Print Panel.vi problems

[sydney]

I am working on a program that was done in 6.x and recently have upgraded this project to version 8.5. This program has a very complex 'report' that is printed out by using Print Panel.vi from version 6.x. There is enough text in a text indicator of the VI being printed out by the Print Panel.vi to warrant not wanting to recode the formatting of this string, so I am trying to make use of what is already there, if possible. I noticed that the front panel has MANY hidden controls above the text indicator and would like to know if these controls will affect how the printer will print the complete front panel. I find that to print out the text indicator which itself would fill and 8.5 x 11 page, I have to move the text indicator as far down in the front panel display as is possible: only the top 10% of the text indicator is then visible! After a bit of frustration, I just noticed that there are literally dozens of hidden controls on the front pane and suspect that they are claiming front panel real estate so that the Print Panel.vi is acting in this strange way. I did find and check out the new version of this VI in the Reports section, but, alas, I have the same problem, so this does not seem like a version change type of glitch.

Sydney

[Ton Plomp]

An option might be to get all the control references of the FP, filter out the invisible ones and move them to a location behind the control you want to print.

However if some of these control are made visible during your program be carefull about moving them.

Another idea is to create a VI with only the controls you want to print, fill these with the correct data and print this little dummy VI.

Ton

[jgcode]

Hi Sydney

You could try using the above FP Method to print only the visible front panel objects.

You should have the same or similar node in 8.5.

You may also like to check out the Report Generation Toolkit (RGT) if you have it.

I also like to make the dummy VI as Ton suggested.

Cheers

JG

Edited August 8, 2009 by jgcode

[sydney]

An option might be to get all the control references of the FP, filter out the invisible ones and move them to a location behind the control you want to print.

However if some of these control are made visible during your program be carefull about moving them.

Another idea is to create a VI with only the controls you want to print, fill these with the correct data and print this little dummy VI.

Ton

What I have is a dedicated vi just for printing and is part of a large program that was originally started back in the version 5.x days of LV. By necessity the hidden controls are part of the front panel to handle input parameters and some local variables (ugh). I suspect that the hidden controls are used by the underlying printfrontpanel.vi code to form a layout of what is printed by the printer. I have also found the newer version of this VI in the reports tools, and, unfortunately, I am getting about the same results. As far as using print only visible portion of the panel choice that is not an option since the text string is so large that the print out will definately fill and 8.5" x 11" paper in normal mode! Does anyone know if the hidden controls do influence the Print Panel.vi actions as far as laying out the text sent to the printer? As I have said, both of the old and newer versions seems to share the same sort of quirky behaviour since I can only get the full text to print out if I move the text indicator at the very bottom of the screen before saving the VI before use!

[sydney]

What I have is a dedicated vi just for printing and is part of a large program that was originally started back in the version 5.x days of LV. By necessity the hidden controls are part of the front panel to handle input parameters and some local variables (ugh). I suspect that the hidden controls are used by the underlying printfrontpanel.vi code to form a layout of what is printed by the printer. I have also found the newer version of this VI in the reports tools, and, unfortunately, I am getting about the same results. As far as using print only visible portion of the panel choice that is not an option since the text string is so large that the print out will definately fill and 8.5" x 11" paper in normal mode! Does anyone know if the hidden controls do influence the Print Panel.vi actions as far as laying out the text sent to the printer? As I have said, both of the old and newer versions seems to share the same sort of quirky behaviour since I can only get the full text to print out if I move the text indicator at the very bottom of the screen before saving the VI before use!