Allow project explorer window to be pinned

[ToeCutter]

I have a large library of general purpose functions and I do a lot of OOP in LabVIEW, and as a result my preferred workflow involves dragging a lot of functions from the project explorer window onto the block diagram. This workflow is slowed down, however by the fact that the project explorer window is regularly hidden by other windows when I click on them.

What I would like to see is something like most development IDEs have, e.g. Visual Studio, where I can have the project explorer always visible in a fixed position on the screen. I suggest this would be an option, so would not affect those who like things the way they currently are.

[Sam_Sharp]

I agree, but I think this is covered by this idea.

[fabric]

Sam: Kind of, but that doesn't negate this idea! 🙂 The scope of this idea is well defined and it would be extremely simple to implement on its own. Jack's older idea is extremely broad and unfortunately is going to take some years...

[ToeCutter]

What fabric said- from what I gathered (and I may be talking tosh, or thinking may have moved on) a lot of users when asked were specifically against a complete overhaul like Jack mentions. I would be happy with that and voted for it way back, but there's nothing stopping voting for this idea as well. I agree with fabric that this is simpler and therefore has maybe a better chance of being considered.

[JackDunaway]

 +1! Anyhow, that crusty old idea is ostensibly "Declined" 

[Sam_Sharp]

I know - hence why I also added kudos to this idea 🙂

[X.]

Use a second monitor?

[ToeCutter]

Second monitor- that works for me when I have access to one, which is not always the case for myself and I presume many others.

[Dan_Lauber]

The "LabVIEW Notebook" approach looked awesome, but if I recall correctly it ran into lots of fiddly problems with front panels - since the number of features that expect the FP to be it's own window makes it non-trivial to smush into another window. That said, I like this suggestion a ton, it's much lighter weight and doesn't force anybody to change a workflow they like.

Refined version:
A.  Allow any non-modal LV IDE window (Project, palette, help, any VI front panel) to be snapped/docked to a screen edge or the edge of another LV window
B.  A window mode icon in the snapped window's titlebar to configure window behavior as follows:

•  Docked: Other LV windows will only size/arrange in the space not occupied by docked window(s) (as if window edge were the monitor edge). 
•  Always-on-top: Other LV windows layout as usual, may be obscured by docked window
•  Normal: Acts like normal, just use the snapping functions to assist in window placement.

C.  A Docked window must occupy the full length of its docked edge. 
D.  A single edge may be shared by multiple windows, in which case they'll split the length of that edge (can adjust size)

This gives 90% of the behavior I'd actually like from a single-window IDE, while simplifying the implementation significantly.

[Jolt]

While not negating this idea and not considering multiple projects open at the same time one of the first things I do in a new LV IDE is to set "Ctrl + P" to the menu item Window >> Show Project. 

In this way I can very quickly get to the active project window wherever I am (and nobody I know needs a "Print" shortcut for LabVIEW dev).

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I also like this idea (gave kudos a while back).

There is another existing shortcut key you can use -- on any VI, ctrl+shift+E takes you to that VI in the project tree. I use this a lot. It has the effect of bringing the project to the foreground, and often what I'm looking for is near the VI that I'm working on.