In this tutorial, you will see different properties of a VI and you will also learn the basics of hoe to customize a VI. All of the properties cannot be explained in a single tutorial; hence the reader is encouraged to learn the remaining properties through self study.
VI properties Labview front panel
Properties of a VI can be customized in several ways using LabVIEW, as it provides numerous options to do so. If you are interested in customizing the properties of a VI select File and then select VI Properties, or follow the steps given below,
- On the upper right corner of the block diagram of a VI click right.
- From the shortcut menu select VI properties.
We can also customize the properties of a subVI during call to that subVI, by using the node setup dialog box.
Properties of a VI can also be customized programmatically.
Explanation using a VIÂ
- Open a blank VI as you have done in tutorial 1. In this tutorial the main task to achieve is to study the properties of a VI that can be customized.
- Hence there will be no as such program to explain the properties but only the explanation of customizing them. We can access the VI properties dialog box by right clicking of the upper right VI icon on the block diagram as shown in the figure below,
Figure 1: Accessing properties with the help icon
- We can also access the properties dialog box by clicking on the file and then selecting VI properties from the dropdown as shown in the figure below,
Figure 2 : Accessing VI properties by file
- Or the keyboard shortcut to access VI properties is <Ctrl+I>. The dialog box which will appear after clicking on the VI properties is shown in the figure below,
Figure 3: VI properties dialog box
- The first customizable property of a VI is general section. General shown the location and the current revision, of the particular VI, whose properties you are customizing. It also gives the option to edit the icon of the VI as shown in the figure below,
Figure 4: Edit icon button
- This option open a dialog box that will change the size and graphics of the VI icon to the one you customize from the option given in it. The figure below shows the edit icon dialog box.
Figure 5: Edit icon dialog Box
- There is also a revision history present in the general block as you can see from the figure.
Figure 6: Revision history
- This will allow you to see the LabView history according to the setting you have assigned to the revision history in the revision history block (to be discussed later). The figure below shows all the properties of a VI that you can customize in LabView.
Figure 7: Properties dropdown
- The property block next to general block is Memory usage. The memory usage block is shown in the figure below.
Figure 8: Memory usage block
- This block provides us with the information of how much memory is being consumed by the current VI. This includes the memory used by the blocks and objects of front panel and block diagram and most importantly how much memory on the disk is used by the complexity of the code. This also provides us with the information of total memory usage of the VI.
- The next property is documentation. This property allows us to write the description of the VI in words. See the figure below,
Figure 9: Documentation block
- As well as it allows you to add the help tags also. You can also change the help feature you want to use i.e. whether you want to use the local help from the built-in LabView help feature or you want to take help from the web as shown in the figure below,
Figure 10: Help in documentation
- There is also a help path insertion box available. You can add the path of the file or feature from where you want to take help during coding at the time of call.
- The next property from the dropdown is Revision History. The revision history property box is shown in the figure below,
Figure 11: Revision history block
- This block allows you to choose whether you want the history of the program to be generated at every run time instant by the default LabView settings, or if you want to override these properties to your own choice. By un-checking the block shown in the figure below, you can change the settings of the revision history which was default initially.
Figure 12: Manual settings of revision history
- These properties allow you to add the history of every new VI as you can see from the figure above. You can also view the current revision history of a Labview VI from the button shown in the figure of the revision history block, as shown in the figure below,
Figure 13: Current revision history
- The next property is Edit Options. Edit option property window is shown in the figure below,
Figure 14: Edit options
- This block allows you to change the view or icons of the block diagram or front panels’ objects. You can change the front panel and block diagram size as well as their style.
- Next property is Protection. Protection is the most interesting property of the VI. You can lock, unlock your VI and also make it password protected. See the figure below,
Figure 15: Protection
- You can also lock your VI (the user will have to unlock the VI for viewing it), by checking the Locked button from the protection section as shown in the figure below,
Figure 16: Locked VI
- You can also make your VI password protected by selecting the option shown in the figure below,
Figure 17: Password protected VI
- By using this feature, the user can only run the VI and see its results and he will not be able to see the block diagram and its functionality without entering the password by which you have locked the VI.
- Next property of VI is Window Appearance. This property allows us to change the appearance of our window as shown in the figure below,
Figure 18: Windows’ appearance
- You can also customize the appearance of the window by using the customize block shown below,
Figure 19: Customizing windows’ appearance
- All these properties are very straight forward and you can use them on your own.
- Next property is window size which allows us to change the size of the window, refer to the figure below,
Figure 20: Window size
- As the name suggest it deals with the size of the window of you current VI.
- Next is Window runtime position. The block of window runtime position is shown in the figure below,
Figure 21: Window runtime position
- It allows us to maintain the position of the window during runtime. By default it provides us with 5 different positions, but we can also customize the runtime position of the window as shown in the figure below,
Figure 22: Customizing runtime position
- Next property is Execution. Block of execution property is shown in the figure below,
Figure 23: Execution property
- This property block will allow you to change the priority of the execution according to you choice,
Figure 24: Priority selection
- It is your choice that during runtime the complicated tasks are done at which priority as compared to the simpler task. It also allows you to select preferred tasks, which selects which processor you want to use for you execution.
- Next and last property is Print Option. This block allows you to select the printing of the VI you made. See the figure below,
Figure 25: Printing property
- This will change the printing settings of the VI you just designed in this section. It also allows you to select the setting where the system automatically print the VI everytime the code is compiled as shown in the figure below,
Figure 26: Automatic printing
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