File Name: Frontpanel Tool
File Submitter: i2dx
File Submitted: 25 Oct 2006
File Updated: 26 Oct 2006
File Category: LabVIEW Development Environment

IBB Frontpanel Tool V 2.0.4
Copyright © 2006, Christian Berger
All rights reserved.

Author:
Christian Berger
christian.berger@ib-berger.com
http://www.ib-berger.com/

Description
1. What is this tool good for?
This tool was made to set front panel properties in LabVIEW 8.20 programmatically. You can define in a text-comment how the front panel should look like, place this comment in the block-diagram and let the tool do the rest

2. Why was this tool made?
I have created this tool, for one main reason:
Sometimes it's annoying to debug running code, if you have dialogs with the FP properties "open when called" and "modal" set. With this tool you can define, how the FP should look like at runtime, e.g. in your compiled release, and work with the default VI front panel appearance during the development.

3. How to install and use this tool?
just drop the ibbfptool.llb into your \project directory, restart LabVIEW and use the "Frontpanel Tool" entry from the "tools" palette.

4. How is this working?
just create a text comment on the block-diagram which must have the following format:

First Line: WINDOW APPEARANCE
n++ Line(s):
SetPanes2Zero={TRUE | FALSE} - Set Origin of all Panes to 0:0?
TitleBarVisible={TRUE | FALSE} - Window has title bar?
MenuBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show menu bar?
vScrollBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show vertical scroll bar?
hScrollBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show horizontal scroll bar?
ToolBar={TRUE | FALSE} - Show toolbar when running?
AbortBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Abort button?
RunBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Run button?
ContRunBtn={TRUE | FALSE} - Show Run Continuously button?
ShowWhenCalled={TRUE | FALSE} - Show front panel when called?
CloseAfterCall={TRUE | FALSE} - Close afterwards if originally closed?
ShowWhenLoaded={TRUE | FALSE} - Show front panel when loaded?
Behaviour={1..4} - Window behaviour: 1=default, 2=floating 3=floating & auto hide, 4=modal
RunTransparently={TRUE | FALSE} - Window runs transparently?
transparency={0..100} - Transparency: from 0 to 100 [maybe no good idea?]
Closeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to close window?
Resizeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to resize window?
Minimizeable={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow user to minimize window?
RunTimeShortCutMenus={TRUE | FALSE} - Allow default run-time shortcut menus?
HiliteReturnButton={TRUE | FALSE} - Highlight Boolean

for example:
WINDOW APPEARANCE
SetPanes2Zero=TRUE
TitleBarVisible=TRUE
MenuBar=TRUE
vScrollBar=FALSE
hScrollBar=FALSE
ToolBar=FALSE
which would set the properties, when you run the tool.
The Properties NOT mentioned in the text are set to DEFAULT Properties!

5. create (own) Shortcuts and modify the code
This tool has already built in 2 Shortcuts:
WINDOW APPEARANCE
DIALOG
which sets the FP Appearance to LabVIEW Dialog default

and
WINDOW APPEARANCE
STANDARD
which sets the FP Appearance to LabVIEW default

You can create your own shortcuts, if you want/need to:
Open the VI IBBTools_Search FP Behaviour Desc.vi and add a case after "DIALOG" and set the properties according to your needs.

6. how do I use that tool?
Run the tool from the Tools palette, select the TOP LEVEL VI and choose "set" or "unset", the tool will go down the COMPLETE VI HIERARCHY and set the FP Properties for every VI, where it can find a valid "WINDOW APPEARANCE" comment.

Use the "set" / "unset" checkbox to choose whether to SET the Properties as described in the comment or UNSET the properties, which means, that the Window appearance is set to LabVIEW default Window Appearance.

There are 2 example VIs (testVI.vi and 2ndtestVI.vi) where you can check this out!

License:
this software is published under the terms of the GPL.

Click here to download this file

One thing I noticed was that one of your dialog boxes had text in German. It's fed by a constant on the diagram.

ok, thank you.
I will fix that with the next release, which is allready in work and which will have 2 new features:
1: you can select, if you want to go down the entire hierarchy or not
2: you can select, whether you want to use the last changed VI (-hierarchy) or the "Menu Call VI" by default

EDIT:
V 2.0.5 is availiable,
the dialog is now in english and I added the 2 features

I download just after registering LAVA.
Would you please explain how to install the icon editor step by step?
For example, where is ibbfptool.llb?
Thanks.

the file ibbfptool.llb is in the zip file you just downloaded. there is also a readmy file, which explains how to use this tool.

Copy the ibbfptool.llb into the "project" folder of your LabVIEW installation, restart LabVIEW and you should find a new entry in the "Tools" menu.

Anyway: I have to admit, I do not longer use this tool (I have a new one ...) therefore it's not longer supported ...

So where is the new one?

still beta <sigh>* and "not worth to be released to a pro community "

and I dramatically reduced the functionality, because there is no need to set each parameter separate. You can only switch between "default", "dialog" and "floating dialog" now - which is sufficient for my needs.