Tabbed VIs

[CaseyM]

I did a quick search and didn't see this before so my apologies if this is a duplicate, but I'd really like it if LabVIEW had the option to have tabbed VIs. I try not to keep too many VIs open at once, but sometimes it happens and it's a pain to Alt+Tab trying to get to the VI you want and don't even get me started about trying to Alt+Tab to another application. Now, I realize that not all FPs and BDs are the same size but I'm picuring something like Excel where all the VIs could be contained in one master window for FPs and one master window for BDs. You could Ctrl+Tab between the different VIs and then you could Alt+Tab between different applications. Or maybe something like PowerPoint where you can preview the FP/BD on the side and when you click on the preview, it'd bring up the FP/BD in the main display area to work on. Again, I think this would be best as an option so that those that work with lower screen resolutions wouldn't be hindered by this feature.

What do you guys think?

[Antoine Chalons]

QUOTE (cmay @ Sep 17 2008, 07:51 AM)

I did a quick search and didn't see this before so my apologies if this is a duplicate, but I'd really like it if LabVIEW had the option to have tabbed VIs. I try not to keep too many VIs open at once, but sometimes it happens and it's a pain to Alt+Tab trying to get to the VI you want and don't even get me started about trying to Alt+Tab to another application. Now, I realize that not all FPs and BDs are the same size but I'm picuring something like Excel where all the VIs could be contained in one master window for FPs and one master window for BDs. You could Ctrl+Tab between the different VIs and then you could Alt+Tab between different applications. Or maybe something like PowerPoint where you can preview the FP/BD on the side and when you click on the preview, it'd bring up the FP/BD in the main display area to work on. Again, I think this would be best as an option so that those that work with lower screen resolutions wouldn't be hindered by this feature.

What do you guys think?

Hello,

I think that it's indeed not easy to find the VI you want when you have many BPs/FPs opened and also if you want to switch to another application using alt+tab. that said, I don't think LabVIEW is to blame for this, it's more the OS. Same for alt+tab and ctrl+tab.

Having all the BDs/FPs in a windows (like in Excel) wouldn't really help when you have many VIs opened.

When I work on MacOS X, spaces + expose are quite helpfull when you have less than 30 VI windows ; expose-like apps I've tested in windows are not as good, that's a real shame. Open expose was not too bad but I eventually left it and now I use the MS "advanced alt+tab" to be found http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx' rel='nofollow' target="_blank">here.

Hope this can be of interest.

[Phillip Brooks]

I remembered this post after reading your question. NI apparently was experimenting with MDI/TDI at one point, but this post is from four years ago

[ooth]

Amen! I suggested tabs to NI around the time tabs came out for Firefox. I visioned a setting that depending on how many VI windows you had open, say 6, the FP and corresponding BD would be combined into 1 tab. So if you had less than 6 windows open it would revert back to the current way (a window for each FP and BD). I get really upset that if you open a BD after you already have several VIs open that the BD window isn't right next to its FP window on the Windows toolbar. That's why I use Taskix to reorder the windows.

[mje]

I've learned to love the Win+Tab keystroke in Vista for this reason. Too bad I only get to use it when coding at home It's much easier to identify a VI by that twisty snapshot of the block diagram than in a cluttered task bar. Of course, that view becomes rather cluttered once you get beyond two dozen windows or so, maybe less for small resolution monitors. The little preview you get of a window when hovering over the task bar helps, and if I'm not mistaken, alt+tab shows you a miniaturized rendering of the window too if you keep the alt held down in Vista?

What I really wish is that LV would distinguish between panels and diagrams in the task bar (beyond the text that always gets clipped). A different icon would be wonderful.

[Antoine Chalons]

QUOTE (MJE @ Sep 17 2008, 02:48 PM)

The little preview you get of a window when hovering over the task bar helps, and if I'm not mistaken, alt+tab shows you a miniaturized rendering of the window too if you keep the alt held down in Vista?

The "advanced alt+tab" I was refering to does this in XP, not perfect but a lot better than the default alt+tab.

QUOTE (MJE @ Sep 17 2008, 02:48 PM)

What I really wish is that

LV

would distinguish between panels and diagrams in the task bar (beyond the text that always gets clipped). A different icon would be wonderful.

That is a great idea, did you fill a feature request for this ? different favicon in the windows taskbar for diagram / panel / control would be cool !

:thumbup:

[Yair]

You can read this post for more details on NI's actual attempt and its results.

My own idea (which I actually implemented and which should also appear in that thread) was to have an easily accessible menu like the Current VI's SubVIs menu which will list all open VIs with their icons. My proof of concept implementation worked fine, but had performance issues.

I know that some people move the Windows task bar to the left side of the screen so that it has room for more windows and you can more easily see the name of each window, but that takes getting used to.

[mje]

Is there a plugin architecture or something for the LV project window? I'm wondering since it's so trivial to get a thumbnail of a panel/diagram, if such an architecture exists, it probably wouldn't be that tough to make something that would show a thumbnail view when you hover over a VI in the project explorer, for example.

For example, attached is a really simple, no frills attached VI that generates an array of all open VI panels and diagrams (for 'normal' VIs only)...

Download File:post-11742-1221708928.vi

[Antoine Chalons]

By the way, is anyone day-to-day using the Bird's Eye View ?

[rpodsim]

Personaly, I'm undecided about tabbing for LV. Addmitedly I usually work with about 4-8 VIs open + BD and it would make switching back and forth easier. But from a debugging standpoint I prefer the seperate windows, this way I can see what is happening in all (or atleast the important) VIs at the same time. Guess you could use break points at the start each VI and the switch to it, but that seems a bit cumbersome.

I haven't used the Navigation window, since I don't like VIs I can't see on one screen.

Ryan

[jcarmody]

QUOTE (Antoine Châlons @ Sep 18 2008, 10:27 AM)

By the way, is anyone day-to-day using the Bird's Eye View ?

I've been using it recently on a project I inherited. I'd never make a VI that didn't fit on one screen!

NI had their mobile expo in our parking lot a few weeks ago (very cool) and I mentioned that students in a few LabVIEW Basics classes had asked me about a zoom feature. His answer was that NI has resisted doing that so as not to encourage large block diagrams. I wonder why they even have the navigation window.

Jm

[crelf]

QUOTE (jcarmody @ Sep 18 2008, 12:43 PM)

I've been using it recently on a project I inherited. I'd never make a VI that didn't fit on one screen!

I don't mind scrolling, as long as it's limited to scrolling in one direction only. LabVIEW is (by both nature and nurture), a left-to-right language, so hooking up error clusters and other dataflow-forcing elements, diagrams are usually wider than they are tall, so I often write VI's that scroll horizontally, but very rarely vertically.

QUOTE (jcarmody @ Sep 18 2008, 12:43 PM)

I mentioned that students in a few LabVIEW Basics classes had asked me about a zoom feature. His answer was that NI has resisted doing that so as not to encourage large block diagrams. I wonder why they even have the navigation window.

Because people want(ed) it Before the navigation window, there was Bird's Eye View (the older version available through OpenG). There must have been a need, otherwise they never would have been developed...