VI High 19: LabVIEW 2011 New Feature - How to Make Plots Visible on Charts and Graphs

Here is a quick and handy feature in LabVIEW 2011 that makes me smile every time I use it. Who wants their signal of interest buried in noise or under other signals? Not I. Now you can see those signals with a quick flick of the right-click.

For more on learning LabVIEW, check out the LabVIEW Fundamentals Course newly updated to LabVIEW 2011: sixclear.com.

Experience Level: Basic

(start transcription)

“In LabVIEW 2011, there are some handy features for viewing plots on charts and graphs.

So I’m going to go back to this and get rid of this Increment function, run it again, and we see that my plots are right on top of each other. Obviously they are separated by color, but what if I want to view just one? Do I have to change the code? Well, in LabVIEW 2011, no. I’m just going to expand the plot legend, so I can see plots 0 and 1, and I can right-click on a plot, and choose to make it not visible. There we go. Now I can easily see plot 0, with plot 1 not there. Obviously, I can switch that around, too.”

(end transcription)

VI High 18: LabVIEW 2011 New Feature - Type Def Improvements

A couple improvements have made working with Type Defs easier, simpler, more straightforward, and other redundant terms. Join us as we take a look at how to take advantage of these changes.

For more on learning LabVIEW, check out the LabVIEW Fundamentals Course newly updated to LabVIEW 2011: sixclear.com.

Experience Level: Basic

(start transcription)

“In LabVIEW 2011, there are a couple of handy changes to Type Defs.

So here’s my Main, containing my Vat Data Type Def. If I go to the block diagram of main, here’s my Type Def, and we see that in the upper left there’s this little glyph. Just to make a point of it, I’ll make a copy of this Type Def and disconnect it, so that this one has no glyph.

Additionally, another handy improvement in LabVIEW 2011 is the ability to create a Type Def from the block diagram. To demonstrate this, I’ll quickly create another cluster on the block diagram, maybe with a numeric, a Boolean, and a string.

Now previously, if I had wanted to make this a Type Def, I would have to right-click on it, Change it to a Control, then go to the front panel, and make it a Type Def because this Advanced option was not available. But as we can see, now it is. So I can just go to Customize, and right here, drop it down, and make this a Type Def.”

(end transcription)

VI High 17: LabVIEW 2011 New Feature - How to Use the Application Builder Clean Command

Continuing on our exploration of new features in LabVIEW 2011, we’re now going to look at the new “Clean” command in the Build Specification menu.

For more on learning LabVIEW, check out the LabVIEW Fundamentals Course newly updated to LabVIEW 2011: sixclear.com.

Experience Level: Basic

(start transcription)

“There are a few new features pertaining to building applications in LabVIEW 2011.

One of them is the Clean feature in the Build Specifications menu. So going back now to this Relative Path, I can see that this is my destination directory for the build. If I build it, I can go look at it right here. This is our Vista test machine, so don’t judge. I can go to build, and here’s my executable, my INI file, the data, etc.

Now let’s say that I look at this and realize that something’s wrong. I run this or I want to change something. Well, I could go and clean all these out, delete them all myself. This is a relatively simple application, so this can be done, but for more complex applications, this could be a pain. If I go back to the relative path, right-click on it, and go to Clean, as you can see, that’s all gone. Then I can go back into my Build Specifications menu and reconfigure my edited options.’”

(end transcription)

VI High 16: LabVIEW 2011 New Feature - How to Create a SubVI

We took a bit of a VI High summer vacation (stretching well into fall…) but we’re back with several new, shorter videos on new features in LabVIEW 2011. Our first one has to do with the improvements in creating subVIs.

For more on learning LabVIEW, check out the LabVIEW Fundamentals Course newly updated to LabVIEW 2011: sixclear.com.

Experience Level: Basic

(start transcription)

“In LabVIEW 2011, there are some improvements when you create subVI’s. So if I were to click and highlight this section of code, go to Edit, and then Create SubVI, my SubVI has been made.

I double-click, open up the front panel, and we see that we have a connector pane right here, with our connections already made. So if I click on the terminal, I see the corresponding object highlighted.

I can always change this pattern, so the default pattern in LabVIEW 2011 is 4x2x2x4. I can always right-click, go to Patterns, and see other available ones. Though, this is the recommended.

If I go to my block diagram, of course, I see the code, or the subVI. Right now, we just have Untitled 1 (SubVI), so I’ll go to Save, and I’ll call it, ‘Area of a Triangle subVI 2.’”

(end transcription)