Working With Multiple Monitors

[lvb]

For some reason, the LabVIEW development does not like to use multiple monitors. I use multiple monitors at work and home, but the VIs always open in the last location in which they were saved.

If the VI is saved on the secondary monitor, and then opened on a PC with a single monitor the VI opens "off in space" on the non-existent monitor. My work PC has the secondary monitor on the "right" and my home PC has the secondary monitor on the "left. I always work on the secondary monitor since both of them are nice large widescreens.

What would be "nice" is if there was a way to force VIs to open to a "default" monitor, always the secondary in my case!

Does anyone have advice on how to improve this situation?

Thanks!

[Yair]

You could write a small helper VI which will use property nodes to move the windows to where you want them to be. You can put in the Tools menu by placing it in the LabVIEW\Project folder and there's a private property which will let you know which VI it was opened from.

Of course, you would still have to decide on the logic of how to do this.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(brianafischer @ Sep 8 2007, 01:50 PM)

For some reason, the LabVIEW development does not like to use multiple monitors. I use multiple monitors at work and home, but the VIs always open in the last location in which they were saved.

If the VI is saved on the secondary monitor, and then opened on a PC with a single monitor the VI opens "off in space" on the non-existent monitor. My work PC has the secondary monitor on the "right" and my home PC has the secondary monitor on the "left. I always work on the secondary monitor since both of them are nice large widescreens.

What would be "nice" is if there was a way to force VIs to open to a "default" monitor, always the secondary in my case!

Does anyone have advice on how to improve this situation?

What version of LabVIEW are you using? LabVIEW since at least version 7 is fully multi monitor aware and moves windows so that some part of it's window is always visible although it does not center them in the primary screen which I would find to intrusive anyhow. Making an application open its windows always in the secondary screen independant of its location is defintely a very esotoric requirement. Personally I find it rather disturbing to have to look right or left of the main screen depending on the setup. It's already hairy enough to switch between single monitor and multiple monitor use.

But I know many applications that will open their window always in the last saved monitor location independant if that monitor is present or not

and I really find that an annoying behaviour, especially if they replace the default system menu too, so that you can't even move it from the task bar with the cursor keys.

And upgrading to LabVIEW 8.5 could help you a lot. There you can configure per front panel on which screen it should be displayed and LabVIEW will honor that if that monitor is present. But i think this is mostly a runtime feature. Not sure it will have the desired effect on the windows in edit mode and definitely not for the diagram windows.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Justin Goeres]

This doesn't go to your immediate problem, but in general you might want to check out UltraMon if you work with multiple monitors regularly. It lets you set up different multi-monitor profiles, manages icon positions, puts a taskbar on the second monitor, etc. (I don't know how much of that might also be available in normal Windows now -- it's been so long since I lived with UltraMon ).

It also adds a couple widgets to the title bar of your windows. One of the is "Move this window to the other monitor" and the other is "stretch this window across both monitors."

Example:

[Bab]

QUOTE(Justin Goeres @ Sep 10 2007, 07:25 PM)

This doesn't go to your immediate problem, but in general you might want to check out UltraMon if you work with multiple monitors regularly. It lets you set up different multi-monitor profiles, manages icon positions, puts a taskbar on the second monitor, etc. (I don't know how much of that might also be available in normal Windows now -- it's been so long since I lived with UltraMon ).

It also adds a couple widgets to the title bar of your windows. One of the is "Move this window to the other monitor" and the other is "stretch this window across both monitors."

Example:

an alternative, more simple but completely free ist the "multimon" utility that I have used several years. You get a task bar to your second monitor, and the icon in the title bar to send a window to the other monitor.

link: http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

give it a try...

BaB

[lvb]

QUOTE(Justin Goeres @ Sep 10 2007, 01:25 PM)

This doesn't go to your immediate problem, but in general you might want to check out UltraMon if you work with multiple monitors regularly. It lets you set up different multi-monitor profiles, manages icon positions, puts a taskbar on the second monitor, etc. (I don't know how much of that might also be available in normal Windows now -- it's been so long since I lived with UltraMon ).

It also adds a couple widgets to the title bar of your windows. One of the is "Move this window to the other monitor" and the other is "stretch this window across both monitors."

Example:

QUOTE(Bab @ Sep 10 2007, 06:00 PM)

an alternative, more simple but completely free ist the "multimon" utility that I have used several years. You get a task bar to your second monitor, and the icon in the title bar to send a window to the other monitor.

link:

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

give it a try...

BaB

I just downloaded UltraMon and it looks like UltraMon will do the job for me with the Move and Stretch commands. Another neat feature is that I have the monitor profiles load upon login (different user for home/work)!