Way to reorder controls in front panel

[Fred_A]

Hello,

My question is about the controls order in a Front Panel. Using the VI server reference and the property nodes (Panel -> Controls [ ] ) we can have acess to an array of these controls. The order of the Controls [ ] refnum array is depending of the order of creation on the FP. Then you can even change this order by selecting : Menu bar -> Edit -> Set Tabbing Order. It looks like the function " Reorder Controls in Cluster". When you change these values the refnum array is updated (order). So far there is no problem.

Now, when you add a splitter bar on the FP, you can do the same procedure (but just add a node to select the pane in Panes [ ] array refnum), but Controls [ ] refnum array dont'care about the Tabbing order, only the creation order.

Anyone have an idea to reorder controls in a pane of FP (with splitter bar) ?

atached is a quick example to illustate it

Fred

[Ben]

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@Fred A. wrote:

Hello,

My question is about the controls order in a Front Panel. Using the VI server reference and the property nodes (Panel -> Controls [ ] ) we can have acess to an array of these controls. The order of the Controls [ ] refnum array is depending of the order of creation on the FP. Then you can even change this order by selecting : Menu bar -> Edit -> Set Tabbing Order. It looks like the function " Reorder Controls in Cluster". When you change these values the refnum array is updated (order). So far there is no problem.

Now, when you add a splitter bar on the FP, you can do the same procedure (but just add a node to select the pane in Panes [ ] array refnum), but Controls [ ] refnum array dont'care about the Tabbing order, only the creation order.

Anyone have an idea to reorder controls in a pane of FP (with splitter bar) ?

atached is a quick example to illustate it

Fred

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None that I know of off hand.

What type of challenge does the order present that prompts you to ask?

Ben

[Fred_A]

Hello Ben,

I often use splitter bar to separate my controls in a front panel (i.e. Pane 1 for process control, Pane 2 for user display (results, graph, etc), Pane 3 for test status, and so on). That means that i have many controls that I must : initialize, update, enable-disable, etc), and panes allows me to categorize/prioritize the type (actions) of my controls. Actualy, I'm using (separate) control reference and property nodes (strict). Unfortunaly, that also means that I have a lot of controls refnum wires, instead one array of refnums.

My idea was to use the VI server reference (This VI) and then using property nodes to acces the references of my contols. This is specialy usefull when you want to create an "Init " SubVI, you just wire the VI server reference of the main VI to the SubVI, and the SubVI looks in the (selected) pane to extract the array of references. It is mainly to have a clearer code (avoid spaggehtis).

I hope my explanations helps..

Best regards

[Ben]

... and the order complicates life by ....

Ben

[Fred_A]

it can be.. 

As I have "manualy" and logicaly builded my controls reference array, I have have 1st my Init button, 2nd Start button, 3rd Load Analysis, 4th Stop Task, 5th Exit application. This order can be usefull when you know that index 0 of array is Init and last element is Exit.. It can help for the rest of the code.

You can also convert the array to cluster, but controls must be the same data type, and it's not always the case..

Fred

[Carmen_Martinez]

Hello all,

This behavior has been reported to the LabVIEW development team under a Correction Action Request (CAR) because for us is clear that the behavior doesn't have a lot of sense.

I will keep you updated with the results.

Best regards