topic Re: VI Pane Colour in LabVIEW

VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:02:50 GMT

Hi all,

I started playing around with trying to change the front VI window colour and found a way to do it programatically, however when I try and replicate this code, I cannot select the correct VI property as shown in the attached picture.

In the picture, the refnum from the VI property 'Panel' is fed into another property node. This property is then chosen to be 'colour' and the box has gone red. A colour box control has then been added.

On my VI, on the second property node, I cannot select colour anywhere and the box does not go red no matter what I select. Also the only colour selection box that I can select from the front panel does not look the same as the one in the picture; the one I can select places a coloured in version on the block diagram but this may just be because Im manually selected it rather than having the ability to right click the property node and select create->control.

You might need to open the file in MS paint as when I try to view it in normal MS viewer it gets compressed.

Cheers for looking

Mitch

Re: VI Pane Colour

JÞB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:08:25 GMT

The default value for a VI property node is "This VI." Just pass a VI server referance to the VI you want to change the color of to the code you've shown so the property node knows which panel to color.

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:12:29 GMT

You've lost me, what have I done wrong?

If I only have one VI open in the whole project, does it not just point at that VI?

Cheers

Re: VI Pane Colour

JÞB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:32:35 GMT

@Mitch85 wrote:

You've lost me, what have I done wrong?

If I only have one VI open in the whole project, does it not just point at that VI?

Cheers

In a word no. It points to the vi supplied by the referance into the vi panel property node. (if left unwired it points to the FP of the vi it is on)

Heres an example in 2010. run it and see what happens.

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 18:26:17 GMT

Hi Jeff,

Please follow these two links:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/0DDBDB2FE2F54A5286256918006D7BB9 which was from the NI knowledge base

and

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/794 which is a downloadable .vi from the developer zone.

I have been trying to write the .vi from scratch but cannot get it to look, nor run the same but as you can cleary see from running, it works?

Cheers

Mitch

Re: VI Pane Colour

JÞB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:16:28 GMT

GOT IT.

the red background on the property node. Guess what. It means a demoted property (no longer available) the example was written in LabVIEW version 6.0 before they had panes. This was changed in LabVIEW 8.0 when splitters and subpanels were introduced so a current panel is a collection of panes. You are way beyond the times! (and NI should probably re-link the example code to the newer method or at least add a disclaimer that the method works for Version 6.0 - 7.1) For backward compatability NI wrote a red paneled property node that hides the Panes property node and loop this can only be used by the version converter when opening 6.0 code in 2010. (well I bet you COULD get to it in vi.lib but I would not advise it)

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:10:42 GMT

So should the example in the link that I put down to the NI knowledge base work then?

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:46:46 GMT

Tried the example, works a treat, however, a few more questions.

So you have a main panel which is the main screen that you see, then panes within the panel? If so, how do you display panes and what are the benefits of having panels?

Is there a way to make the initial colour that the colour box is set to the current panel colour as every time I run the VI, the panel is changed to black?

Is there a way to use this method on different tabs? I know I can just set a tab colour, just interested in if its possible.

Re: VI Pane Colour

JÞB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:03:48 GMT

@Mitch85 wrote:

Tried the example, works a treat, however, a few more questions.

So you have a main panel which is the main screen that you see, then panes within the panel? Yes the panel is an array of panes. For most VIs the array size is 1. Adding a vertical or horizontal splitter divides the panel into two panes which can then be treated differently. Also adding a sub panel adds a new pane. If so, how do you display panes and what are the benefits of having panels? They allow sub panels and splitters very useful for resizeing controls or displaying another vi's FP within the main VI's front panel

Is there a way to make the initial colour that the colour box is set to the current panel colour as every time I run the VI, the panel is changed to black? Read the property first! or change the color box control's default value

Is there a way to use this method on different tabs? I know I can just set a tab colour, just interested in if its possible. Tabs are not panes and while they have a BG color property it is not of the same class (Vi server>Vi>VI)

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:30:03 GMT

Jeff, last one before I go to bed as my eyes are getting screen burn.

How do I add splitters and how do I show other vi FP's?

How would I read the colour box colour property first then make the colour box display the current panel colour? I've tried a couple of ways and I though I would just need to make the colour box a read property then put this into a write colour box property node but there are broken wires I cannot seem to get rid of.

On the picture of the block diagram you posted earlier, what does the bottom part do where it does the state maximized and pane colour 2?

Sorry if I'm asking basic questions or if it seems like I'm being lazy. Im really not meaning to be, I've just got so many questions and not enough time to try everything out one by one; plus when I do try, I run into many issues

Cheers again Jeff

Mitch

Re: VI Pane Colour

JÞB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:45:55 GMT

The vi in the subpanel just hapens to be in vi.lib down deep. The lower area opens a referance to this vi and changes its panel color

Re: VI Pane Colour

Mitch_Peplow — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:55:32 GMT

Morning Jeff,

Ill give that bottom part of your code a go later on and see what happens.

I set up new panes as you showed and was playing around and found that you could change the background to a design so I chose checkerplate. I then chose clouds for another. However when I removed all the panes, the background stayed as checkerplate.

Questions; how do I get the background to change with the vi code again without adding panes to edit the pane properties, how do I add another vi into a pane, is it possible to individually colour each pane?

Got a question on tab control as well. I had some code on the front panel of a vi and decided that I wanted to add it into a tab control. To do this I added the tab control function around the code and sent it to the back assuming that it would either a) add the code to each tab but duplicate it much like the case structure does when duplicating cases or b) add it to the current tab selected when it was sent to the back.

What I found was that the code was present of all tabs, not duplicated but the graphics were all messed up. To sort this it appears you have to select all the code you want in the tab, move it out of the tab structure then back in on the tab number you want. The duplication code that was present initially then disappears.

Is this how the tab control should function or is there a way to force the tab to act a certain way upon placing in on the vi?

Cheers

Mitch