Icon View of typedef constants

[jdunham]

Some typedef'ed clusters can get really big when dropped on the block diagram. It can cause a big problem in a crowded case structure. It would be great to be able to replace the typedef with its icon.

[David Boyd]

Some typedef'ed clusters can get really big when dropped on the block diagram.  It can cause a big problem in a crowded case structure.  It would be great to be able to replace the typedef with its icon.

4140[/snapback]

I'll vote for that.

I only recently learned (from Stephen Mercer at NI) that setting a control's BD terminal to display as an icon (which I'd always thought was a waste of BD space) will render the typedef icon for controls tied to a typedef. It'd be great if there were a way to extend this to the typedef'd constant as well.

Dave

[Mark Balla]

There a couple techniques that I use to help control the size of cluster constants.

The first is to arrange the cluster horizontally instead of vertically.

The best one I've found is to put the cluster constant in a subvi and draw the icon so it only takes up half the size of a standard Icon

There is one thing to note when creating the icon make sure to copy the condensed icon to all three color formats in the icon editor otherwise the 256 icon will overlap others. This is shown by the fat const vi.

The editor shows a greyed out area in the icon box that will translate to transparent color when put on the block diagram. If it is white it will overlap.

This idea is also very useful for making smaller icon footprints.