LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Despite being growable for adding outputs (capturing groups), the "Match Regular Expression" XNode is missing some convenient features from other growable functions:

1. Cannot add a new element at the top while resizing the node:

Resize from top.gif

2. Missing "Add/Remove Element" right-click menus:

raphschru_0-1781017278636.png raphschru_1-1781017452535.png

The lack of these features forces us to rewire everything manually.

This idea has the same motivation as this previous one: making the editor more ergonomic and predictable.

Regards,

Raphaël.

Having consistent (and therefore predictable) right-click menus is essential for maximizing coding efficiency.

Most structures have the following right-click menu items:

Visible Items
Help
Examples
Description and Tip...
---------------------------
Add Breakpoint
---------------------------
Structures Palette
Auto Grow
Exclude from Diagram Cleanup
<specific menu 1>
⋮
<specific menu N>
Replace with <other structure type 1>
⋮
Replace with <other structure type N>
Remove <structure type>
---------------------------
<other specific menus>

The right-click menu however has some inconsistencies regarding item order and menu separators for certain structure types:

1. "In Place Element Structure" has "Replace" and "Remove" items reversed:

raphschru_0-1778671181846.png

The "Remove" item should always be the last one in the item group (right before the separator) since it is a very common action and the separator offers a quick visual reference point.

2. Depending on whether you click on the structure border, the frame name label or the subdiagram label, sometimes an extra item separator appears for no reason:

raphschru_3-1778673447637.png  raphschru_6-1778673672106.png  raphschru_5-1778673565395.png

The grouping of the generic items shouldn't vary depending on where you click on the structure. Here we sometimes have 4 item groups instead of 3, which hinders quick menu identification and selection.

3. This is more a general remark, but I think items specific to a structure type shouldn't be mixed with the generic ones in the first 3 groups (except maybe for the "Replace" items, since they are related to the "Remove" action).

So any specific menu item should belong after the first 3 groups:

raphschru_2-1778672934373.png  raphschru_7-1778673846675.png

raphschru_8-1778673934000.png  raphschru_9-1778673982744.png

This last remark could be subject to discussion though, as configuring iteration parallelism and shared clone allocation could be considered a "primary" action (therefore requiring to be closest to the top), even if it is specific to certain structure types.

Regards,

Raphaël.

There are many tasks in LabVIEW that are tedious and manual due to its graphical nature. This is something Nigel or another LLM-controlled scripting feature could change.

Allow it to perform structural changes and wiring on the block diagram via natural language commands. Expand it’s capabilities beyond explanation and simple code suggestions to direct, intelligent manipulation of the Front Panel and Block Diagram. The user should be able to describe desired behavior in plain English, and the AI should execute or generate the appropriate structure.

One example would be wiring and bundling: “Wire all controls whose names contain ‘sensor’ to a Bundle By Name node using the matching cluster element names.”

Another might be diagram layout: “Select all terminals containing ‘temp’ and arrange them by the last number in their name vertically on the right side of the diagram with tight spacing.”

Desired Capabilities:

• Name-based matching and filtering of controls, indicators, and cluster elements.
• Intelligent wiring (Bundle By Name, Unbundle By Name, auto-wiring by name).
• Creation of VIMs / reusable subVIs with dynamic behavior.
• Structural changes (add loops, case structures, bundling logic, etc.).
• Optional preview + confirmation before applying changes to the diagram.
• Works on both Front Panel and Block Diagram.

There are lots of very old Idea Exchange entries for plots that seem very promising.

Some of these go back to 2009, and this wasn't an exhaustive search. Some of these ideas were posted before some of our forum members were even born! 😉

That handful I picked has a total of 317 Kudos- but they're spread out over a large number of individual posts, so this Idea entry is sort of a combo of all of them. Basically, there are LOTS of great ideas from the community, but unfortunately most don't get any traction from NI.

The request is to Open Source the plotting tools, similarly to the Icon Editor or the Actor Framework. I know I'd be thrilled to be able to hack around with the plots. I'm sure there are some gnarly secrets under the hood, but that's part of the fun 🙂