Re: Generic UI question
Xavier,
You wrote:
...I have tried to update my LV Vi design style to keep up with the new
functionalities like User Event Handling...
I have a main Vi (call it TopLevel.vi) that dynamically launches subVis
on user demand (call them subViN.vi, N=1,2, etc). The user plays with
the subVi, and one action requires the main Vi to be updated somehow ...
I thought initially that the dynamic event registration feature would
help me do this in a more elegant way, but I can't figure out how, so
maybe I am just wrong. What I would need is some sort of event
registration in the TopLevel.vi that would be fired in the subVis. But
since the subVis are not started until possibly very late in the
execution process, this cannot be done at launch time in the
TopLevel.vi...
Can't you create and register a user event (or multiple user events)
in the main VI and pass the appropriate user event reference to each
subVI as it is launched? Each subVI then generates the appropriate
user event at the appropriate time and the event structure in the
main VI responds.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: [M] Val(Sgnl) Works in 7.1 but not in 7.0
At 11:18 AM -0400 6/21/04, Heverly, Bryan C. (Newport News) wrote:
What type of a control are you pulling the value signaling property off of?
If it is a Boolean, I have found that the latching (bottom row) of
mechanical actions will change the data type of the property node to be a
variant. I have yet to get this to work.
and
At 8:41 AM -0700 6/21/04, PJ M wrote:
Value signaling does not work on type def (strict or
not) control in 7.0 (This is a bug). NI might have
fixed this in 7.1 (I have not tried it yet).
My control is a Boolean, but not of the latching variety. It is in a
(strict) type def control. Disconnecting it from the type def makes
it work fine in 7.0, so that is the problem. And, yes, it is fixed in
7.1.
Thanks for the help. It's good to know I'm not stupid or crazy (at
least, not for this reason)!
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
[M] Val(Sgnl) Works in 7.1 but not in 7.0
LabVIEWers,
My first attempt at using Val(Sgnl) to cause an event didn't work in
a somewhat unusual VI-subVI arrangement. Simplifying the arrangement
to a simple, single VI configuration still didn't work even though I
could see anything wrong. My 7.1 disks had arrived (a week or two
ago) but not yet been installed. I didn't expect it to help but, just
in case, I installed 7.1, copied the simple and then the complex VIs,
and they all ran fine.
Does Val(Sgnl) not work under OS X? Is there some setting I might
have wrong under 7.0? (7.1 seems to have copied all my 7.0 settings,
though.)
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Wanted: #define
George,
You wrote:
From my days as a C programmer (shudder) I have to say I do miss the
#define...
It seems to me that there was a discussion of #define here a couple
of years ago, but I find nothing in my snippets collection. Maybe
SearchVIEW will find it for you.
and in another posting:
...These are not values that the
user would ever want to mess with... things that are currently just
constants scattered around the application, like the string for the title
bar or the number of times to try doing some low level operation before
giving up. Stuff that will probably never change, but is easily forgotten
about and lost in the pile of vis. Back in the days of C it was extremely
rare to find a constant in my code... all that stuff just got #defined and
moved to the tops of the files... and that is sort of what I am hoping for
here...
This "remove all constants from your code" is one of the practices
advocated by Conway and Watts in "A Software Engineering Approach to
LabVIEW", so you are certainly not alone. They use config files.
Maybe you could put the data the user might change in a standard
config file and the immutable stuff in the encrypted file that Conway
and Watts describe, or at least have them in different files.
Im probably to lazy to do anything about it in the app I am working on
right now... just something I am thinking about for the next time around.
John Brohan's package would let you be lazy and still get your result.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Fw: Keystrokes
Nuno asked:
... any help on sending keystrokes to other application?
I'm attaching (private email only) my collection of snippets from
this forum about capturing and forwarding keystrokes.
--
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Bird's Eye View 1.5.0 Available
Stephen,
You wrote:
The thing that I find most encouraging about the dual development of this
same feature by OpenG and by NI is the fact that OpenG was able to develop
it at all... Have any of you used the sizing dialog from LV7.0?
Yes, and I had previously developed the same functionality in LV6 for
the Edit Panel Elements OpenG project (ongoing). A working version of
the Edit Panel Elements package has long been available from my web
site. (Of course, I couldn't make a tool button for it.)
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Labview date and time to Julian and seconds after midnight gmt
Arsineh, You asked: ...does anyone has a vi that changes the time stamp to seconds after midnight of current day GMT? Back in Y2k, Will Maynard posted: Subject: Re: [A] time and time zones, take 2 From: "Will Maynard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 09:17:14 -0500 At 1:56 PM -0700 2/23/2000, McLaughlin, Scott wrote: >...why isn't there an >option or a function that gives me the option of using the UTC time as the >timebase/epoch?... I modified a vi to do just that a while back. Check it out from the info-labview ftp site: ftp://labview.pica.army.mil/pub/labview/vi/lv4/y2k_plus.zip It will return you the current time in either the local time zone, UTC, or Julian Date. (Check out the sub vi, GMT Delta.vi (by Stepan Rhia), to see how to get the local time zone offset from UTC.) Will Maynardemail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Code 554FAX: (301)286-1750 Goddard Space Flight Center Phone:(301)286-5626 Greenbelt, MD 20771 I haven't tried it, but from the descriptions it looks like the combination of Will's and Stepan's packages may do what you want. I'm also including (private email only) my entire collection of time zone snippets from this forum (from which I retrieved the above) in case there are other hints there of use to you. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Main VI and sub-vi's control
Ann,
You wrote:
... In my Main VI, I use get control value
method to set the blinking property of the Main VI's continue button.
This button blinks fine, but when it blinks, I cannot click on it to
change its value, does anyone know why or know of a better way to do
this?
Irene responded:
I think the problem is your subvi hasn't finished running, that's why the
main vi is still waiting it to finish which blocks the user actions.
What you can do is you need to use vi server to run your subvi without
waiting it to finish...
I haven't tried it, but I think another approach would be to use
parallel while loops, one calling your subVI and one checking the
main VI's continue button. The second loop should continue to run
while the first is stalled waiting for the subVI to finish.
Which approach is better depends on the details (including thread
blocking?) and your comfort level with understanding and following
the different architectures.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: restoring defaults to controls
Glenn, You wrote: ... Too bad there aren't separate properties for references of controls VS Indicators - that would save some work or a way to determine if it's an indicator or control. In LV7, there is a property "Indicator" which does distinguish controls from indicators. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Time zones and time stamps
Gary,
I'm attaching (private email only) my collection of snippets from
this forum concerning time zone corrections.
--
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Expression node and numeric units
Paul, You asked: ...when I wired a numeric control with a defined unit (in this case "m") to an expression node, I get a bad wire connection with the associated error "You have connected numeric data types that have incompatible units". Same problem when I tried with and "formula node". I checked the Labview help file but the issue is not addressed. Is this a fundamental limitation of the expression and formula node or is there a way to use these primitive with variable with units. The Convert Unit primitive will convert a number with a defined unit to a pure number for use with, e.g., the expression and formula nodes. Specifying the unit within the Convert Unit primitive puts the decimal in the right place, chooses English or metric units, etc., so using "ft" on a wire containing "1 m" will give 3.28084... as the output. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Can I call a labview VI from a batch file?
Scott, You wrote: With much frustration, I cannot seem to get my labview vi to run from a batch file. Everything appears ok in terms of the directory and filename but I keep getting a bad filename error message. Just a guess: Are there embedded spaces that require quotes around the file name? -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Corrupted llibrary due to crash! Any Idea?
Jim,
I agree with Rolf's advice:
... During development don't use LLBs.
On the other hand, they are very helpful in porting projects to other
platforms. Different operating systems have different sets of
characters that are illegal in file names. An LLB will allow you to
move a file that tests a boolean condition (e.g., Run Before?.vi)
from a Mac to a PC without renaming it. After trying to export files
with question marks in their names a couple of times, though, you'll
probably switch to a naming convention more like Has Been Run
Before.vi.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Graphs placed over indicators causing slow operation.
Dave,
You wrote:
...human cognitive processing is generally believed to be limited to about
7 items...
Curiously, crows have been reported as being able to count up to
seven! If several hunters enter a blind and a few leave, the crows
can tell if they've all left and it's safe to fly again, provided no
more than seven hunters are involved. Maybe we're all bird brains!
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: AW: More then one active Vi with open Front panel?
Gerd,
Severely editing Uwe's response to just:
...put a little wait into the false case...
I'd suggest using an occurrence
suggests that putting a Wait on Occurrence feeding a single frame
Sequence Structure containing the subVI
all within the while loop may be the most elegant solution of all.
How many engineers does it take to fix a VI? This thread seems to be
a very good advertisement for open source programming.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Parallel Loops (was More then one active Vi with open Front panel?)
Michael,
You wrote:
...I enjoy discussions on methodology and implementation
techniques... The issue lately is: single loop good, multiple loops
bad.
Without multiple loops you lose the parallelism that is the hallmark
of LabVIEW. Why would multiple loops be bad? If it's the block
diagram real estate taken up by the loop structure, you could hide
the loops in subVIs.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: NI-VISA Serial
Stanley Kieta asked: 1. Is there an easy way to include VISA with the Application Installer so the user only needs to run 1 install program? 2. I need the application to automatically find the comm ports on each user's PC. The "VISA resource name" control on my front panel lists these ports using the "ASRL1::INSTR" format. Is there any way to get the control to list the conventional "COM1" notation? I tried copying the visaconf.ini into the same directory as the executable but that did not work. From my library of forum snippets, it appears that Mihai Costache is the expert in question 1 with two postings (although Edwin Dickens echoes the advice). I'm including only the most recent (which seems to be better) here, but you can find the other with SearchVIEW if you'd like. Subject: RE: Communication Error in EXE using serial VISA From: "Mihai Costache" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:50:56 +1200 ... 1. Download visa260runtime.exe from the NI site. 2. While creating your application builder script, include it in your list of Support files. 3. Go to the Installer Setting tab, tick Create installer check-box, then click Advanced... button. 4. Tick the Run executable after installation check-box and type visa260runtime.exe in the Executable field. The VISA installation will begin straight after your application's complete installation, or after the LV run-time engine installation, if you choose to distribute that as well. Hope this helps, Mihai Costache Software Engineer OSCMAR International Ltd. PO Box 6008 Wellesley St. Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Tel: +64 - 9 - 379 0360 extn. 892 Fax: +64 - 9 - 373 9799 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.oscmar.com ... For question 2, Jürg Bögli, Edwin, and Dan Mondrik advise Mihai: Subject: Re: VISA confusing changes From: "Jürg Bögli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 09:54:18 +0200 Dear Mihai, You must define an alias for your ports. (COM1 --> VISA alias, ASRL1::INSTR --> VISA resource name. If MAX is installed on your machine you can use it to define the VISA alias of your ports. If MAX is not installed, you can manually edit the visaconf.ini file to define the alias for the ports. Assuming you have 2 COM and 1 LPT port type: Alias0 = "'COM1','ASRL1::INSTR'" Alias1 = "'COM2','ASRL2::INSTR'" Alias2 = "'LPT1','ASRL10::INSTR'" NumAliases = 3 in the [ALIASES] section. The format of a line is: ALIASx= "'Alias', 'Resource Name'" NumAliases must be set to the number of aliases. Unfortunately I don't know if it is possible to hide the LPT port in the VISA Resource Name I/O control... Jürg Bögli R&D en électronique Sonceboz SA CH - 2605 Sonceboz Tél: +41 32 488 11 - 70 Fax: - 00 www: http://www.sonceboz.com Subject: RE: VISA confusing changes From: "Dickens Edwin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 07:37:10 -0500 Mihai, I was just having this same problem with built exe files for customers that only have the runtime engine installed. I came up with a vi that can find the visaconf.ini file and edit it with the proper entries so the application will display Com1, Com2ect. instead of the ASRL1::INSTR. They are much happier with this than having to edit the file themselves. I've included the vi in private email. I've built this into an .exe so all the customer has to do is run it after installing the runtime engines. As the file sits right now, it sets up Com1-4 and LPT1. Only the Com ports that actually exist on the machine will show in the list. If you do not want LPT1 to show in the list, you'll need to change LPT1 to a space in the constant in the second for loop. This will cause a blank space in the list that can still be selected, but at least it does not say LPT1. If anybody else is interested in the vi, let me know and I'll send it out in a few days. -- Edwin O. Dickens DISTek Integration, Inc. On assignment to: John Deere Product Engineering Center phone: (319) 292-6372 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lvl 3, Aisle U, MS83A Subject: Re: VISA confusing changes From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 11:29:03 -0500 Peter, Jurg, et al: I would like to answer one question from the previous email chain. The question was basically, "Is it possible to hide the LPT port in the VISA Resource Name I/O control?" The answer is yes. Run MAX, expand the Ports section, right-click on LPT1, choose Properties, and uncheck the Enabled field at the bottom of the dialog. This will disable it from VISA, and it should no longer appear in the VISA list of found resources. It does not affect the ability of the OS to access the port, so you can still print, etc. Dan Mondrik Senior Software Engineer, NI-VISA National Instruments -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: MODBUS
oz,
Khalid's suggestion is a very good one.
I keep files of snippets from this forum on many subjects of personal
interest and am sending you (private email only) the MODBUS
collection.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: AW: More then one active Vi with open Front panel?
At 5:10 PM +0200 5/5/04, Gerd Rech wrote:
Couldn't I put the subvi's in a true case and nothing in the false case
within the separate while loops?
Control the case using a local (h, that bad word again) from the
state machine.
A queue, occurrence, or semaphore would avoid the bad word.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: More then one active Vi with open Front panel?
Gerd,
You asked,
...The main VI is basically a state machine waiting for user clicks to go to
one of the sub VIs, which e.g. displays a xy chart of measurements...
How can I get the main VI to commence working (not waiting for the chart
window to complete and return)?
Michael responded,
You will have to use VI Server to do this...
While Michael's approach will work and is probably preferable, I
think you might also accomplish the same thing by putting each of
your selectable subVIs in its own loop parallel to the state machine
loop. Use the state machine to enable the execution of the
appropriate subVI for one iteration of the subVI's loop. One loop
being held up until its subVI closes will not interfere with any
other loop, including the master state machine's.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: LV serial interface for Automationdirect GS2 drives?
Michael, You wrote: ...Unfortunately, MODBUS is one of those acronyms I have always read over quickly with out comprehending. Any advise or snippets will be appreciated. I am attaching (private email only) my collection of MODBUS snippets from this forum. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: caps-lock
David,
You asked:
...Does anyone ever use the caps-lock key?
Yes, it is very useful for entering registration codes with
hunt-and-peck typing.
Is there some way to disable
it other than hot-glue underneath, or electric shock to train myself
out of hitting it?
My wife was trained as a secretary on a real typewriter. My kids grew
up on computer keyboards. On the Atari 800, the "Atari" key replaced
the inner third of the right hand "shift" key. My wife would hit the
Atari key when reaching for the shift, doing something as innocuous
as deleting the entire 10 page report she was typing. I drilled a
small hole in the key cap flush with the keyboard housing. When my
wife used the computer, she slipped a small dressmakers' pin into the
hole, disabling the key and giving her tactile feedback that it was
disabled. She removed the pin when she was finished, allowing us
techies access to the full power of the keyboard. Worked like a charm!
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Reading sub-VI paths
At 3:16 PM +0100 4/14/04, Craig Graham wrote:
...When looking at things that I've downloaded or have been sent
through email,
I sometimes get a dialog popping up warning me that certain files were
loaded from a different path than they were expected to be at. I've never
bothered looking into it but it seems ideal for this purpose. Anyone know
under what conditions it appears?
The dialog is new in LabVIEW 7 and appears anytime something is found
in an unexpected place.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Consut in spanish.
Diego wrote that Daniel wrote: I am writing a program in which access to different screens through different options. The screen change is done through state-machines, closing the origin VI and opening the VI at which I enter. The problem ins on the screen changes, there is an intermediate state of flickering and many times it is visible in the Windows desktop. The question is: How it is possible to eliminate such flickering? In another words, Is it possible that the origin VI stays visible until the arrival Vi finishes opening itself? In your case, since a master program opens the new VI and closes the old one, the simplest fix would be for the master to open the new VI first, wait until its panel is open (checked using VI server), and then close the original VI. If there were no master program running, the same thing could be accomplished by having the original pass a reference to the second VI or have the second derive a reference to its caller and setting the second to close the original once it is fully open itself. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Reading sub-VI paths
Andreas, You wrote: ...I'm very curious but can't figure out a way to see what copy of "Out Port.vi" was loaded the last time my top VI was saved, since both copies I know of, seem to generate a change (*) in my top VI. So, I'm wondering if there is a way to look inside a VI and see the subVI paths. Not the paths in which the subVIs are found when loaded, but the paths that are stored in the top VI when saving to disk. While LabVIEW is looking for a subVI, it displays the path where it expected to find it. On slower computers, one could abort the search before a substitute was found and read the expected location. With the increases in computer speed, you'll have to temporarily move or rename all the "Out Port" VIs so that the computer searches long enough for you to abort the search or gives up and shows you the file open dialog. Move the dialog box, if necessary, and you should see the path where LabVIEW expected to find the subVI. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: SubVI Connection Description is the Caption?
LabVIEWers, I wrote: ...Before LV6.1, even setting an already invisible caption to be invisible (no change) would move the label. Actually, just reading the caption visible property is enough to cause the label to move to the alternate position when the panel is redrawn. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: SubVI Connection Description is the Caption?
Craig,
You wrote:
...It's caught me out before that (using the default positioning) if you
display both, then the label appears in its normal place and the caption to
the left, but if you display only the caption then it moves to the place
vacated by the label.
I find that it is the the label that moves to the left when you
display the caption as well. Before LV7, this happened even if the
label was not visible to start with. Before LV6.1, even setting an
already invisible caption to be invisible (no change) would move the
label. This caused some problems with my Resize utility.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: OpenG Coding Challenge - Remove Backspace
Paul Brown wrote: The best way to estimate your speed is to run both the example and your vi on your machine. Multiply the ratio of these by the speed of the example on the official machine (1008.6 ms). This should give you a decent prediction of your official time, despite the differences in hardware. "It ain't necessarily so." [Be thankful you can't hear my singing!] My entry is 10% slower under LV7 and OS X than under LV6 and OS 9, but the original example slows down 2.5X with the same change in environment. Not all types of code scale the same. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Large Fonts Part 2
Jim, You wrote: ...In our application, we found that if the 'Large Fonts' setting is ON in Windows; the Active X controls and the NI 'Application Fonts' are rescaled... - Make sure that every text font is set explicitly to an actual font. (We use 14 Verdana) Don't use the 'Application Font' or 'System Font' selections. These fonts will be rescaled. On the other hand, explicitly sized fonts will change wildly in moving between platforms (not an issue if you're using ActiveX). -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: more suggestions for list
Glenn, You asked: For users who receive the list in "list-mode" (1 big file), wouldn't the list be easier to read if it were sorted by subject (after accounting for the "Re:", "Re:RE" etc & "Fw" etc.) ? Not everyone manages to get the subject right every time, so a fully automated threading would miss some entries. I think the digest itself should be left as is. If you want a different format, create it locally (and maybe offer it to others). The simplest way to get the threaded effect is to open the digest in a word processor and search for each subject in turn. You could also create macros to actually resort the list into a threaded form. Speaking of macros, I maintain a cumulative digest for each month with a couple of WORD macros to disable grammar and spell checking (to kill all those distracting colored lines), append the new entry, and save the cumulation with a bookmark at the point I've left off. I'd be glad to supply them to anyone who'd like them. -- Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: your suggestions for the list - summaries
Mike,
You wrote:
I don't know how such a tradition can be instigated. Other than to
simply start doing it...
Summaries have been encouraged for as long as I have been on
Info-LabVIEW, but they have been few and far between. Perhaps a note
in the weekly reminder might occasionally jog a person's memory to
supply a summary--with the word SUMMARY in the subject.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: request from an experienced newbie.
Matt, You wrote: ...We have chosen LabView over Visual Basic as we think that LV ought to ... allow later modifications to be made more simply (by non-programmers) than having to wade through reams of hostile-looking code! --- Right or wrong?? RIGHT! The graphic nature of LabVIEW allows most of us (descendents of visual hunters) to more easily grasp the big picture (because it is a picture) in well-written LabVIEW code. Once you have the big picture, zoom in on the interesting areas by open subVIs. ...2) display messages to the user, depending on certain conditions (e.g. comms success/failure, reaching a certain point in the execution of the GPIB commands, etc.); There is an old utility available on the LabVIEW page of my web site (http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html) called Post It that I developed to keep operators informed about the progress of a test of a digital camera. It presents a dynamic list showing which loop of which subtest of which test is currently being executed. It grows without limit as you nest tests and then shrinks back to an appropriate level with a summary as you complete the nested elements. I found it quite useful for showing the operator both the forest and the trees. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Detecting Lurking VIs (was Confounded and Ranting)
LabVIEWers, The recent discussion has indicated the danger that VIs on the clipboard present for tangling projects. GhostBuster.vi, now available on http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html, flashes a large, red warning on your screen when the only VIs, Globals, and Type Defs in memory are invisible because they are on the clipboard, off screen, or have their front panels closed. The development environment looks free of leftover pieces, but it really isn't. You can even set it to detect panels that intrude somewhat onto the screen, in case you might not otherwise notice them. It's free as long as you don't intend to sell it to someone else. GhostBuster does not detect minimized VIs. I seem to recall a discussion about detecting that a VI has been minimized, but I cannot find it at the moment. If anyone can tell me how, I'll incorporate that feature in the next release of GhostBuster. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Let's have election!It is fun:)
Michael,
Here's another vote for plain text.
In addition to Scott's font problem and Urs' bandwidth problem (my
OFFICE connection is dial-up because Verizon has trouble delivering
even reliable voice service to our neighborhood), I have disabled
pictures to avoid the occasional explicit ad and I archive snippets
from the forum in a text only format that currently runs 22 Mbyte.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Decimal String to Number with DBL Default
LabVIEWers, One of my instruments returns readings as strings of fixed point numbers without any decimal point. That is, the instrument returns strings of integers and separately indicates where the decimal should be, same place for all readings. In my case, the decimal point is three places from the right end of the integer. If I use "Decimal String to Number" with an I32 zero as the default, convert "To Double Precision Float", and then "Divide" by 1000, everything works fine for positive and negative numbers. To save the conversion, I tried using a DBL zero as the default. For unsigned number strings, this works fine as well, but if the string starts with a + or a -, the string doesn't convert and I get the default value (LV5 to LV7). Does anyone know why this happens? Is it a bug? Using the "Frac/Exp String to Number" also works, but my input string is more limited than what that allows and I'd rather do the tighter parsing imposed by converting to a decimal integer. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Digital Control and Indicator Background Color
Ken,
Marco Tedaldi wrote:
Jacoby, Kenneth wrote:
I would like to programmatically control the background color of the digital
controls and indicators on my front panel, but I cannot find that property
listed on the property node for the indicators/controls.
You can change it in the proterty node under "numeric text"/"text
colors"/"BG Color" (in Version 6i and 7)...
Numeric Text.Text Colors controls the color of the text and the
background color of the text box. Numeric Text.Colors controls the
foreground and background colors of the text box (almost, but not
quite, partially redundant). But there does not seem to be any
property to control the colors of the indicator frame, although both
foreground and background can be changed with the paint brush.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Detecting Lurking VIs
LabVIEWers,
One more update to Ghost Buster.vi,
http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW/GhostBuster.zip. The previous LV7
version, sometimes under Windows XP and always under Mac OS X,
managed to snatch a second reference to the launcher before it left
memory. This didn't cause any problems in this application, but it
might in a future application if someone used Ghost Buster as a
model. With Jim Kring's help, the problem has been identified and
fixed. The VIs have also been reorganized and more fully commented to
make them easier to understand.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Detecting Lurking VIs (was Confounded and Ranting)
LabVIEWers,
GhostBuster.vi has been fixed to run on all versions of LabVIEW from
6 through 7. If you have the version that uses Simple Error
Handler.vi, please download the revised version from
http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html.
GhostBuster still does not detect minimized VIs. If anyone can tell
me how to do so, I'll incorporate that feature in the next release.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Detecting Lurking VIs (was Confounded and Ranting)
Thanks, Rolf. I thought about trying an iteration on "callees" so that the scheme would work even if more functionality (and thus more subVIs) were added. (I got caught first by Simple Error Handler calling General Error Handler.) Originally, I had hoped to avoid subVIs entirely, but I managed to trigger errors myself and figured they better give some feedback to the user. The "Caller in memory" sounds like it might be a practical solution. Iteration on "Callees" looks messy. Maybe a simpler response than the Simple Error Handler is best. I'll look at it tomorrow. ...I just tested it but in LabVIEW 6.1 and higher the General Error Handler.vi has some more subVIs for it's internal user error code database and therefore your VI will always pop-up. Not sure how to fix that LabVIEW version dependant. Maybe try to avoid any VI in the list which has any Caller in memory? Rolf Kalbermatter CIT Engineering Nederland BVtel: +31 (070) 415 9190 Treubstraat 7H fax: +31 (070) 415 9191 2288 EG Rijswijkhttp://www.citengineering.com Netherlands mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ...> GhostBuster.vi, now > available on http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html, flashes a large, red warning on your screen when the only VIs, Globals, and Type Defs in memory are invisible because they are on the clipboard, off > screen, or have their front panels closed... -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Serial instrument simulation of data
Brett,
You wrote:
I have been working with a vi witch connects to a serial port and reads load
and displacement, how can I simulate the type of data I would normally be
receiving , so that I can test everything thoroughly, without actually
connecting to the instrument at work.
One of the nicest things about LabVIEW is that it allows you to
create easily "stubs", dummy VIs with the same connector pattern at
the real ones, to replace external equipment. I commonly simulate
serial port writes and reads with very simple VIs in which large
front panel string controls and indicators allow you to specify and
observe any character sequence you can imagine. This is readily
extended to simulated real data by using the LabVIEW sine and random
functions driving these controls through the appropriate formatting
functions. The LabVIEW express VIs offer an even easier way to mimic
real data.
I'm attaching (private email only) a set of such VIs from a LV3
project , converted to LV6. Since they have the same names as the
built-in VIs they replace, make sure that all 11 stubs load from the
Stubs.llb.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Detecting Lurking VIs
Jim,
At 6:02 PM + 3/9/04, Jim Kring wrote:
... the problem is fixed by removing the RefNum from the ConPane, which
doesn't seem to have any negative implications for your App.
I was originally using a call by reference node and passing the
launcher's reference to the callee through the ConPane, so that was
just a leftover and you are correct that it can be removed. The
revised code will be posted shortly.
Thanks,
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: How to get the name and status of the windows, programmatically?
Hamid, You wrote: I need to get the name of all the windows that are open. Also, I need to find out the status of the windows i.e. Which one of them is maximized or minimized? How can I find out which window is "active"? It is not clear if you mean all the windows of all programs or just all LabVIEW VI panels. In the former case, I can't help you. The LabVIEW Application has a property called "All VIs in Memory" which provides the names of those VIs. In LabVIEW 7, each VI has a property called "Front Panel Window State" which has values including "Standard", "Minimized", and "Maximized". In earlier versions, only the Front Panel Window Open property exists and there does not appear to be an easy way to determined minimized or maximized windows. The "Front Panel Window is Frontmost" property will tell you which is "active". You can see examples of the use of these properties in Copy/Paste Boolean Attributes (http://www.openg.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Copy-Paste+Boolean+Attributes) on the OpenG site and in Edit Panel Elements and Ghost Buster on my site (http://www.sullutions.com/LabVIEW.html), among others. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Detecting Lurking VIs
LabVIEWers,
Prodded by Dan Bookwalter and assured by Rolf Kalbermatter that I was
not overlooking the obvious, I have upgraded Ghost Buster to launch
different code for different versions of LabVIEW. The new release
warns of minimized VIs in LabVIEW 7 and up. Visit
http://www.sullutions.com/LabVIEW.html to read about the improvements
and download the new version (royalty free for personal or company
internal use).
In LabVIEW 7.0 on my Mac, the launcher stays in memory, even though I
think I have killed all references to it. In 6.02 and 6.1, the
launcher leaves as soon as Ghost Buster 6 is running, as I expect. If
you know what I am doing wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it
in the next version.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Links to Info-LabVIEW status information
LabVIEWers,
At Brian Renken's suggestion, I have made the Info-LabVIEW status
information on my site easier to access by increasing the size of the
text and moving it to its own page,
http://www.sullutions.com/LabVIEW/Info-LabVIEW.html. There is a link
to this location from the old one.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Detecting Lurking VIs (was Confounded and Ranting)
Dan,
At 2:12 PM -0500 3/4/04, Bookwalter, Dan wrote:
Can you use the FP State property to tell you if the panel is minimized ?
Yup, and now that I look at the help screen, I'm sure I used that for
something else just a few days ago, but I can't remember what for!
The remaining problem with the FP State property is that it isn't
available before LV7, or at least isn't documented then. I'll do some
playing around and let you know what comes of it.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Good Programming Practice?
George et al., A somewhat dated but functional example of using LV2-style globals to move GUI code out of the main VI is downloadable from my LabVIEW page (http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html) as, appropriately, "GUI as SubVI". I don't think there is anything there that others have not already described, but sometimes it helps to see a concrete example. Sorry to be late to the discussion, but I've been on vacation. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: making elements of a Boolean array invisible or disabled
Glenn,
You wrote:
How do I make individual elements of a Boolean array invisible or disabled
but not the entire array?
I'm pretty sure you can't, but I accomplished the disabled effect by
overlaying individual controls aligned with each of the array
elements and making selected overlays visible and "disabled and
grayed". I'm sure you could substitute decorations to fake the
invisible effect. The alignment code is shown at
http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW/ArrayCellLocations.gif . Args2 are
the individual elements overlaid on the array Arguments 2.
I've attached (private email only) the VI illustrated in the .gif
(less its subVIs), should you care to experiment with this approach.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Front panel objects
Brett,
You wrote:
... I want to make the stop button blink red when the current value
is less than
the peak value therefore showing the sample has failed. I have been working
with the property node blinking property node, and using the comparison Less
< , but cant seem to get any result ...
Both the rectangular and the round stop buttons on the classic
controls palette blink between red printing on a gray background and
gold printing and outline on a red background. The 3d stop button
blinks to a gold background with no printing. I find the 2d effect
acceptable but don't like the 3d one.
If you want a different set of colors, you'll have to set up a
pseudo-blink. In a while loop with a 1000ms or so delay, toggle
between your favorite sets of foreground and background color pairs
when the sample has failed. Make sure you select the appropriate
color pairs when the sample is good.
If you need an example or more help, write me directly.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Chip Programming Using DIO Card
Alex,
You wrote:
... I am unsure exactly how you setup a DIO card to do this transfer
given that the data must be 100ns offset from the clock pulse and
held for a minimum period of 100ns.
A crude way to meet the setup time is to update the data and raise
the clock pulse simultaneously on the card, but feed the clock to
your equipment through a hundred feet (or so) of cable. As long as
the clock period is greater than 200ns, you'll meet the hold time.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Confounded and Ranting
George, You wrote: ... I have been working with LabVIEW for a long time now and I still find myself baffled by labviews sneaky way of linking things together... So often I have had two very similar projects and ... I wind up having to rename all of the files with some clever prefix, but when there are more than say two files it really starts to irk me. Because it is not enough to rename them in windows... then you have to go around replacing everything... The OpenG package building suite has some name-mangling tools that automate the process of adding a project-dependent suffix to all the VIs in the project. Once you get things untangled, this is a quick way to keep them untangled. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: test message
Dan et al.,
If you suspect that something is wrong with your connection to
Info-LabVIEW, you can get additional information by checking my site
(http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html) or Uwe Frenz's
(http://www.getemed.net/lvis/LVInfoStat.html) to see which
Info-LabVIEW digests each of us has received and which we have
missed. The sites are independent but cross-linked to make it easy to
detect a problem on our side rather than Info-LabVIEW's. Uwe's site
is updated automatically. Mine is done manually, typically by noon
GMT, but the dates posted will let you know if I have slept in or am
on vacation (as I was a week ago).
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: BUGs
Greg,
You wrote, in very small part:
... units in LV is a unique experiment unlike what I've seen
in other programming languages or engineering tools. It works
incredibly well and efficiently for most things, but ...
Bugs or no bugs, units has been a God-send to me, flagging my
attempts to get a force by multiplying a mass and a velocity, for
instance.
The young'uns figure they'd never make such a stupid mistake but us
old codgers know we need all the protection we can get. And only
LabVIEW provides this one. Thanks, NI.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: 60MS/sec- is this possible?
E. Blasberg wrote:
... they're expecting very large peaks on the order of microseconds
and they were afraid that too low a sampling rate would miss the true
peak.
An analog sample-and-hold can be configured to capture transient
peaks accurately and greatly reduce the load on the computer.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: For the wish list
David Ferster wrote: ...I must be a bad designer because I do just what you are saying is a no-no, which is to leave a small amount of real estate blank. The error indicators stay invisible until an error condition occurs, so that the panel is not cluttered with indicators for rarely occurring things. Sometimes I use "ugly" error indicators, and more often I use more elegant indicators, like a red or yellow square LED's with text... From the operator's point of view, I like to know what's coming and dislike having things pop out at me from nowhere. The "Disabled and Grayed" state is my favorite. The indicator is subdued until it is needed, but everyone knows it is there. Sometimes I'll stack infrequently used indicators on top of each other with one grayed and the others invisible. The user doesn't know what might pop up but at least knows something is there. For your more elegant design, I'd suggest that switching an LED indicator from off to on is nearly as attention getting as making it appear but not so startling. From the programmer's point of view, invisible indicators are more easily misplaced and hidden under others or off-screen than grayed-out ones when a program is upgraded, especially if the upgrade is done by someone other than the original author. Michael Aivaliotis wrote: ... I think in general, any input that accepts a boolean should accept the error cluster and operate based on the error logic. The Select primitive is one function that does accept the error cluster as an input. I often use it to choose between enabled and grayed constants. Showing labels for these constants neatly documents the diagram. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Standalone application installation
Shankar Subramanian,
Your development system license for the application builder covers
installation of the run time system on a client's machine. Additional
licenses are required for some of the add-on toll kits.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: LabVIEW 7 Numeric Display precision - or Please Kill me now!
Jack,
You wrote:
Whos the darn fool at NI that set the default mode for numeric displays to
Hide Trailing Zeros.
...And dont start that modify your Ini line I work on many different
computers and cant go customizing the modifying every single one.
I'm not sure it's any easier than modifying the
.ini file, but at least it is unlikely that
someone will modify it back if you put a
customized control in you user.lib.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Filter
Shankar,
You asked:
... Can a subVI say "Filter.vi" be called simultaneously with
different input values?
Unless a subVI is reentrant, it will finish operating on one set of
inputs before starting on another. You can call multiple copies
simultaneously but they will execute sequentially.
If you wire your three channels of acquired data to three parallel
copies of Filter.vi and wire the filtered outputs all to the same
graph, data flow will prevent the instances of Filter.vi from running
until their respective data are ready and require then all to
complete before the graph is plotted. If all the channel data are
available at the same time, the channels will be processed one after
the other, but with no predetermined order. From the point of view of
the graph or the data acquisition, the filters will appear to run in
parallel, but the fine details will show the channels being processed
in series.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Bird's Eye View Utility Available
LabVIEWers, This didn't go yesterday, so I'm trying again. (This should put PJM's posting answering my questions in context.) I finally got a chance to play with PJM's excellent Bird's Eye View utility on my Mac under OS X. (Thanks, PJM.) If you've had problems with version 1.0.0, try 1.0.1; it seems to run fine on the Mac. There are two things that puzzle me about the utility and I wonder if anyone can explain them to me. When I tried to close version 1.0.0, LabVIEW popped up a message box saying, "Resetting VI: Bird's Eye View.vi," and hung. Since this does not happen with version 1.0.1, where a number of race conditions were fixed, I presume that something was getting in something else's way, but does anyone know what it means to "reset" a VI and what might have caused it to occur here? Secondly, none of the VIs in the hierarchy are visible in the hierarchy window or in the "Unopened VIs" list. How do you do that? (They don't show as "SystemVIs" either.) -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: I Really Like Event Structures, But...
Cat,
You wrote, in small part:
...I started out with arrays, but the users complained about indicators
existing for non-existent sensors. I don't know of any way to make
individual array elements invisible??
It's probably not the best solution for your particular project, but
individual array element could be made invisible using the procedure
I posted last week in response to a query from Dan Bookwalter:
For one of my projects I had to overlay individual controls with
specific elements in a 1D array of similar controls. I derived the
array pitch and offsets from the Top, Height, and NumRows properties
of the array and the Left and NumText.Size properties of one of its
elements. The attached VI (private email only and without 200 subVIs)
shows how I did that. The pertinent code is shown on my web site at
http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW/ArrayCellLocations.gif, lower left
corner.
In my original application, I was dealing with various possible
commands that took different numbers of arguments as array members
and I overlaid greyed out controls for arguments not used by the
current command.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: debugging reentrant executions
Uwe, You wrote: ...1. Those reentrant daemons have a non-reentrant subvi as a LV2-style global. Will this LV2Global run just in one instance as expected, e.g. can I rely on its display? A non-reentrant subVI behaves normally even when called by a reentrant subVI. While the reentrant subVIs can run in parallel, any portions data dependent on the non-reentrant subVI will be serialized. This can be used to protect resources from multiple simultaneous access, for instance. Its panel display is reliable. ...3. If, as in my case, a reentrant daemon does not stop as expected, is there a save way to shut it down? How about the OpenG Kill All VIs tool. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Close aplications.
Daniel, You asked: How can I do to close an aplication in LabView and close windows and turn off PC. My connection of snippets from this forum has this from a couple of years ago: Subject: Late response on exiting Windows Programmatically From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 11:03:27 +0100 Sorry for my late response but today I finally caught up with 2 weeks of info-labview. I've looked into this a couple of weeks ago since I wanted to run my built LabVIEW application as the shell and shutdown the computer when the program quits. To exit windows under win98 and WinMe you should call the ExitWindowsEx function in shell32.dll. You could use the rundll.exe program like this: rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx n where n is one, or a combination of, the following numbers: 0 - LOGOFF, 1 - SHUTDOWN, 2 - REBOOT, 4 - FORCE, 8 - POWEROFF I haven't tested it because I only have one Win95 machine here but I found it here: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q234/2/16.ASP Under WindowsNT look at the MSDN reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/sysmgmt/shutdown_5q25.htm It says that you need shutdown rights before you are allowed to shutdown the system, otherwise you will just log off. To get these rights you have to request them, every user can get shutdown rights for the local machine but you need administrator rights on the remote machine to do a remote shutdown (a remote shutdown is where you tell another computer then the one you are currently working on to poweroff). To get the rights to shutdown for your program you need to do some C-programming, maybe you could also do everything from LabVIEW. What I did I copied the source code found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/sysmgmt/shutdown_7z8u.htm and put into a CIN (with some modification so I could specify the kind of shutdown I wanted (logoff, Windows Exit or complete power off). Then to really power down (if your hardware supports it) you should make a change in your registry found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/winresource/dnwinnt/s8554.htm HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\PowerdownAfterShutdown -> "1" or download a utility from your computer vendor which enables poweroff after windows exit. Alternatively you can also download/use the WinNT Resource kit where you will find the shutdown.exe utility which will request the proper rights for you and poweroff if you start it with: shutdown.exe 3 /powerdown http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q186/5/57.ASP I've made a little VI which will check if you run the development environment in which case it will check if you have made some unsaved changes and if not exit only LabVIEW. If you are running the runtime environment it will try to power down the system depending on Win9X or WinNT method. I haven't tried it on every platform and also I know that if you try to powerdown on a system that does not support it it will reboot under Windows95 instead of show the "it is now safe to turn off your computer" screen. But that would require some extra work and it already serves my purpose on the Dell WinNT machines I use (using the dell system utilities v.13) If you're interested let me know. Remco. Hope it helps some. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: Greg's Car - salt lick
Sorry, but I had to observe that combination in the subject brings to
mind New England today rather than Texas in summer.
Subject: RE: Greg's Car - salt lick
From: "Michael Aivaliotis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:58:11 -0500
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Icons
Daniel,
You wrote:
I am creatting icons by my aplication in LabView and they are really
beattyfull... but each icon is 1.5 Mbyte. I have built them in paint
(.bmp).
How could I do to reduce, less change quality colors?
1.5 Mbyte sounds very large for a 32x32 icon but, if it really is
icons you want, Microangelo is a very good product for handling them
on a Windows machine. (On the Mac, I use Resourcerer or
Iconographer.) All of these products accept .bmp files or, at least,
allow copy and paste from a bit map image. If these are really larger
images, rather than icons, you'll probably need something more
powerful like Photoshop or Debabelizer to convert from .bmp to
something more compact like .jpg or .gif.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Edit Panel Elements
Sorry, that link should have been http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Edit Panel Elements
LabVIEWers,
Have you ever needed to manipulate decorations programmatically? Have
you had trouble determining which indices to use? Once you had the
right indices, did editing make them change? Find Decorations.vi is
an editing tool that can help by flashing each decoration, even
invisible ones, as you step trough their indices, then return them to
their original states.
Do you need to make selected front panel elements match in width or
height without LabVIEW 7? Resize.vi is an editing tool that provides
much the same capability as LabVIEW 7's resize palette, but it is
written in LabVIEW 6.02.
Both act on the VI whose front panel has most recently had the focus
and, if your environment supports it, float on top of all other
LabVIEW windows. They are combined with Jim Kring's Copy-Paste
Boolean Attributes.vi in Edit Panel Elements.llb, a candidate for an
OpenG project, newly available from
http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW, and they're free.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Managing VISA Resources
George, You wrote: I am trying to find a way to hide some of the book-keeping associated with VISA references... I want to make ... some very high level VIs like "Get Wavefrom", "Move Motor", "Get Spectrum", etc... but maintain similar efficiency as a VI that passes the reference all over the place... I'd highly recommend looking at the LabVIEW Component Oriented Design (LCOD) presented in "A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW" by Conway and Watts. It sounds like that is exactly what you're trying to do. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: EmStop
Shankar, You wrote: I have a subVI that needs an emergency stop. Once this stop is pressed, the VI should stop running. The subVI has several loops running sequentially. I want this " EmStop" button to take effect no matter at which execution point the VI is. A long while ago I made a LV2 style global to do just that. It is called "Running Global" and is available for download from the very bottom of my LabVIEW page, http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW.html. The VI description details its use. -- Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit
Re: Finding the position of a table cell from its Edit Position Property
Dan, You asked: Anyone have a slick way of determining the position of a Table Cell from its Edit Position (row,column) property ? For one of my projects I had to overlay individual controls with specific elements in a 1D array of similar controls. I derived the array pitch and offsets from the Top, Height, and NumRows properties of the array and the Left and NumText.Size properties of one of its elements. The attached VI (private email only and without 200 subVIs) shows how I did that. The pertinent code is shown on my web site at http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW/ArrayCellLocations.gif, lower left corner. I would think that extending this to a 2D table would be straightforward. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Caputring points on a threshold
Patrick, You wrote: ... we would like to capture the values that cross a set (Y) threshold and then save them to a separate array along with their (X) value. You can use the Threshold 1D Array primitive in a loop, feeding the fractional index output back to the start index input through a shift register, but be careful. You must ignore any value where the fractional index matches the start index or you will recover all points above the threshold. If the start index matches, increment it before feeding back. Stop the loop when the fractional index is NaN. There is a diagram at http://www.SULLutions.com/LabVIEW/ThresholdDetection.gif. If you need any more info, just ask. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: State machine diagram editor
Paul,
You wrote:
>Beware though that if you have enum items set {"da","moo"} and
>supply a string "dada" or "mooable", no error is returned...
I handle this problem via the case structure's Default case. With string
driven state machines, my default case is always "invalid case." If a
string does not exactly match the state names, the structure executes the
default case ("invalid case") which generates an error and gives the
invalid string. I find this very helpful for debugging as well.
With an enum-based machine, avoiding a Default case let's you know
whether you've included all the desired cases at programming time.
Everything's a tradeoff.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Write to File
Shankar, You wrote: I have a loop that acquires data from NI DAQ and writes data to a text file. 'Acquiring' and 'writing to file' stages are separate sub VIs inside a loop. As soon as set of 'N' data is acquired, it is sent to write to file subVI to write in File 'X'. The process is repeated until acquisition is done for say, "t" seconds. I wanted to write the data into two files inside the "Write to File" subVI. For this I just send a File refnum to the subVI and write data to a second file (File 'Y') after writing the first (File 'X'). I use a "flush file" command for both of them... When I write to one file only, scan backlog stays at zero and acquisition happens properly. When I include the code for the second file too, scan backlog increases... Could anyone let me know as to what I am doing wrong here? The likely problem is that acquiring a sample and writing two files to disk takes more than one sample time. The question is, "What to do about it?" The answer is, "Several things." 1. With the acquisition and storage VIs both in the same loop, they have to run sequentially. Put them in separate loops so that they can run in parallel. It is almost always wise to do this. This works because a write to a disk takes a long time but not much processor overhead. The processor can work on the acquisition while the disk controller is handling the storage. Use an intelligent global, queue, or ordinary global to transfer the data from the acquisition loop to the storage loop. 2. It sounds like you call the storage VI twice, once with each of the two different files specified. This causes these two writes to be sequential. Make two separate VIs, make the VI reentrant, or combine the two by making the VI reentrant and wrapping it in two different shell VIs for the two channels. depending on your needs and comfort level. Now the processor can set up one transfer while the disk controller is trying to find the right sector on the disk for the other. 3. Don't flush too often. The actual transfer to the disk is what takes most of the time. The "write to disk" operations normally just write to the disk buffer, which is very fast. When the operating system thinks it's necessary, when you close the file, or when you flush the file, that buffer is transferred to the disk. If the computer crashes in the meantime, you lose all the data in the buffers. (If it crashes before you close the file, you can recover the flushed data with certain utilities. Since flushing is much faster than closing, it is commonly used to save a little computer time over and over again at the risk of very rarely wasting a lot of your time.) Unless your data is extremely valuable, don't flush the buffer after each write. Accumulate data over a period that is reasonable to lose in the unlikely event that the computer will crash. In most cases, flushing every minute takes essentially no net time (milliseconds per minute) and puts only a minute's data at risk. If your data is very valuable (e.g.. crash test data), write the data as it is acquired over a network to a backup computer as well and store it both places in parallel or use something more reliable than a computer to capture the data. Hope this helps. If anything is unclear, just ask. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: State machine diagram editor
At 9:59 AM -0600 1/19/04, Scott Serlin wrote: Can you elaborate further on where the OpenG toolkit can be found with the "Set Enum String Value" VI? It's not an NI package. It's available through http://www.openg.org/, where you'll find the information. In the box on the right side of the screen just below search, click Downloads. That will redirect you to http://sourceforge.net/projects/opengtoolkit/ for the actual download, where you'll probably want "all_packages" but could get along with only lib_lvdata and lib_err. Set Enum String Value is in the lvdata.llb. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: State machine diagram editor
At 10:31 AM -0800 1/18/04, PJ M wrote: ...>The OpenG toolkit has a "Set Enum String Value" VI ... One can also just use the "Scan From String" primitive with the enum type def constant as the "default value 1" and the string you want to set as "input string". This way "output 1" will return the enum type def with the "input string" value. Ouch! How could I have missed that? As long as you watch the error output for error 85 (the string is not an element of the enum), it works great. Even in LV 5.1, which is as far back as I have on this machine. Thanks to this forum, I'm getting less stupid every day. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: State machine diagram editor
Lew,
I really like your premise and architecture:
An important point is that any state diagram (and logic) that you use to
control a process should be related to the process and not to internal
computer program states or actions...
In the most general case, I use 4 asynchronous loops running in parallel and
accessing the same "Task" queue (which contains strings indicating which
task is to be executed)...
The only thing I'd do differently is to use type def enums for the
process state and for the task queue to catch misspellings during the
programming phase. (On older version of LabVIEW, the enums can be
converted to and from strings for the queue, either with the
flattening functions or with the Format to String and the OpenG VI.)
I'd argue that your task loop is really a state machine that handles
the "computer program states" you reference in your first sentence.
Keeping the two machines explicitly separate really clarifies the
programming.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: State machine diagram editor
Mark,
You wrote:
... I use string driven
state machines instead of enum type defs when I want to create a scriptable
state machine. That is, the state sequence is driven by a text file that
has information about what order the states are executed. This means the
test sequence can be modified in the field using any text editor...
The OpenG toolkit has a "Set Enum String Value" VI that would allow a
text script to run an enum-based sate machine. I didn't know about
the OpenG VI when I first needed this capability so I built a "Set
Enum with String" VI that works with control references. If you'd
like that, just let me know.
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Landscape graph in a word report
V. P. Nair wrote:
Is there any way I can make my graph display (and print) in landscape
orientation when my rest of the report is portrait?
If you make the graph a separate section (Insert>>Break>>Section
Break), you can Format>>Document>>Page Setup>>Landscape Print
applying only to the selected section. Does that help?
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
RE: ScrollBar
Shankar, You wrote: ... Is there a way I can open a subVI FP, at particular coordinates or something similar to that such that it always shows "Start" and does an automatic scrolling? And Kelly responded: It looks like you can use a property node for the VI and select the property "Front Panel Window:Origin". I haven't tried this but you should be able to make the panel scroll by changing the values in the cluster... I had a lot of trouble figuring out just what properties had to to set to what. "Resize Front Panel Elements", just posted to my site, sizes it's own window to show different buttons under different circumstances. The code in the "Initialize" and "Resize window" states should show you how to do it very explicitly. Resize.vi runs when opened, so you'll have to halt it first with a CTRL-. (or CMD-.) to be able to open the diagram. And for those of you who would like to make selected front panel elements match in width or height and don't have LabVIEW 7 yet, try this utility. -- EnWirementally, Paul F. Sullivan SULLutions (781)769-6869 "when a single discipline is not enough" visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Building functions.
Daniel,
Would examples>>math>>math.llb>>1D Explorer Example.vi in the full or
professional version help?
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
Re: Best Layout for Large Scale Process Control App
Eric,
Here's another vote for "A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW".
Their LabVIEW Component Oriented Design (LCOD) concept is very much
like OOP, but their recommendation for putting all "constants" in a
configuration file is not, AFAIK, included in the OOP rules.
Configuration files are a perfect way to handle your comment:
... In the future, I would like to do as little individual changes
as possible (such as changing constants, array sizes, etc throughout
the top-level an sub-vis), and have everything be as dynamic as
possible (change a couple of cluster sizes and maybe reorder or be
able to change a value in some central location...
--
EnWirementally,
Paul F. Sullivan
SULLutions (781)769-6869
"when a single discipline is not enough"
visit http://www.SULLutions.com
