Graph - How to keep "Legend:Number of Rows Property" always horizontal?

[mthheitor]

Hello,

I'm trying to build a XY Graph with multiple plots (Fig. 1).

If the graph have 2 plots and I change the property "Legend:Number of Rows Property" to 3 or more, the legend grows in the horizontal (Fig. 2 - right behavior)

But if the plots goes to 1, then goes to 2 or more, the legend grows in the vertical (Fig. 3 - wrong behavior)

How can I change the "Legend:Number of Rows Property" and make the legend be always horizontal?

Fig. 1 - Original graph

Fig. 2 - When the number of rows goes to 3 or more, the legend grows horizontally (right behavior)

Fig. 3 - If the number of rows goes to 1, then the legend increment vertically (wrong behavior)

Fig. 4 - VI snippet

Obs.: The number of plots can change with the application running, so I need to programmatically make the "rows" in the legend increment horizontally

[paul_cardinale]

Sorry, I couldn't find a solution.

I did discover that inside the legend is an array; and it has properties of "Number of Rows" and "Number of Columns".

I could manipulate the number of columns down to 1, then back up and get the desired effect; however I could not find any way to programmatially get access to that array.

[raphschru]

It seems NI did not anticipate this use case.

They could have provided another property like "Legend:Number of Columns", but they didn't...

I found a way to create a static reference to the legend array via scripting, then use this reference in the VI to manipulate the number of columns:

The project also contains the script to re-create the legend reference:

 

Finally, I tested in an executable and it works.

[paul_cardinale]

Here is a more generic thingy.

[paul_cardinale]

And after all that, it turns out that all you really have to do is right-click on the legend and select: Create → Property Node.

[raphschru]

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@paul_cardinale wrote:

And after all that, it turns out that all you really have to do is right-click on the legend and select: Create → Property Node.

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I don't have the menu item "Create" when right-clicking on the legend, do you have a plugin for that ?

[paul_cardinale · Accepted solution]

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@raphschru wrote:

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@paul_cardinale wrote:

And after all that, it turns out that all you really have to do is right-click on the legend and select: Create → Property Node.

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I don't have the menu item "Create" when right-clicking on the legend, do you have a plugin for that ?

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Add this line to labview.ini:

AdvancedPlotLegendMenu="True"

[paul_cardinale]

Slightly improved version.

[mthheitor]

Thanks everyone for posting in this topic. All answers were new learning to me

@paul_cardinale

• Add AdvancedPlotLegendMenu="True" to labview.ini works like a charm. Thank you

• Your Create Reference-Prop_Node-Invk_Node of Sub-Objects in a Control.vi is great. The 1st version was a little confused, but the 2nd is fantastic. New options for our LabVIEW "toolbox" 🙂

@raphschru

• Your scripting .vi is cool, but I think @paul_cardinale idea is more simple. I tried to run your vi files and couldn't (version =/= 2020).

I saw the .png files in the .zip file, but can you post the .vi files in LabVIEW 2012? (this way more users can use your idea in a easier way)

[raphschru]

My scripting VI was a proof of concept for creating a reference to a normally not-accessible subcontrol.

Then paul_cardinale turned it into a more usable tool.

Now you can access almost any sub-part of a composite control like the plot/scale/cursor legends of a Graph control, the browse button of a Path control, the button of a Timestamp control, etc...

As for the ini key, it is simpler but limited to the plot legend and the scale legend of Graph controls.