tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40499116921825223372011-12-06T08:47:11.702-08:00A tutorial to jumpstart LabView learning.Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-18848018382579289842011-02-11T14:46:00.000-08:002011-02-11T14:46:02.109-08:00

I have added a store to the Useful Links column to the left. Several highly rated and reasonably current LabView books are available there. Several are geared specifically to beginners. It is worth checking out, and any transactions go directly through Amazon.com, but help to support this site as well. There are also some other categories in the store unrelated to LabView development, such as

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This post will share a design pattern that can be used in a serious GUI based application where several events must occur based on button presses. While LabView does have an event handling structure, this state machine can contain states based on button presses, but can also be extended to contain other cases (states) which execute in sequence as specified.For this post, rather than show the

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For those who are using Express VIs to do data acquisition, you will often find that you get a thick purple wire and may find it difficult to work with. You would rather have the usual floating point (orange) array of data points so you can use the standard array VIs to manipulate data and pull single points from the data.It turns out that there is a waveform menu:The "Get Waveform Components"

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It has been some time since I've updated this tutorial. There is a decent start to learning LabView, but certainly many more lessons that I could write. This post is intended for those of you who have found this site useful in the past and sent comments about how you appreciate this site.You may e-mail me at acy061679@gmail.com if you have a question about how to accomplish something in LabView.

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-83714331355825593612008-07-09T17:31:00.000-07:002008-07-09T17:54:13.665-07:00

A design pattern is a high level architecture or structure by which a program can be implemented. Part of software engineering is to choose the optimal design patterns to meet your goals in implementing an application. There are many design patterns that you can follow in LabView, but one in particular almost always works for any application and provides a flexible framework by which to expand

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-3292066423386352202008-06-30T18:13:00.000-07:002008-06-30T18:30:47.802-07:00

The shift register is a key element of LabView programming. It allows looping structures, such as the For and While loop, to carry over values from one iteration into the next. This can be extremely powerful in allowing the developer to build up arrays of information, or retain state information about a program running in a loop.For starters, let us look at how to create a shift register. Right

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From the last example, place an array container next to the cluster control and then drag the entire cluster into the array container:Expand the array so you can see multiple elements by left click / dragging the bottom of the array container:Type in some information. Note that you can provide different information for each cluster element of the array.Here is an example in code of how you would

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Below is the block diagram with a terminal for the newly added cluster. Note that clusters are purple (and can also be brown) in some cases. Also shown is the menu for cluster functions with "Unbundle" about to be selected.Below is another menu option "Unbundle by Name". These functions are similar, but unbundle by name is preferred by most experienced LabView programmers. You will see why

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Clusters in LabView are similar to "Structures" in C or other programming languages. Clusters provide a way of organizing multiple pieces of data that are not of the same type. In the previous lesson, you saw that arrays provide a way to store and index multiple pieces of information that are of the same type. Clusters provide a similar capability for unrelated data types. However, the pieces of

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If you have programmed in other languages, arrays should be a familiar concept. If not, then it will take some time to familiarize yourself with them. All the controls and indicators you have seen so far have a data type associated with them. They might be a number or a string, but they all contain only one value. An array allows you to keep track of multiple values. You can think of it as a list

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-12051748648249971402007-12-08T10:57:00.000-08:002008-06-25T17:18:25.551-07:00

In this chapter, a quick summary of common structures will be provided to get an idea of how one may use them in their code. You have seen how the while loop can be applied in a simple example in the previous chapter. You also know that you can draw structures on the block diagram by simply dragging a box. Here are the most common LabView structures:Here is what they do:While loop - The top left

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-69812619028628129412007-11-25T13:29:00.000-08:002008-01-09T18:37:28.359-08:00

Without structures, LabView would be just a mesh of wires with no way to control the order and timing of the things that occur. However, structures make LabView a true programming language. For those with experience programming in languages such as C, LabView structures are essentially identical to flow control or conditional statements.All LabView structures are placed on the block diagram by

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-12456947524519794442007-11-25T13:14:00.000-08:002008-01-09T18:37:16.234-08:00

Armed with the following knowledge the groundwork is in place to learn LabView:Block DiagramFront PanelSubVIs, Icons, Connector PanesNavigating Menus The rest of your learning will follow a consistent process of exploring the block diagram and front panel menus for new controls, indicators, and logic elements to place and wire.You are ALMOST at the point where you could begin to learn by simply

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-85366739787760906022007-11-25T11:56:00.000-08:002008-01-09T18:37:00.581-08:00

SubVIs are an important introductory concept in LabView. A VI is a "Virtual Instrument" which is just the basic labview program, contained in a .VI file, which is represented by a front panel and block diagram. However, every VI can also be a SubVI. The third component of a VI consists of its icon and connector pane. These two pieces make every VI capable of becoming a SubVI.So, what exactly is a

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-36530427822905581062007-09-12T22:46:00.000-07:002008-01-09T18:36:49.409-08:00

At this point in the lesson, I would like to go over some options that are selectable from the LabView Options menu (Tools -> Options). Following are some pictures to give you an idea of the options I am describing.Envrionment Menu:Block Diagram Menu:First, in the environment menu you will see "Lock automatic tool selection". If you turn this option off, then the cursor will no longer

Tony Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00910297969938751505noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4049911692182522337.post-80012140433129854032007-09-12T19:30:00.001-07:002008-01-09T18:36:34.624-08:00

LabView is a dataflow language. Most programming languages that are popular today are NOT dataflow languages. So what is unique about a dataflow language?Most programming languages involve typing a list of commands that are run in the order they appear. Dataflow languages consist of nodes that run as soon as they can and many can run in parallel. A node is anything that waits for input(s) and

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At this point the goal is to get the hang of the user interface for doing LabView development. Once you are used to the ways that things work, you will be more adept at finding things on your own and learning from the more advanced and specific examples that are typically available throughout the web.As you have seen previously, a screenshot of the menus can help you quickly find something that

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When you start LabView 8, you will see the Getting Started screen. Earlier versions may not have this screen and may automatically come up with a blank program. To get started trying things on your own, you will want to click "Blank VI" under the "New" Section on the left. "Empty Project" would start a new project. LabView Projects are a relatively new feature and not necessary to learn at this

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I am a software engineer with nearly a decade of experience using National Instruments' LabView. I have worked at consulting firms that use primarily LabView and National Instruments products for various turnkey projects. I have also use LabView throughout much of my career in conjunction with embedded firmware development on various products in a variety of industries. My intent with this blog

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