02-14-2011 10:22 AM
I am building a VI to control a number of pnuematic valves, flow controllers and heaters as well as display information on pressure transducers and thermocouples. The display will be drawn up much like the piping system as it is drawn on the schematic with the ability to turn on and off valves by activating them with the mouse (or finger with a touchscreen). I have drawn up my latest attempt and attached it below and would like to know how I can make it look more like a pipe with water flow. The MFC will control flow through the pipe and I plan to have a pop up attached to set its parameters when activated.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Bill
02-14-2011 10:31 AM - edited 02-14-2011 10:33 AM
The DSC add-on comes with images used to compose these apps.
If those are not interesting enough then then first try customizing controls as you need.
Ben
02-14-2011 10:39 AM
The attached VI contains some pipe decorations (which are of course resizeable).
And also a multi-segment pipe indicator. You can add and delete segments by right-clicking on it; and it's color changes depending on its boolean value.
02-14-2011 10:45 AM
Hi,
I have done similar things in the past without the DSC module.
Heres a fiew pointers:
Use classic picture ring controls then you can hide the border.
Draw pipes straight and add flanges to fittings, this makes it easier to re-use components and line up objects.
If you use transparent png images for flow arrows you can put a boolean or color box control behind the ring to show temperature and flow changes.
Microsoft Word has some great shading options which make excellent 3d effect pipes in labview.
If you overlap objects, LabVIEW will sometimes show a thick black border when in edit mode, but this will dissapear when the VI is running.
I'll post some examples tomorrow if you like, when I am back at my development machine.
Have fun,
Michael.
02-14-2011 10:47 AM
@RiversDaddy wrote:
...
I'll post some examples tomorrow if you like, when I am back at my development machine.
Have fun,
Michael.
I'd like to see them.
Thank you,
Ben
02-14-2011 10:51 AM
I love that pipe! How has the functionality been achieved? I am curious...
Michael.
02-14-2011 11:16 AM
Thanks everyone for your input! I was given a lot of software from NI when I took this job and unfortunately DSC was not in the bundle. I called and it appears it will cost an additional $1500 for the software and I don't know if the additional funds are available for the project at this moment but it can't hurt in asking.
In the mean time, if I could get the examples you mentioned Michael I would appreciate it. I will also try the classic picture ring and see how that turns out.
In the end, will my control of the system slow down if I have a screen full of pipe animations?
02-14-2011 11:20 AM
@nutmegzzzz wrote:
Thanks everyone for your input! I was given a lot of software from NI when I took this job and unfortunately DSC was not in the bundle. I called and it appears it will cost an additional $1500 for the software and I don't know if the additional funds are available for the project at this moment but it can't hurt in asking.
In the mean time, if I could get the examples you mentioned Michael I would appreciate it. I will also try the classic picture ring and see how that turns out.
In the end, will my control of the system slow down if I have a screen full of pipe animations?
Not if you program it correctly.
Make sure you put your data acquisition in a seperate loop from your indicator updates.
If they run in parallel correctly, even if there appears to be a lag in the display, your data acquisition should be fine.
02-14-2011 12:47 PM
If you want real animation, one of the attachments here demonstrates how to do this - http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Community-Nugget-02-25-2007/m-p/482797#M231915
There's no explanation there, but the basic trick can be understood if you try to customize the control and make it larger - there's a larger image which is moved back and forth.
02-15-2011 08:32 AM
Awesome, how did you do that? Xnodes?