Quick Drop Enthusiasts

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Proposal: 'Wire Multiple Objects Together' shortcut should clean up created wires

The Wire Multiple Objects Together shortcut (Ctrl-Space+Ctrl-W, LabVIEW 2014 and later) will wire the selected objects together, prioritizing reference and error wires. If you press Ctrl-Shift-W, it will wire the objects together, then do a diagram cleanup on the whole selection (both nodes and wires).

 

I received some feedback on twitter recently that the fact that Ctrl-W does *not* clean up the created wires can cause confusion and unclear diagrams.

 

Proposal: When pressing Ctrl-W to wire multiple objects together, the created wires will be cleaned up. The selected objects will *not* be cleaned up (you have to use the existing Ctrl-Shift-W behavior for that).

 

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with the proposal to have Ctrl-W do a cleanup of created wires.

Message 1 of 10
(4,209 Views)

My majority use-case for ctrl+shift+w is when I've drop multiple VIs from the same API (e.g., DAQmx) and want to wire them together.  I used to almost always first do an align to top edges and then ctrl+w before doing the shift one time by accident.  Had I known that ctrl+shift+w essentially accomplishes that for me, I would have done it all along.

 

I guess that's an argument to make ctrl+w do cleanup (so users get that behavior by default without needing to know to hit shift).  Then again the shift kind of implies doing "more" (as in the case of multiple instead of one wire with ctrl+shift+i), so that side of me thinks ctrl+w should NOT do cleanup.  I think I'm leaning towards the second argument (leave things as they are).  Either way it's a case of read the documentation.

0 Kudos
Message 2 of 10
(4,182 Views)

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, we've only got two gestures (Ctrl-W, Ctrl-Shift-W), but there are three possible desired outcomes:

 

1. Wire objects, no cleanup of anything.

2. Wire objects, clean up objects and wires.

3. Wire objects, clean up only wires.

 

Items (1) and (2) are already taken care of today with Ctrl-W and Ctrl-Shift-W. My proposal is basically claiming that (1) is less desirable than (3), so we should switch Ctrl-W to do (3) instead of (1), and leave Ctrl-Shift-W doing (2) as it always has. It sounds like you're saying that (1) is more desirable than (3)? That's why I'm gathering feedback I guess, to see if more people agree with Joerg (his twitter post is linked above) or with you.

Message 3 of 10
(4,174 Views)

Ah, I didn't even consider 3 as an option.  It sounded like, per Joerg's post, that just knowing about ctrl+shift+w (i.e., option 2) would have solved his problem, but I see now that it's performing two cleanup actions: clean up wires (which solves Joerg's direct complain) and clean up objects (which does some alignment/repositioning of objects, which a user may well not want).  I am totally on board with making ctrl+w do option 3 (fix wires under objects, but leave objects where they are) and ctrl+shift+w do option 2 (full cleanup of wires and objects).

Message 4 of 10
(4,168 Views)

I am in favor of proposed change.

Kosta
Message 5 of 10
(4,156 Views)

I also throw my kudos toward the change.  I usually don't like the spacing that I am given with block diagram cleanup, so I don't like using the Ctl+Shift+W.  But the update will save me a step (selecting all of the wires and cleaning them up).


GCentral
There are only two ways to tell somebody thanks: Kudos and Marked Solutions
Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" - 2 Corinthians 3:5
0 Kudos
Message 6 of 10
(4,129 Views)

Barring unforeseen difficulties, this change will be in LabVIEW 2020. If you want to try it now in LabVIEW 2019, replace the following files with the ones attached to this reply and if you get a chance to try it out, let me know how it works for you.

 

resource/dialog/QuickDrop/plugins/Wire Multiple Objects Together.vi

resource/dialog/QuickDrop/plugins/_WireMultipleSupport/Connect Valid Terminals.vi

resource/dialog/QuickDrop/plugins/_WireMultipleSupport/Match Source and Sink Terminals.vi

resource/dialog/QuickDrop/plugins/_WireMultipleSupport/Wire Non-Nodes to Nodes.vi

 

(standard disclaimer: backup shipping LabVIEW files before replacing them, etc. etc.)

 

Note: If you decide you prefer the pre-2020 behavior, you can add the following token to your INI file to disable wire cleanup on Ctrl-W and get the 2019 and previous behavior: NI.LV.WireMultiple.NoWireCleanup=TRUE

Message 7 of 10
(4,057 Views)

@Darren wrote:

Barring unforeseen difficulties, this change will be in LabVIEW 2020. If you want to try it now in LabVIEW 2019, replace the following files with the ones attached to this reply and if you get a chance to try it out, let me know how it works for you.


I went ahead and back saved for 2016 (which I am actively developing in) if anybody wants to try it out in an older version.


GCentral
There are only two ways to tell somebody thanks: Kudos and Marked Solutions
Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" - 2 Corinthians 3:5
Message 8 of 10
(4,040 Views)

@crossrulz wrote:

I went ahead and back saved for 2016 (which I am actively developing in) if anybody wants to try it out in an older version.


Thanks, I was meaning to ask if anything speaks against that...




DSH Pragmatic Software Development Workshops (Fab, Steve, Brian and me)
Release Automation Tools for LabVIEW (CI/CD integration with LabVIEW)
HSE Discord Server (Discuss our free and commercial tools and services)
DQMH® (The Future of Team-Based LabVIEW Development)


0 Kudos
Message 9 of 10
(4,027 Views)

this proposal seems the best one.

0 Kudos
Message 10 of 10
(4,000 Views)