Create an API for the Connection Diagram

[Hooovahh]

In MAX if you create a virtual channel, you can select the channel and then go to the connection diagram tab to see a preview of how to hook up a sensor to a particular channel.  It doesn't work for all hardware and channels but it seems to support more and more hardware with each release of DAQmx.

This is super useful for troubleshooting, and a great way to just see if something is hooked up right.  Another use case I can see is to instead of selecting an existing virtual channel to preview, pick a DAQ card (by model) then have a listbox of physical channels.  Selecting the physical channel can then change the image showing how to hook up to the input or output.  Here is the existing diagram in MAX.

Additionally this can be improved by being able to select multiple physical or virtual channels and see them at the same time, which can give a feel for what pins are being used, and what channels are available.

But what I REALLY want, is the ability to generate these images, for my own use programmatically.  Either for documentation, or in the application.  If a technician is troubleshooting a tester they could click on something in my application which shows the connection diagram, and opens a test panel.  Or if I have a calibration routine I can show step by step instructions on how to calibrate the I/O with diagrams that are made on the fly for the I/O that they are calibrating.  These might be for virtual channels, or tasks that aren't saved in MAX.  I'd really envision an API where I give a piece of hardware by the model number, provide a terminal block if applicable, and then give a physical channel on that hardware and out would come the connection diagram image.  It would be even better if I could provide an array of physical channels so one image could be generated which shows all the connections to that piece of hardware.

NI clearly put effort into making the user experience in MAX, and the DAQ assistant easy to use, please just allow us to make user experiences that are also easy to use for our users.

EDIT:  Oh it seems that there is some support for multiple physical channels on one image, as shown by the document here.

[Darren]

Any idea that has not received any kudos within a year after posting will be automatically declined. 

[TomOrr0W]

I would like to Kudos this, but I cannot.

That being said, I remember seeing something like this when someone was showing me some NXG features.  I am not sure if it was only available to the programmer or was also available to the user/to be added to documentation.