Share your favorite tips and shortcuts

[didierj]

The other thing I've started doing (artistic license only) is to label my loops, change the background and forground of the label to the dark grey of the loop, Move the label into the inside upper left and use a font that is bold and white. I just like how it looks

:thumbup:

I use this technique also on case structures and include the main tasks that are performed in the case.

eg.:

"initialisation failed:

- report error

- ..."

"VISA read ok:

- decode string

- check events on GPIB

- write log entry"

...but I haven't done any recolouring, just a transparent frame.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

The dialog label in the controls palette is very special. You can use this label to label wires on the diagram instead of using your own colors. What makes the dialog label different from the default label is that the background color inherits the color properties of whatever object or background you place it on. Normaly, this label is used on front panels because it allows you to label dialog frames properly. Windows XP color themes contain various shades and textures which cannot be represented by a single color. However a nice bonus is the benefit of labeling wires without having to play with the colors. You must select this label from the controls palette to drop it since it's not available on the functions palette.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

The dialog label in the controls palette is very special. You can use this label to label wires on the diagram instead of using your own colors. What makes the dialog label different from the default label is that the background color inherits the color properties of whatever object or background you place it on. Normaly, this label is used on front panels because it allows you to label dialog frames properly. Windows XP color themes contain various shades and textures which cannot be represented by a single color. However a nice bonus is the benefit of labeling wires without having to play with the colors. You must select this label from the controls palette to drop it since it's not available on the functions palette.

Damn, I have completely missed this label! Makes my OS style user interfaces finally look perfect.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[eaolson]

The dialog label in the controls palette is very special. You can use this label to label wires on the diagram instead of using your own colors.

Thanks. For ages, I've been trying to figure out how people made those. I tried every combination of label and frame and color I could think of and could never get it to work. Never realized the dialog label was different from the decorator label.

[Aristos Queue]

Ok, I have a favorite tip that I was giving out at the LAVA dinner during NI Week which it seems no one heard before.

Who likes the autotool? You know, when you go to the Tools Palette and set it to automatically change your mouse cursor for you as you move over the diagram. No more Tab key! Sounds great, but a lot of people don't like it. A LOT of people. They're genuinely surprised when LV developers like me say things like, "Yeah, I always have the autotool on and I don't know any time since LV7.0 when I wanted to turn it off." How can this be? The control key.

If you have the autotool on, the mouse cursor changes to "the most needed tool on this region of the screen." Sometimes that means each tool gets only a small region of the screen. I hear people want to turn the autotool off when they try to move a boolean button -- they can get the operate tool and the text tool, but they can't find the very small region to get the pointer tool.

Hit the control key.

If you hold down the control key, it is defined to give you "the second most needed tool on this region of the screen."

The first most needed and the second most needed are both based on a lot of user feedback. The autotool was introduced in LV6.1, and the control key mods came in LV7.0. Since then it's been pretty nice. And those of you who tap the Tab key habitually can just slide your hand down the keyboard and tap the control key instead. Oh, and it works for both left and right hands.

[Chris Davis]

Ok, I have a favorite tip that I was giving out at the LAVA dinner during NI Week which it seems no one heard before.

Who likes the autotool? You know, when you go to the Tools Palette and set it to automatically change your mouse cursor for you as you move over the diagram. No more Tab key! Sounds great, but a lot of people don't like it. A LOT of people. They're genuinely surprised when LV developers like me say things like, "Yeah, I always have the autotool on and I don't know any time since LV7.0 when I wanted to turn it off." How can this be? The control key.

If you have the autotool on, the mouse cursor changes to "the most needed tool on this region of the screen." Sometimes that means each tool gets only a small region of the screen. I hear people want to turn the autotool off when they try to move a boolean button -- they can get the operate tool and the text tool, but they can't find the very small region to get the pointer tool.

Hit the control key.

If you hold down the control key, it is defined to give you "the second most needed tool on this region of the screen."

The first most needed and the second most needed are both based on a lot of user feedback. The autotool was introduced in LV6.1, and the control key mods came in LV7.0. Since then it's been pretty nice. And those of you who tap the Tab key habitually can just slide your hand down the keyboard and tap the control key instead. Oh, and it works for both left and right hands.

Well now you've given me a reason to try autotool again! I am one of those people who immediately turn it off, when I run across a machine that doesn't have it turned off.

[i2dx]

Well now you've given me a reason to try autotool again! I am one of those people who immediately turn it off, when I run across a machine that doesn't have it turned off.

me, too. But at least I will check that out, allthough I am afraid, that I stick to much to my "good old habbits" and will miss the TAB-Key to much ...

[crelf]

Who likes the autotool?

:thumbup: I do! If you're not using it, take the one week challenge: read more here.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Dude! the Autotool is my favorite LabVIEW enhancement. I always lock it on. Can't live without it. Now with the Aristos tip, it's even better!

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

More "Control" over the autotool. I liked it, and even more so now.

Thanks for the tip!

[PeterB]

:thumbup: I do! If you're not using it, take the one week challenge: read more here.

While I was compsing an email to my LabVIEW colleagues at work to espouse the virtues of the autotool ('cause I'm an avid fan of it :thumbup: ), it dawned on me that I still actually need to disable the autotool when I want to select the paint prush to change the colour of anything.

I do this by pressing <Shift>+<right-click> to bring up the tool palette right under my mouse then select the paint brush, then when I'm finished I select <Shift>+<right-click> and select the autotool to 'on'.

So short of NI developers plugging into my synapses, does anybody have a good idea for how a future release of LV should autodetect our need to change the colour of something?

regards

Peter

[Ton Plomp]

then when I'm finished I select <Shift>+<right-click> and select the autotool to 'on'.

Using <TAB> will turn it back on

Ton

[didierj]

Dude! the Autotool is my favorite LabVIEW enhancement. I always lock it on. Can't live without it. Now with the Aristos tip, it's even better!

Although I rarely use the autotool (old habits ), somehow I knew that there is a key to "disable" it. Unfortunately I never remember which key it is (have to try it everytime), nor from where I got this info... maybe from a former presentation at a NI-day or VIP-day.

[PeterB]

Using <TAB> will turn it back on

Ton

This is true if one has the Automatic tool locked on (thanks for reminding me). If one doesn't then <SHIFT+TAB> is necessary to (en/dis)able the Automatic tool.

Another thing to remember with the Automatic tool enabled is that that double clicking on text will edit it and double clicking on open space will place down 'free text'. I think that this may be something that new users don't realise and so they think they need to temporarily disable the Automatic tool, select the text tool, type their text then re-enable the Automatic tool. This would put me off using it pretty quickly.

Basically, except for colouring things,

you should be able to program with the Automatic Tool enabled for 99% of the time.

If this isn't happening for you then please ask us why and we will help you out - because you may not know about all the options (I'm reserving 1% for all those people who will come back with a valid reason to temporarily disable it - if none are forthcoming I will happily change that number to 100% )

On the topic of reducing keyboard interaction (while programming LabVIEW with the autotool), maybe we could collate a list of our most frequently used keyboard shortcuts (e.g. <CTRL+Z> for undo) and then figure a way that NI could integrate these actions into the autotool (or certain mouse gestures a-la the 2nd LAVA Coding Challenge http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?showtopic=3423). After all, the autotool sits idle when over blank spaces as it just shows a cross (+).

regards

Peter

[crelf]

...maybe we could collate a list of our most frequently used keyboard shortcuts (e.g. <CTRL+Z> for undo) and then figure a way that NI could integrate these actions into the autotool... After all, the autotool sits idle when over blank spaces as it just shows a cross (+)

From the G (LabVIEW) Software Engineering chapter of the Engineering Handbook 2nd Edition by Christopher G. Relf and Peter Badcock:

Double click = On a clear point, places text (otherwise known as a free label).

Shift-right click = Displays the tool palette.

Ctrl-double click = On a sub VI, opens its block diagram.

Ctrl-click-drag = An object with the positioning tool to duplicate it.

Shift-click = The block diagram to remove the last wiring point.

Esc = Cancels a wire route (dashed).

Ctrl-B = Removes broken wires. (Beware: nonvisible broken wires may exist.)

Drag-space = Activate autowiring when moving an element on the block diagram. (Autowiring only occurs when first placing an element, or a copy of an element, on the block diagram.)

Ctrl-S = Saves the currently selected VI.

Ctrl-Q = Quits LabVIEW. The user is prompted to save any open unsaved VIs.

Ctrl-C = Copy a selection to the clipboard.

Ctrl-X = Cut a selection and place it on the clipboard.

Ctrl-V = Paste the data from the clipboard. Pasting data from a previous LabVIEW session will insert an image representing the data, and not the data itself.

Ctrl-F = Find object or text.

Ctrl-R = Run the currently selected VI.

Ctrl-. = Aborts a running VI. Only available when Show Abort Button option in VI Properties

[PeterB]

Ctrl-double click = On a clear point, places text (otherwise known as a free label)

Oops, that 1st line is a typo (I'll have to check if that is in the hard copy). No <CTRL> is required (although it won't hurt), so it should read

"<double click> = On a clear point, places text (otherwise known as a free label)"

BTW this Engineering Handbook is the biggest book I have ever owned. It's at least 13-14cm thick !

Peter

[crelf]

BTW this Engineering Handbook is the biggest book I have ever owned. It's at least 13-14cm thick !

The new edition now comes in volumes

I'm waiting for NI to integrate the design drivers for one of these puppies:

(reminds me of a great Mel Brooks movie (what am I talkin' about? They are all great!)

Oops, that 1st line is a typo (I'll have to check if that is in the hard copy). No <CTRL> is required (although it won't hurt...

I've edited my post to reflect the change (I can't beleive we missed this one before it went to print!)

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Here's a helpful nugget for those of you who run multiple versions of LabVIEW at the same time. In LabVIEW 8.0 and later, you can place the following line in your LabVIEW INI file: showExePathInWindowTitle=True With this line in your INI file, the window title of every VI you have open will indicate the path on disk to the LabVIEW EXE file that is running. It only indicates the owning folder and the EXE name (without the .exe extension)...so for example, if you are running LabVIEW 8.0 from the default installed location, then your VIs will have "LabVIEW 8.0/LabVIEW" in their title bar. If you have LabVIEW installed in a custom location like c:\lv80\lv80.exe (that's where mine is installed), then your VI title bar will have "lv80/lv80". Note that this information is appended to the existing title bar contents, i.e. you'll still see your VI name (or customized Window Title) in the title bar, you'll just see this new information after it.

Taken from Darren's weekly Nugget.

[Gary Rubin]

(reminds me of a great Mel Brooks movie

Care to elaborate?

[Grampa_of_Oliva_n_Eden]

Care to elaborate?

Just an educated guess...

"May the Schwartz be with you!"

Ben

[Yair]

Well, just follow the link

I'm waiting for NI to integrate the design drivers for one of these puppies

and you should see that Ben is probably right.

[Gary Rubin]

Well, just follow the link

and you should see that Ben is probably right.

Shoulda clicked the link...

[jaegen]

Well here's the only one I personally can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet:

In the icon editor we already know that holding down Ctrl will switch to the colour selection tool, no matter what tool you've actually selected. Well, holding down Ctrl-Shift will also switch to the colour picker, but when you click, the colour becomes the active background colour, not the foreground colour. This is very useful for replacing text on an icon that has a non-white background:

1. Open the icon editor

2. Ctrl-Shift-Click anywhere on the background colour

3. Using the selction tool, select the text to be deleted and hit Delete (note that the background gets filled with the proper colour, not white)

4. Select the text tool and type in your new text

Sorry, I have no idea what the equivalent to "Ctrl-Shift-Click" is on a Mac.

Cheers,

Jaegen

[PJM_labview]

Well here's the only one I personally can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet:

In the icon editor we already know that holding down Ctrl will switch to the colour selection tool, no matter what tool you've actually selected. Well, holding down Ctrl-Shift will also switch to the colour picker, but when you click, the colour becomes the active background colour, not the foreground colour. This is very useful for replacing text on an icon that has a non-white background:

1. Open the icon editor

2. Ctrl-Shift-Click anywhere on the background colour

3. Using the selction tool, select the text to be deleted and hit Delete (note that the background gets filled with the proper colour, not white)

4. Select the text tool and type in your new text

Sorry, I have no idea what the equivalent to "Ctrl-Shift-Click" is on a Mac.

Cheers,

Jaegen

Cool :thumbup:

I did not know about this one (and I though I tried them all in the icon editor)!

PJM

[Jacemdom]

you should be able to program with the Automatic Tool enabled for 99% of the time.

If this isn't happening for you then please ask us why and we will help you out -

I tried the autotoll when it came out and deactivated it as fast as i could...

Tried it again in 7.1 and lasted about 5 minutes...

I recently made the move to LV8.0.1 and in the process decided that if so many "referenciable" people where praising its virtues, that there must be something there...

It took me abour 2 weeks to adapt to the new way of coding until i got back up to the speed i was before...i believe it is basically due to the fact that with "tabbing" you don't think about where to position the mouse, you tab. And with the autotool, mouse placement is crucial...

It also took me sometime to stop tabbing by habit...

But i am now convinced to stay with the autotool...

:thumbup:

I use this technique also on case structures and include the main tasks that are performed in the case.

eg.:

"initialisation failed:

- report error

- ..."

"VISA read ok:

- decode string

- check events on GPIB

- write log entry"

...but I haven't done any recolouring, just a transparent frame.

Why don't you use an enum for the selection so that your code is auto-documented, as the enum string will end up in the selector case?

If you drop the numeric constant from the numeric palette it is automatically selected but is 'blue' because it is an I32. Type your number while it's selected but finish with a '.' and the type changes to DBL. It works for any I32 on the BD that has never had its representation changed. Once it's been changed it's broken wrt of this funtionality.

Only found this the other day after 7 years of RMB/Representation/DBL :headbang:

You can also use the units letters.

Ex : 1.2345m(mili) will give out 0.001234

1.2345M(Mega) will give out 1234000

Not exactly hidden, but something that's easy to miss - right clicking a subVI and entering SubVI Node Setup allows you to immediately set some of the window appearance properties.

This only changes the properties of this particular instance.

From LV Help :

SubVI Node Setup Dialog Box

Right-click a subVI icon on the block diagram and select SubVI Node Setup from the shortcut menu to display this dialog box from the shortcut menu.

This dialog box contains a subset of the items included in the VI Properties dialog box. Use this dialog box to set options for only the current instance of the subVI. Use the subVI execution items in the VI Properties dialog box to set options for every instance of the subVI.