LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Hi!

Maybe this has been already requested elsewhere and I'm missing it....

but it would be useful to have a Wait (ms) with connectors for error in and out.

This can help keeping the BD clean...

Marco

Instead of the two step process of wiring an input on the Connector Pane and then changing the terminal setting to Required through the right-click menu, holding down the Ctrl key while wiring the input will automatically set the terminal to Required.

I know there's a LabVIEW option to set all terminals to Required as default, but I usually use a mix of Required, Recommended and Optional.

Recently LabVIEW has added the following feature: When creating a new wire, double-clicking creates a terminal. This can be an indicator or a control, depending on what was selected. If the wire was started from a data sink (a structure tunnel or a subVI or node input terminal), holding down the Ctrl key while double-clicking creates a constant. This is very useful and saves time. Kudos!

When working with cluster wires, it would be useful if an Unbundle By Name node could be created by:

1. Start creating a new cluster wire or wire branch

2. Hold down a modifier key (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or a combination thereof) and double-click

Step 1: Start creating a cluster wire

Step 2 - current behaviour: double-clicking creates a terminal. This is useful. Holding modifier keys down (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) does not alter the behaviour.

Step 2 - desired behaviour: Holding modifier key + double-click creates Unbundle By Name node

Notes

• Creating UBN nodes is a common, repetitive action when working with clusters. This gesture would save time.
• The screenshots above show a cluster wire being created starting from a control terminal. The gesture should, of course, work regardless of which object the wire branch was started from (e.g. tunnel, subVI output terminal, etc).
• Perhaps the idea can be expanded to creating Bundle By Name nodes. Perhaps one modifier key (e.g. Ctrl) would create a UBN node, while another key (e.g. Alt) would create a BBN node.

Typical question in development process: "How quickly does my code execute? What runs faster... Code A or Code B?" So, if you're like me, you throw in a quick sequence that looks like this:

AHHH! What a mess! It's so hard to fit it in, with FP real estate so packed these days!

We need this:

 Just like my other idea, and for simplicity's sake NI, I would be PERFECTLY happy even if you had to set up the probes during edit mode, and were not able to "probe" while running.

 As a bonus, this idea may be extrapolated into n timing probes, where you can find delta t between any two of the probes.

Currently if you right click on a subVI from the block diagram and choose properties, it brings up the Object Properties dialog.  The only options you can change there are label options, which can easily be changed in the "Visible Items" submenu.  I can't think of one time when this has ever been what I wanted out of this action.  Instead, I think this action should open up the VI Properties Window for the VI.  

This is not directly a LabVIEW idea, but it is still an idea that impacts many LabVIEW programmers.

To keep my distribution small, I distribute my installers without run-time engine and instruct the users to download and install the relevant run-time engine. I provide a link to the run-time download page.

Note that these users are NOT NI customers and not interested in any NI products. They are my customers (well, my programs are free) and are only interested getting my programs to work on their PC. They don't even care what was used to develop the program. There is no extra hardware involved. If they already use NI hardware, chances are they already have a profile.

My users don't need a NI profile and don't need the follow-up phone call or e-mail from NI, etc.

Typical phone exchange yesterday:

me: "just click my installer and install the program"

him: "OK, done."

me: "now run it."

him: "OK, ...... error about 2013 run-time engine".

me: "OK, install the run-time engine using the link I sent you in the same e-mail".

him: "clicking the link to go to the run time engine page....

        (..30 second discussion to decide between downloader and direct download...)"

him: "click..(wait for it!)... .it wants me to register..."

me: "OK, let's forget about that. come down to the lab and I will do it for you."

End result: more delays (it was late Friday and I was ready to leave), more work for me, more hassle.

While gazillions (:D) of registered users sounds good on paper for NI, these are false numbers because many profiles are one-time use and quickly forgotten.

I think downloading a run-time engine should NOT require a NI profile. Maybe it should still offer to log in or create a profile, but there should also be a bail-out option similar to "[] I don't want to register at this time, just download the run-time!".

Note that even better long term solutions have been proposed, but this idea could be implemented quickly and does not even need to involve any LabVIEW developers. 😄

The size of the Close Reference VI makes it impossible to draw a proper block diagram.

It is too big!  It does not match with the Property Node vi.

Therefore I would propose: --> Make the Close Reference VI smaller!

To "reduce friction" in creating subVIs from portions of code, I suggest adding "Create subVI from Selection" to the block diagram contextual menu- rather than only having it in the titlebar menu.