control the position in depth(bring forward,backward,to front, to back)

[Jonathan Borduas]

Hi,

I'm trying to programmatically control the position in depth(move to back, to front) of a tab control.

I found these methods :

http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-12527 (attached)

But it seems they are only good with panels (I'm not very familiar with it)

So I did a test using the Vi's panel reference: I have this error:

LabVIEW: This property is writable only when the VI is in edit mode, or this method is available only when the VI is in edit mode.

Ok,so they are not very useful...

Help would be greatly appreciated !

Jonathan

Panel Move Forward and Backward Methods.vi

[Francois Normandin]

Hi Jonathan,

These methods work with any control or indicator in a panel. They act on the selected controls and indicators, so you have to first select them manually or programmatically (using the Selected? property) and them use the "Move Selection to ..." methods on the panel reference of these controls/indicators.

As for the use at edit time, these methods can be useful if you program some editing help scripts such as those used with Right-Click Framework, QuickDrop or the items under the Tools menu...

[Jonathan Borduas]

Ok, thank you for the info

But is there a method that control the depth of a control while running the Vi ?

Jonathan

[Francois Normandin]

Ok, thank you for the info

But is there a method that control the depth of a control while running the Vi ?

Jonathan

I don't think so.

Actually, I think there was a discussion lately started by AQ about transparency problems for SubPanels... and it turned out that the way to work around the problem was to load upload the subpanels to bring the one you wished in the forefront in the top subpanel container. Applying this train of thought to your tabs problem, you could make each of your tabs a separate VI that gets loaded into a subpanel.

Let's say you have "n" tabs. Create "n" subpanels and arrange them as you wish with transparent backgrounds.

Load tab1 in subpanel1, tab2 in subpanel 2 and so forth. When you wish tab2 to be moved in front of tab1, unload tabs 1& 2 from subpanels 1&2 and reload them as tab1 in subpanel2 and tab2 in subpanel1.

Voilà.

Seems tricky at first, but I think it's not too difficult. I'm only concerned about the flickering of front panel while you do so. I'd recommend to defer panel updates while you make a swap.

Let us know if this works or if you find something else...

[Jonathan Borduas]

Wow, it's much more complexe than it should be ! (NI plz...)

But I will try

Jonathan

Do you have an exemple, or something that could help me start ?!

[Jonathan Borduas]

Also, is there a way to load the same VI in 2 subpanel (VI instance ?)

[Francois Normandin]

Make your VIs reentrant and it should work.

Call them by VI server with x8 for the options argument.

I'm sure the z-position of a control could be something that is included in the RTE some day. Check on the LabVIEW Idea Exchange. If it's not there, then maybe you can propose it (for LV2012... )

[Jonathan Borduas]

Well I need this for january

So I'm just going to try it this way.

Also... It interesting to use subpanel... I see a lot more of possibilities...