Report Generation & image

[roboticstudent]

Hello,

I have been using Report Generation VIs to print Control/Indicator (Front Panel)icons on Word Document.  The only issue is that it is so white that it blends with the background (example attachment below). Any suggestions.

Also, how can I use Report Generation VIs to print items (i.e. case structure and the items within it) from Block Diagram into Word Doc.

Thanks.

[Darren]

Hello,

You can change the background color applied to controls added to a Word report, but this requires modifying one of the toolkit's internal VIs.  You can open vi.lib\addons\_office\_wordsub.llb\Word_Insert_Control.vi and change the default value of the "Background color" control to be something else (like a gray color) so that controls inserted into your Word report don't blend into the white background.  It sounds like it would be helpful for you if the Background color option were exposed on the top level VI (Append Control Image to Report.vi).  I will make note of this suggestion for a future version of the Report Generation Toolkit.

As for your other question, the only way to include images of diagram objects in your report is to use the Append VI Block Diagram to Report.vi, which is in the Report Generation > VI Documentation subpalette.  If you want to include images of all the cases of multi-frame structures in the report, set the "Hidden frames" input of this subVI to True.

Let me know if you have any other questions,
-D

[roboticstudent]

Hello,

Thanks for the help.

I can only find vi.lib\addons, but _office\_wordsub.llb\Word_insert_Control.vi does not exist within this folder.

I looked at other folders, but did not see it.

Suggestions.

Thanks again.

[Darren]

What version of the Report Generation Toolkit are you using?  Are you even using the Report Generation Toolkit?  Or are you using some other library of VIs for generating Word reports?  I believe the files for the toolkit have always been installed at vi.lib\addons\_office, ever since version 1.0.  Are you sure you're looking in the LabVIEW folder where you actually have the toolkit installed?

Perhaps it would help me diagnose the issue if you attached the VI you are using to generate the Word report.

-D

[roboticstudent]

Hello,

I thought the toolkit was Data Acquisition and Report Generation .  Yet I still do not see the anything after 'addons.'

Is there another way to manipulate it so the background does not blend in with just the tools available with LabVIEW 7.1 (I can use 8.0, but I have to move to another workstation.)

Thanks.

[Darren]

At this point, I can't answer your question without seeing the VI in which you are doing this report generation.  Try making a simple VI that demonstrates the problem and attaching it to your next post.  If you really want a good answer, you'll create a Source Distribution, or at least include the subVIs so I can see what report generation VIs you are actually using, because it sure doesn't sound like you're using the Report Generation Toolkit.

-D

Message Edited by Darren on 04-13-2006 12:48 PM

[Jarrod_S.]

To answer your second question about inserting a Block Diagram image into your report, one way to do it would be to use a VI Invoke Node with the method Block Diagram >> Get Image Scaled to output Image Data for your Block Diagram (or whatever VI's Block Diagram you wire the VI refnum in for). Then use Draw Flattened Pixmap to change the Image Data format into a picture format that you can wire to a picture control. Then create a reference for this picture control and wire it into the Report Generation Toolkit VI called Append Control Image to Report. That will accomplish what you want.

I'll attach an example below, but unfortunately I only have the Report Generation Toolkit installed for LabVIEW 8 right now. I'll also paste the image below so you can get an idea of what I'm doing.

Message Edited by Jarrod S. on 04-14-2006 01:27 PM

[Jarrod_S.]

In addition, if you wanted to send more explicit information to your Word document, in other words, images that show all cases in a case structure or event structure, you might consider using the VI Print method to programmatically print HTML or RTF documentation that you could then insert into your Word document somehow.

[roboticstudent]

Hello,

I have been working on your suggestions and for some reason the final product is just not want I want.

As a test example, I was trying to get the block diagram of this vi into Word document, but it did not work like I wanted. 

Where did you you get the 'Picture' control to the Append Control Image to Report.vi.

I also wonder how did you get a T/F attached to Dispose Report.vi while connecting Save Report to File.vi to Dispose Report.vi. There was only one connection availabe and an error occured when I tried to connect them both to the same connection.

Question may have a simple answer, and thanks in advance for taking the time to answer it.

I have attached the vi that I want to attach the block diagram to Word, and I also have attached the actual errors in a Word document of the error I am encountering.

Since you have LabVIEW 8.0, could you please show any vis in a JPEG so I can see what you are talking about.  The other workstation with LabVIEW 8.0 does not have Database Connectivity Toolset installed so I try to stay in this LabVIEW 7.1.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and help.

[antea06]

Hi,

"Report Generation" toolkit is different from "Office Report Generation" toolkit: that is why you are talking about different vis.

try to search the following VI:

Report Generation\VI Documentation\Append VI List of Controls to Reports

this vi includes a subvi named "Append Control info to report": you change here the invoke node call in the true case from "Get Term image" to "Get image".

Bye