Pull-Down Menus


Keep in mind that LabVIEW's capabilities are many and varied. This book by no means provides an exhaustive list of all of LabVIEW's ins and outs (it would be several thousand pages long if that were the case); instead, we try to get you up to speed comfortably and give you an overview of what you can do. If you want to know everything there is to know about a subject, we'd recommend looking it up in one of LabVIEW's many manuals, attending a seminar, or going to ni.com/labview on the Web. See Appendix E, "Resources for LabVIEW," for an exhaustive list of other resources. Feel free to skim through this section and some of the subsequent ones, but remember that they're here if you need a reference.

LabVIEW has two main types of menus: pull-down and pop-up. You used some of them in the last activity, and you will use both extensively in all of your program development henceforth. Now you will learn more about what they can do. We'll cover pull-down menu items very briefly in this section. You might find it helpful to look through the menus on your computer as we explain them, and maybe experiment a little.

The menu bar at the top of a VI window contains several pull-down menus (in Mac OS X, the menu bar will be at the top of the screen, consistent with other Mac OS X applications). When you click on a menu bar item, a menu appears below the bar. The pull-down menus contain items common to many applications, such as Open, Save, Copy, and Paste, and many other functions particular to LabVIEW. We'll discuss some basic pull-down menu functions here. You'll learn more about the advanced capabilities later.

Many menus also list shortcut keyboard combinations for you to use if you choose. To use keyboard shortcuts, press the appropriate key in conjunction with the <control> key on PCs, the <command> key on Macs, and the <meta> key on Linux.

Many of the menu items show keyboard shortcuts to the right of their corresponding commands. You may want to use the shortcuts instead of the menus. You can customize the menu shortcuts in the Tools>>Options dialog under the Menu Shortcuts section.


File Menu

Pull down the File menu (see Figure 3.32), which contains commands common to many applications, such as Save and Print. You can also create new VIs or open existing ones from the File menu. In addition, you can show VI Properties information and development history from this menu.

Figure 3.32. File menu


Edit Menu

Take a look at the Edit menu (see Figure 3.33). It has some universal commands, like Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste, that let you edit your window. You can also search for objects with the Find and Replace . . . command and remove bad wires from the block diagram.

Figure 3.33. Edit menu


View Menu

In the View menu (see Figure 3.34), you will see options for opening the Controls Palette, Functions Palette, and Tools Palette if you've closed them. You can also show the error list and see a VI's hierarchy. The Browse Relationships submenu contains features to simplify navigation among large sets of VIs, such as determining all of a VI's subVIs and where a VI is used as a subVI.

Figure 3.34. View menu


Project Menu

The Project menu (see Figure 3.35) allows you to open a LabVIEW project or create a new project, as well as operate on the project to which the active VI belongs. If the active VI does not belong to any LabVIEW project, only the Open Project and New Project menu items will be enabled.

Figure 3.35. Project menu


Operate Menu

You can run or stop your program from the Operate menu (see Figure 3.36), although you'll usually use Toolbar buttons. You can also change a VI's default values, control "print and log at completion" features, and switch between run mode and edit mode.

Figure 3.36. Operate menu


Tools Menu

The Tools menu (see Figure 3.37) lets you access built-in and add-on tools and utilities that work with LabVIEW, such as the Measurement & Automation Explorer, where you configure your DAQ devices, or the Web Publishing Tool for creating HTML pages from LabVIEW. You can view and change the myriad of LabVIEW's Options . . ..

Figure 3.37. Tools menu


Window Menu

Pull down the Window menu (see Figure 3.38). Here you can toggle between the front panel and block diagram windows, "tile" both windows so you can see them at the same time, and switch between open VIs.

Figure 3.38. Window menu


Help Menu

You can show, hide, or lock the contents of the Context Help window using the Help menu (see Figure 3.39). You can also access LabVIEW's online reference information and view the About LabVIEW information window.

Figure 3.39. Help menu





LabVIEW for Everyone. Graphical Programming Made Easy and Fun
LabVIEW for Everyone: Graphical Programming Made Easy and Fun (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0131856723
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 294

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