Convert diagram to image file - Diagram to png.vi

[chilly_charly]

Most of us have developped vi's that could be shared with the community. It is always possible to submit our work as example code to the developper_zone. However, I believe that the BreakPoint could also be a nice place to discuss and share these programs, may be before effectively posting them to the NI example database, just to make sure that this is worthwhile, after bug correction and GUI improvement...

Of course, the posted vis should be a little bit more elaborated than the poor (;)) examples we are used to propose as answers to the forum. No constraint. Just the feeling that the best has been done to make things attractive.

The Starware basic idea is simple : Download the vi, try it, and if you like it, reward the author with 5 stars (other ratings are strictly forbidden !). If you think

Where is the difference with the usual practice of the LV forum ? Well, usually people are searching for a solution for an immediate problem. And they get answers developped as rapidly as possible, because we usually have not a lot of time (often because we are racing with others, shhhh :)). Here the situation will be different : we'll not give actual solutions, we'll be proposing tools as potential solutions to questions that either were asked in the past, and not completly answered or were not asked yet !.. And there will be no time constraint for that !..

That could be also a good place for JPD to re-win his lost stars...

A single rule : don't forget to change the "Message Subject" to some meaningfull title !

[chilly_charly]

Solutions to this problem have already been proposed. For instance by Altenbach, here. That's something I discovered a bit late. A chance, because I developed a slightly different version, which works also on unsaved vis and on vis belonging to llbs.

Just drag the vi icon to the diagram of the Diagram to png.vi, then run.

The image path name is displayed and saved to the clipboard, ready to be pasted in the NI forum reply window.

Hope that this will help to increase your productivity 😉

[altenbach]

Het, that's pretty cool! 😄  (I assume it's windows only ;))

Wouldn't it be nice if it worked with broken VIs.... 😮

[chilly_charly]

Of course it's Windows only. I never found an utility to copy to a Mac clipboard 😞

Since there is no way to run a vi containing a broken vi, I suppose that your solution is the only one possible. May be we could combine both in a single vi ?

Other possible improvement : combine the FP and BD pictures in a single image (upon request).

[altenbach]

OK, I modified it to also work with broken VIs and unsaved broken VIs 🙂

Instead of having to place the VI on the BD, it simply creates a listbox of all VIs in memory (by default, system VIs are not shown). Just double-click the desired file and it will save the diagram image and optionally the FP image, even on broken VIs!

I also added a few options, e.g. "preview only" (don't save any VIs), show/hide system VIs, Sort by name, save also FP (Yes, I hate dialog popups!), FP visible area only?

For my sanity and to reduce disk clutter, all images are saved in the temporary directory of the system.

(The VI could easily be modified to populate the list with VIs located in a certain folder or .llb.)

Of course there could be bugs. Any feedback welcome! ;).

Yes, it could be modified so this program itself does not show in the list, but then we would not have anything to play if nothing else is loaded. 😉

Message Edited by altenbach on 08-20-2005 11:40 AM

[JeanPierre]

I have stripped down altenbach's version and modified it so it can now be invoked from the Tools menu. Put the VI in LabVIEW\Project directory and restart LabVIEW to refresh the Tools menu.

[chilly_charly]

Last min problem with attachments, see the next message... 😠

Message Edité par chilly charly le 08-21-2005 08:14 AM

[chilly_charly]

iNCLUDING

[chilly_charly]

Adding a command to the Tool menu was a great idea ! Where did you find the property node JPD ?

Added the possibility to save both the diagram and the FP in a single png.

Press <shift> to have both images in a single pict

Press <f> to get only the FP image

Message Edité par chilly charly le 08-21-2005 08:45 AM

[chilly_charly]

And to avoid tst complains (because that would not be a smart way for him to reach the 3 golden bars level ;)), here is a 7.0 version. I guess some other will also behappy with that...