make decoration labels work

[wiebe@CARYA]

This one has to be duplicate. Can't find it tough.

So there is a mention of a idea to "give decorations labels". It might be removed, because you can give decorations labels. Or is it a bug or existing CAR?

It is in fact a bug, but I'm hoping this will get kudo's and make the fix a priority. It was added in LV2011 I think and never actually worked.

How about making this actually work?

Right click decoration,

Properties,

Tag label,

Edit label

NOW:

Right click decoration,

Properties,

LABEL IS GONE!

EXPECTED:

Right click decoration,

Properties,

Label is still there.

[PaulG.]

I've never used a label on a decoration before and don't see how that would be of any use. However, right-click on a decoration>properties and try to select make label visible does not function. Why have it there if you can't select it?

[wiebe@CARYA]

The feature is very usefull when you want to move decorations from your code with VI server.

You can get an array of decoration, and check the label to see it you are moving the right one.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

That shouldn't exist. CAR 472645 to get it removed.

[wiebe@CARYA]

AristosQueue,

Please reconsider.

We (a fairly large group of users I think) tried for years to get it in there. Then LV11 was released, we were extatic. Finally! Now we can move a decoration from the code. And if decorations are added, we can identify the decoration by it's label! At this moment, the only way to acheive this is to get the decorations UID. So you need heappeak or scripting code. As an alternative, make it possible to create a reference to decodartions, and to link to them. But that will create a lot of clutter.

The bug should be that the labels disapear, not that you can give decorations a label.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

wiebe: Had we meant to do the feature, I would agree with you. But it is incomplete and was enabled in its current form by mistake. That makes it a bug. Turning it off is a one line fix. Finishing it out moves it into feature planning and resource allocation.

[Darren]

There is already another idea about giving labels to decorations: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Make-Decorations-full-fledged-creatable-Objects/idi-p/... Until that idea is implemented, CAR 472645 should be fixed to remove the ability to set a label on a decoration in the Properties page.

[Hooovahh]

Even without a label you can identify a decoration by other means.  OpenG has a Fit VI to Largest Decoration.  It does this by finding the reference to the decoration with the largest area.  I've also dont things like move decorations based on window size, and resize decorations based on the new coordinates.  For me I knew there would be N decorations and they would be the same vertically but spaced out horizontally.  So my code found all of these and then distributed them based on the window size.  Similar work can be done on decorations that may exist within a tab, or on the same vertical location as another control.

Yeah labels would be easier but removing this non finished feature doesn't mean no one can ever get the reference to a decoration, it just means more work.