Format Numeric.vi

[crossrulz]

In response to a couple of ideas from the Idea Exchange (here and here), I was inspired to make a quick drop shortcut to attempt to accomadate the spirit of the ideas: a better way to format your numeric controls, indicators, and constants.  So here is my plug in.

To install

Put VI in the <LabVIEW>\resource\dialog\QuickDrop\plugins folder.

How to use

1. Open quick drop (Ctrl+Space)
2. Type in the format specifier you want (I will use %02x as an example).
   • You can also use "dec", "hex", "oct", "bin", and "si" to act in a more generic way.  Hex, Oct, and Bin have the benefit of the number of characters visible will be dependent on the representation and will force the radix to be visible.
3. Press Ctrl+N (N for numeric)
4. Any controls, constants, or indicators that you selected that can accept that format will be set to display in that format

Release Notes:

V2.0 - Added ability to use generic notation to set all controls/constants selected (ex: hex).

The VI is saved in 2011.

[Manudelavega]

Very nice. I like the idea of displaying the radix automatically.

[crossrulz]

I was working on another plugin and realized I could make some good improvements to this one.  So I did!

You can now type in "dec", "hex", "oct", "bin", or "si" (case insensitive) into the QD to set the formatting based on the numeric representation.  And to take care of one of my want-to-haves, the hex, oct, and bin force the radix to be visible; dec and si leaves the radix visible property alone.