How did you learn LabVIEW?

[PaulG.]

Self-taught using LV for Everyone and LabVIEW version 5. That was 13 (?) years ago. Since then I've had one advanced class. I would have to say 90% of what I know I learned on my own. The other 10% I learned here. 

[Wayne.C]

The subject line uses the word learn.  I'd say I still have plenty to learn and here is what I've done to date.  Combination of LV classes, lots of trial/error and many hours on the LV forums.  The day I started the Basics I & II class I had never run LV or done any programming.  It was a very long week.

[Yamaeda]

Studying to EE in a 2 year university program i learnt some Pascal, Assembler and since i was a kid Basic (i'm one of those C64/Spectrum kids).

After my 1st job i returned to university to become bachelor in embedded systems and got a small introduction to LabVIEW on the side of the bigger focus of C and C#, some SQL, more Assembler and DSP. I cant remember being presented with loops and cases but mostly the Virtual Instrument part, and i actually used the FFT functions to prove some points in my exam work. That code was basically reading a text file of samples and then doing FFT's and other calculations on the data and showing them as graphs.

2 years down the road i landed a "combo employment" of LV programmer/system administrator which felt like a good idea since i was safe and experienced in my administration role but wanted to become a programmer. I inherited a old program not only infested but bloated with Localitis and Sequentitis. I wasn't really allowed to touch it for a long time, but by studying it, reading the forums and the help files, using the logic and knowledge of other languages and experimenting with ideas and small programs i feel i have a good hang of it.

I'm now a consultant for a LV partner which created G#. 😉 

There's still lots to learn and my next goal is to work my way to a CLA. 🙂

/Y 

[PaulG.]

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... Localitis and Sequentitis ...

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[Hornless.Rhino]

Had to learn it for a university project. I re-looked at my code the other day and lets just say it was pretty dodgy.

My current code is still messy, but at least you can work out what it's doing.

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@DianeS wrote:

Love hearing all of your stories!!!

I designed and built a laser / OPO (optical parametric oscillator, for those of you playing along at home!) system and another guy wrote a LabVIEW controller for it.  He left the company.  A few design changes later, I found myself having to go in and rewrite a significant portion of the code.  This was in LV 4.0.

.....

I became the LabVIEW programmer for the company.  Then we ran into a problem.  The "Powers That Be" really, REALLY wanted me to design and build lasers.  Solid-state lasers.  Fiber lasers.  OPOs.  Etc.  I was an intuitive, experienced, very good laser engineer!  Give me a misbehaving (or nonexistent) laser, I'd tweak it into submission!  LabVIEW programmers were a dime a dozen!

But I really, REALLY wanted to write LabVIEW code.  (And QUALIFIED LabVIEW programmers aren't exactly a dime a dozen.  Now, are they?)

I was still awfully fond of lasers, though.

.....

Lasers are still awesome.  But LabVIEW's even better. 

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You should get into one of those Girls in Science advertising things. 

[JW-JnJ]

Funny enough, my university only taught Matlab for EE degrees. My first job exclusively used Matlab for data and signal processing. I have to admit, using UV transmission calculations to modulate a lamp and mimic a missile for helicopter warning systems was cool. Especially since I got to work with things like the Apache (that is one scary machine) and see a few "controlled" missile firings. However, the traveling got really annoying.

Three years ago, I got my current job designing and coding test sets for space and rocket avionics. I had to instantly drop Matlab and never touched it again.My company provided LabVIEW Basics I, then training at my company completely dried up. I spent the next two years learning through experimentation, reading the forums, and learning from a coworker. I got my CLAD 6 months ago. The coworker who I learned from left recently, so now I'm down to using experimentation and the forums to go for my CLD.

Right now I'm doing a mix of LabVIEW and hardware design which is the way I like things.

[crossrulz]

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@JW-L3CE wrote:

...and learning from a coworker. I got my CLAD 6 months ago. The coworker who I learned from left recently, so now I'm down to using experimentation and the forums to go for my CLD.

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I'm glad I get a some credit for my work there.  And you do have my email, so you can bug me whenever you want.  I'm still waiting for the contract to be working for you guys again.

[JW-JnJ]

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@crossrulz wrote:

I'm glad I get a some credit for my work there.  And you do have my email, so you can bug me whenever you want.  I'm still waiting for the contract to be working for you guys again.

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Yes, you get credit for not letting me turn into yet another C-code-stacked-sequence LabVIEW spaghetti programmer.

[crossrulz]

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@JW-L3CE wrote:

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@crossrulz wrote:

I'm glad I get a some credit for my work there.  And you do have my email, so you can bug me whenever you want.  I'm still waiting for the contract to be working for you guys again.

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Yes, you get credit for not letting me turn into yet another C-code-stacked-sequence LabVIEW spaghetti programmer.

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Heaven knows there are enough of them there (BS, MH, CK, Mr. Anchor...)

[GregFreeman]

Self-taught but more credit goes to these forums than myself! I've come a long way as is demonstrated in all these threads from a few years ago.