What is your strategy in managing multiple opened subvi windows during rush hour?

[sunflower2772]

In Labview sometimes I need to work with 3 subvis simutaneously, this means 6 windows, coming from a visual basic background with only one window opened most of time, Labview clutterness just drives me insane.  :womanmad:  

I have to maximize a particular window to work on it, then minimize it. Then I have to find a particular window by perusing through the tiny headers of 6 windows. Sometimes I cannot take it anymore, I just close all the windows leaving just two window to work with, but each time I close a window I have to waste time clicking that defer decision to save button. 

I tried using the MiniMIZE software to make the clutterness less, http://minimize.en.softonic.com/ , but each time I want to access a background thumbnail window, I have to reduce the size of two big active window in order to get to the thumbnail window hiding behind. This waste time.  

I want to try on the more than I can bite CLD exam and I heard in that exam need to do things lightning fast. 

So I am curious to know how you handle the many windows when working with labview, do you cascade or stack the windows? Or you just work with two windows each time, and close and open subvi frequently?  :womantongue:

:womansurprised:

[smercurio_fc]

Only 3 subVIs? Get back to me when you have more like 30 subVIs open, which is my usual modus operandi.

Your screenshot shows you using Windows 7, so in this case the grouping of the windows within the LabVIEW taskbar icon would be of great use to you. Another alternative is to use 2 monitors. Place the project file on the second monitor so you can easily select VIs by double-clicking on them. You can also use the Window menu.

You may wish to vote for this idea: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/LabVIEW-IDE-Overhaul/idi-p/952251

[GregFreeman]

Let me just commend you on what look to be very clean diagrams for someone coming from a text programming background (at least from what I can see). Yes, it is difficult to manage but you really don't have any great options as of now. Hopefully, as was mentioned by smercurio, there will be an idea implemented to make this easier. But in the mean time, I just try to give my subVIs meaningful names so I can navigate to them more easily via the task bar.

[F._Schubert]

LV is behaving a bit unusual, I agree. But over time I got used to this, and now I'm disturbed by the 'strange' look'n'feel of the eclipse IDE 😉

Use the windows task bar as mentioned. Use Ctrl+W to close VIs you are done with (most of the time it's a moving through a hierarchy of vi's with double clicking on the icons on the way down and then closing until I'm back at the current working level).

Felix

[GregFreeman]

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@f. Schubert wrote:

Use Ctrl+W to close VIs you are done with  

Felix

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Does it bother you that ctrl + E is right next to ctrl+W? Gotta love when I try to show the block diagram but instead close the VI !

[johnsold]

Select it from the Window menu?  On the Mac at least this gives a list of all open VI FP and BD windows.  If there are a lot of them you have to select All Windows... (for which there is a keyboard shortcut--- hmmmmm...., I should learn that one!) and choose from the list which appears in a new window.

When I have more VIs open than i can easily see at one time, I just select the one I want from the menu.  I also keep most of the windows slightly staggered, so that one edge or corner shows and I can just click to bring it to the front.

Lynn

[F._Schubert]

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Does it bother you that ctrl + E is right next to ctrl+W? Gotta love when I try to show the block diagram but instead close the VI !

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Only happens to me the other way round. So I only need to use ctrl+w ctrl+w.

One more trick I use (Win XP on an old notebook with low resolution): You can expand the win taskbar by dragging the border. So more windows show up with the full name.

OT but related to the goal of the OP: Learn/Use quickdrop. If programming speed is all that counts (CLD), this the proven power-booster.

Felix

[ABCPrograms]

Sunflower,

If you want to learn fast programming, it might be a good idea to learn the shortcut keys by heart.  That's a hell lot faster then going through the menu's.

e.g.

CTRL+B ; CTRL+N ; CTRL+W ; CTRL+Q ; ...

I know a lot of people will not agree with me, but for me in particular, the tab key works faster then the autotool to select a tool, but that's maybe because I'm "oldschool" 😉

Good luck on your CLD, it's not that hard.  The time is more critical.  (Learn producer-consumer loops for sure 😉 )

[Mark_Yedinak]

Multiple monitors also helps.

[DFGray]

I usually put my VIs in the top left corner and my project in the top right.  I open a VI by double-clicking it in the project.  That way I get the organization of the project and don't have to deal with a huge flat list like I get in the Windows 7 toolbar.  For smaller numbers of VIs, I do use the Windows 7 toolbar view.  The Win7 toolbar is also useful for finding the project if it gets hidden under a larger VI (although I try to avoid larger VIs).

If you are flipping between two VIs constantly, Alt-TAB works well.  It will move you to the last opened window.

Note, it is not unusual for me to have anywhere from ten to fifty VIs open at once.