topic Re: LV Picture Control in BreakPoint

LV Picture Control

Ben — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:41:15 GMT

This thread can serve for discusion of the LV Picture control and how it can be used or abused.

As mentioned in the "First Message" thread found here

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=2&jump=true

(see message from tst and myself)

The LV Picture control is a powerful tool that lets you "break rules" with LV FP's.

Let me first start by thanking Paul Austin, Principal Architect, LabVIEW R&D who invented the picture control and hold the patent on same.

When combined with the event structure and an "invoke node >>> Get image" virtual controls can be realized.

Notes:
1) If you have a control that can only take on a limited number of states (green, red) you can get the image at start-up time and just insetert the appropriate image when required.

2) A controls "bounds" will define the "sweet spot" for the control once you correct ofr it location in the picture.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

EdDickens — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:37:22 GMT

I've used the picture control to make a few custom controls that were not possible with the standard controls by just customizing them.

The attached library is a fancy demo version of a slider I needed several years ago. The slider needed to act more like a potentiometer and output values that were in between the current value and the selected value. The standard slider will jump directly from the current value to the selected value with nothing in between. This caused a problem for the controller we were sending the values to.

So I came up with a slider using the picture control and some code to ramp the value up and down. I then made this demo version just to see how far I could take it. It adds settable min/max range and displays the scale, the ability to have the slider return to center/min/max when the mouse is released or stay put and you can change the displayed colors.

This was written (and saved) in 6.0.2, but runs fine in anything higher than that.

Ed

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:19:57 GMT

Hi Ed,

I like this example!

Molly found the original thread where JP suggested using an invoke node to get an image that is latter inserted were required.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=24151

His example is something that blew me away when I first saw it and realized that this saves me a lot of work.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 12:26:42 GMT

Just for the record (and to help future browsing), I have posted an example that uses the picture control to move a bunch of booleans around in a "random walk" manner in this thread. The example is "Obfuse_Picture".

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=5&jump=true

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

BJD1613 — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:18:35 GMT

Ben,

How is the hierarchy tool coming along. Did you solve the complexities of using the picture controls?

BJD1613

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:33:56 GMT

Hi BJD,

That is secret!

It's nice to know you are well enough to prowl the Exchange.

Watch the Model railroad thread for an update this evening.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

chilly_charly — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:32:40 GMT

Hummmm...
To prowl...
That's again a word I ignored before. I'll add it to tst's "disgruntled" to start a nice collection. If any of you want to improve his French, just to maintain some symetry in the exchange, don't hesitate...

CC

Re: LV Picture Control

BJD1613 — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 11:57:40 GMT

I think Parose is a better word... not prowl. I am sure that it is probably close to being done so someday I will have to see it!!! Take care.

BJD

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:04:36 GMT

OK BJD.

Nagging is good. I will get back to that project soon. The math was just starting to make my eyes cross, so I switched to something easier, i.e. the the 3-d railroad.

please look here

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=296#M296

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Tue, 10 May 2005 12:16:15 GMT

The below link is to a discussion of the performance of guage controls with digital indicators.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=120315#M120315

In it PJM posted a concept VI that uses a picture control to give the impresion that a guage is on the FP.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:55:55 GMT

This thread discuss an issue with inserting an clipping an image and inserting it into another picture.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=123933

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:21:14 GMT

This thread

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=126540#M126540

discusses methods of combining images and blending the colors of over-lapping images.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

altenbach — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:55:35 GMT

Here's a thread from mid March 2005 where I made a simple example on how to use a picture control to make a 2D Vector plot (Matlab calls them Quiver plots, other names are Arrow- or Porcupine plots :))

These are quite useful e.g. in fluid mechanics, etc.

I am sure the demo VI could be made in a nice package that does automatic scaling, adds axes, etc. (LabVIEW could actually use something similar as a standard built-in plot type.) 🙂

Re: LV Picture Control

altenbach — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:11:11 GMT

Just for kicks, I made a little demo that rotates an image in a picture indicator. (...and no, the depicted vase is not for sale ;))

Message Edited by altenbach on 06-18-2005 09:12 AM

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 15:40:06 GMT

In this thread

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=126863

Unclebump posted an example that uses a picture control to represent a dart board.

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

falkpl — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:24:01 GMT

Is there any way of getting the device context of the picture control, I have been trying for a while of getting a DC and being able to link it to openGL to allow for a full wrapper of the OPENGL32 and GLU dlls in labview. I understand that Labview 7.1 has added a 3d control but has left 7.0 users in the dust with no support. I want to make a viewport object for rendering opengl graphics with some events also tied to the object. I dont want to reinvent the wheel or start a project that I cant handle but would love to join any similar open source efforts if one exists. Full opengl support in labview would allow for unpreserved visual experiences in labview and push it even more towards a main-stream general programming language. (I am not a ogl guru but have dabbled in it enough with c++ to get started on a project). I have seen Ben's posts many times on graphic related issues maybe you know of the current state of 3-d graphics in labview.

Paul

Re: LV Picture Control

unclebump — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 16:31:23 GMT

Hi Altenbach,

Could you save this rotating picture as 7.0 format??

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 16:51:30 GMT

This thread uses the picture control to develop a guage with a moving scale.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=132507&a#M132507

Nice work Uncle!

Here is Christians rotating vase example saved as LV 7.0

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

Ben — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 13:22:57 GMT

In this thread

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=142237&a#M142237

Sheldon Stokes shares his LV version of tetris which uses the Pciture control to implement the game screen.

Nice work Sheldon!

Ben

Re: LV Picture Control

unclebump — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:49:51 GMT

Hi Ben,

I might have some time in the next couple of weeks, think I should take the dartboard picture control and make LabDarts??