay if you were a little harsh, I'm in a good mood and didn't take it personally but if I was having a bad day who knows where I would have went. It's not often I compared to Apple.

I don't like auto-tool, I can't give a reason that I don't, I can't say a programmer would be faster/slower with it, I've just not used it very often and am use to not having it, and that's a bad reason to not like something. It was mostly meant to be a joke with Asbo, who I know likes the auto tool and he posted it as a Best LabVIEW feature. I like having tools for programming, and productivity. I use a couple of quick launch keys, as well as a few others to help me do what I need faster. I've just never like auto-tool, but if NI enforced auto-tool with no option to turn it off I would adapt for sure.

And just to get on a new topic, I hate how LabVIEW will not open a VI with the correct version of LabVIEW, it will simply open it with the last one that was opened. So if I open LabVIEW 8.0, then open LabVIEW 7.1, then double click a LabVIEW 8.0 VI it will give a dialog like "I know this VI was saved in 8.0 and I can tell that 8.0 is open but I tried opening it with 7.1 and I couldn't, try opening this VI with LabVIEW 8.0" Seriously NI? If you can tell what versions I have installed, and you can obviously tell what version the VI is, why would choose to open it in a version that is unsupported? I realize there may be more than one version that can open it, but why would you ever choose a version that can't open it?

You are like Apple (who needs more than one mouse button?)

Ton

What do you even mean by this? Who needs more than one mouse button? ...Me, my mouse is a 17 button with scroll wheel that also has a middle click (so I guess 18 buttons) To be fair I only use 5 of the buttons, but I don't see how not liking the auto tool means I like one mouse button. If anything it means I like using more than one mouse button for Shift + Right click.

Auto tool (you're welcome asbo).

The tree control has always been difficult to work with, but since there has been some community support it has become easier to work with.

Maybe the fact that the run time engine balloons with every version. Making a 100MB install for a "Hello World" program doesn't seem very useful, but then again Hello World isn't all that useful anyway. Really it would be great if some basic LabVIEW runtime engine was included in Windows, but that'll likely never happen.

Version dependent issues really suck. You can save up but now down very easily. It would be nice to be able to open a LabVIEW 7.1 VI in 8.2 and when I save let it have the option to save in 8.2 or 7.1 compatibility. (obviously wouldn't work if you use a feature that wasn't in 7.1). Again I don't expect this to ever happen. Other version dependencies issues are anoying too. Say I have LabVIEW 8.0 installed, what versions of MAX work with it? What versions of DAQmx work with it? Traditional DAQ? FPGA? NI-RIO? NI-CAN? Switch? Now what hardware work with what software? Are there some DAQ cards that only support DAQmx? Where is the tables and charts showing these dependencies?

Highlight execution/Breakpoints for debugging. Seriously what would I do without it? Having the ability to read variables in real time on a text based language is nice, but not as good as what LabVIEW can do. That's usually the feature I show programmers of text languages. That and not needing to compile to run code, well it does compile just not having to explicitly compile to run code.

I don't know if I've every seen a more appropriate usage of the Facepalm before. I was actually hoping no one would say anything and just see how long the unintended trolling went. Tst had to ruin all the fun.

"Lock front panel until this case completes", perhaps?

I thought about that too, but if that were the case then the operator would use the slider and it would move one position the lock the UI (because it was doing stuff in the event structure like wait for mouse up) then they would have to let go of the mouse button and they could then move one more position. I didn't suggest the lock UI option, because it sounds like it works like normal moving up and down, only that it sounds like an event isn't fired until the mouse moves up.

I'm sorry - I didn't ask it properly...

While the VI is running I would like to receive new values (i.e. via value change event) while the value of a slider is being changed, but the change is not yet committed by releasing the slider.

So, in short, I would like to receive the intermediate values so that I can take the necessary actions based on these intermediate values.

Again, sorry for the confusion and thanks for the help.

Bye for now,

Kirsten.

This is also the normal way that the vertical slider works. As a test I made a while loop, and in it a event structure with just one event which is value change on a vertical scrollbar. I then wired a indicator on the NewValue terminal in the event structure. I then ran the VI and moved the slider. As it moved (but wasn't released) the new value changed indicating that numerous events were being fired.

I'm guessing there is something going on with your code that keeps it in the event structure not finishing. You might want to post a part of your code, or try to simplify it to find the problem.

Here's a quick one: Is there a native way in LabVIEW that I can first of all tell if my built application was launched via the command line? Also, is there a native way to print to the standard output if it was?

Native no. Here's a post a little while back that does what you want using magic.

Were you looking for ASCII digits? It's entirely possible that it'd be stored in some binary format.

Yeah I was looking at ASCII. The data has to be in there somewhere, I just didn't invest much time trying to find it.

Okay I have a solution, but before I give it let me say this is one of those things I hate about LabVIEW. If I build an EXE or DLL I don't know what version of LabVIEW it was built with. If you build an EXE it will say you need runtime engine X if it is not installed but if you have 4 installed and it works, how do you know which one it is?

Asbo was close. Download a Sysinternals application called ListDLLS. It says what DLLs are in memory and the version of them. This will tell you the version of your own DLL that is loaded in memory, but more importantly it will tell you the version of the lvrt.dll that is loaded into memory, which tells you which run time engine it uses to run your DLL.

I tested it with an EXE and it works fine. I made a hello world program, then ran Listdlls.exe > Dlls.txt

Then opened Dlls.txt and searched for the name of my EXE, it listed all Dlls it was using, and the version. For me it was 7.01.0001.4000 (LabVIEW 7.1).

Not sure what will happen if the required runtime engine isn't installed, I don't deal with LabVIEW DLLs very often.

I tried opening the file in a hex editor to see if I could find the version of LabVIEW it used, but I wasn't sure if I was looking at the right version, or just a random number that happened to be 7.1. Hope this helps.