LabVIEW Public Beta Program in 2023
New Feature: Diagram Zoom
Another rendering bug related to zoom:
- When execution highlighting is paused, the current execution point is highlighted. See black box over the Add primitive:
- BUT: If the zoom level is adjusted, the black box renders in the wrong location:
EDIT: It is not even necessary to change the zoom while the execution highlighting is paused. The rendering of the current execution point is always misaligned for zoom factors other than 100%.
@Christina_R wrote:
To zoom in or out on a block diagram, select Zoom In, Zoom Out, or Actual Size from the View menu (or use the corresponding keyboard shortcuts).
One very nice behaviour that almost works: You can actively adjust the zoom in the middle of a wiring operation!
Example #1:
- Imagine you have an oversized case structure that is wider than the block diagram window. (I know, most of us never create such naughty code, but let's say you inherited it from a colleague!)
- You click on the error terminal at the left edge with the intention of wiring it all the way over to the right edge:
- While still holding the wire it is possible to CTRL+Mouse Wheel to zoom out (so that you can see the entire case structure), then CTRL+Mouse Wheel to zoom in near the right edge so that you can comfortably complete the wire.
- UNFORTUNATLEY: I found the zoom to be very glitchy in this scenario. While holding the wire I find that zooming sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Sometimes I can zoom out (near the left), but then trying to zoom in (near the right) doesn't work. Once zoom stops working then it seems to stay broken no matter where I move the mouse pointer. It only works again once I complete or abort the wiring operation.
Example #2:
- Imagine I am trying to wire to a dense connector pane:
- I can start the wiring operation, then CRTL+Mouse Wheel to zoom in, then comfortably wire the correct terminal.
- UNFORTUNATELY: This seems to have the same glitchy behaviour as the first example. Sometimes I can zoom in but then the zoom stops responding until I complete or abort the wiring operation. Other times (seemingly when my initial zoom is "far" from 100%), the zoom doesn't respons at all during a wiring operation.
Getting these kinds of glitches fixed would be incredibly enabling. Dynamically zooming during other workflows feels super intuitive. It should provide a noticable efficiency boost when working on hi-res displays.
One more zoom bug:
I often use CTRL+SHIFT+drag to pan around the block diagram. However, for zoom factors other than 100% I find that panning often doesn't work.
In the screenshot below I am zoomed in by a few clicks. When I hold CTRL+SHIFT my mouse pointer changes to the pan tool, but click-dragging often does nothing. It seems to depend exactly where I click.
- Sometimes the pan operation starts but then mysteriously stops after some distance.
- Other times, the pan operation does not start immediately but then the diagram starts panning once my mouse has moved sufficiently far from the starting location.
Weird...
This a real show-stopper for me. Panning is something I do ALL the time. If I had to choose between panning and zooming I'd probably take panning!
I've had a bit of time to test out the zoom feature, and it works quite well. Some comments / bugs / suggestions:
- What are the zoom levels / increments when zooming in? Seems to be from 100% to 250% in steps of 10%?
- I'd prefer fewer zoom increments, as there's little difference at higher zoom levels (say 170% to 180%). For example Google Chrome uses 110, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500 and even good old NXG used 125, 150, 175, 200, 300, 400.
- With fewer zoom increments I can scroll the mouse wheel up a few notches in a single motion, and know I'm at 200% zoom.
- I agree with the need to show the zoom level in the toolbar - this could also be an editable field so the user can type their desired zoom level in. Zooming in or out from a custom zoom level would set the zoom to the next nearest zoom increment.
- 1px wires (numeric, ref, etc) remain 1px wide when zoomed in, unlike other wire types (string, cluster, arrays, etc) which grow wider when zoomed.
- Text can be smaller / thinner at the first zoom increment above 100% for some constants, bundle/unbundle, property nodes, Default case text, etc:
Default zoom
Zoomed in 1 level
- Option for default zoom level in LV environment
- When a comment is outside a case structure with a comment arrow to inside the structure in a non-visible case, the partial grey arrow disappears at non-default zoom levels
- Default zoom:
-
Zoomed in:
- Default zoom:
- When at 100% zoom, scrolling the mouse wheel while hovering the mouse cursor over the block diagram window's horizontal scroll bar scrolls the window horizontally (as in previous LabVIEW versions). When zoomed in/out, hovering and scrolling over the horizontal scroll bar will scroll the window vertically.
@Christina_R wrote:
Known Issue(s):
- Ctrl-Shift-mouse wheel isn't navigating between subdiagrams of structures correctly.
When switching between cases it looks like it doesn't loop back around, only going to the end of each list. Is this related to that issue? And it is expected to be addressed right? I apparently used CTRL+Scroll a whole bunch and now that doesn't do what my muscle memory thinks it should. It would be nice to be able to keep the old work flows as an option.
Showing the zoom level, and a reset to 100% would be helpful.
@Christina_R wrote:
Is Ctrl+0 (and the corresponding menu item View>Actual Size) insufficient for resetting to 100%?
I guess it is sufficient. There are just times when I'm looking at VIs and I can't tell if it is zoomed or not. Yes I can press CTRL+0 (and learn that it does that) but I see many image manipulation programs like Photoshop and Gimp that show you the zoom level at all times, and updates as zoom changes. Some have a the + and - buttons next to zoom, which would also allow for easier touch screen zooming, until a pinch is implemented.
