In keeping with the theme from last week, I thought I'd add another confession to the pile
In keeping with the theme from last week, I thought I'd add another confession to the pile. This time, I'm referring to using the OpenG Library. Thanks to generous contributions of the LabView community, a very useful library of VIs has been developed, tested, and expanded over quite a few years.
How many times have you checked to see if an array is empty, checked whether a file exists, or had an error while trying to save into a non-existent directory? Like me, you've probably written a handful of chunks of code over and over, repeating the same task. Your first tour around the OpenG toolkit will probably have you slapping your forehead saying, "Why didn't I ever write a SubVI for that?"
Some of my favorites are:
Draw Image from File: Loads a BMP, JPG, or PNG into a picture control
Write INI Cluster: Dumps all the data from clusters into an INI file format
Tick Count (with Error): Simply adds error in and out clusters to the tick count VI
ZIP Compress and Extract: Sure showed up in recent versions of LabVIEW, but this was a godsend a few years ago.
Recently, installation was simplified by Jim Kring and his team at JKISoft with the VIPM (VI Package Manager). To install the OpenG Toolkit, you first install the VIPM and then selectively install the toolkits you want.
The toolkits are well-documented, and some are equipped with examples to be installed into the "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW X.X\examples\OpenG" directory.
Please watch the video below for a quick tour and some discussion of my favorite OpenG VIs.
As always, please feel free to add your comments below, including your favorites.
Ben Zimmer
-- LabVIEW Mastery Team
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Added: 4 months ago
Views: 459
In this inaugural Tip Jar posting, I thought it would be fitting to start with a confessio
In this inaugural Tip Jar posting, I thought it would be fitting to start with a confession: "My name is Ben Zimmer, and I'm an Example Finder user."
Sometimes, even experts can benefit from having a pre-fabricated starting point. Perhaps this is not such a dirty little secret, but quite often, when I start writing a Data Acquisition VI, I'll go straight to the Example Finder for a quick fix of ready-made code. When I'm desperate for some quasi-3D animation in an XY graph, I do a keyword search for Lissajous. Sometimes, when I really want to test a potential employee or a really bright student, I give them the Herculean task of explaining the "XY Chart" Example.
LabVIEW ships with many great examples, a huge number of mediocre (but still useful) examples, and a few real clunkers. You can find them quickly and easily using the Example Finder. Access the Example finder from either the Getting Started Page, or from the Help Menu.
Please watch the video below for a quick tour and some discussion of how to get the most of the Example Finder in your applications.
As always, please feel free to add your comments below, including your favorite examples.
Ben Zimmer
-- LabVIEW Mastery Team
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Added: 4 months ago
Views: 313
In this video, we examine the smart stack functional global.
This video is from a serie
In this video, we examine the smart stack functional global.
This video is from a series developed by Enable Training and Consulting, examining Advanced-level LabVIEW techniques, called our "Professional Course".
For more information, or to sign up for a free trial, please visit our website: www.labviewmastery.com.
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Added: 7 months ago
Views: 424
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In this video, we examine what happens when you replace a numeric with an enum in a state
In this video, we examine what happens when you replace a numeric with an enum in a state machine.
This video is from a series developed by Enable Training and Consulting, examining Advanced-level LabVIEW techniques, called our "Professional Course".
For more information, or to sign up for a free trial, please visit our website: www.labviewmastery.com.
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Added: 7 months ago
Views: 430
In this video, we examine basic state machines.
This video is from a series developed b
In this video, we examine basic state machines.
This video is from a series developed by Enable Training and Consulting, examining Intermediate-level LabVIEW techniques, called our "Applications Course".
For more information, or to sign up for a free trial, please visit our website: www.labviewmastery.com.
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Added: 7 months ago
Views: 430
In this video, we create simple LabVIEW code with a string indicator displaying "Hello Wor
In this video, we create simple LabVIEW code with a string indicator displaying "Hello World".
This video is from a series developed by Enable Training and Consulting, examining Beginner LabVIEW techniques.
For more information, or to sign up for a free trial, please visit our website: www.labviewmastery.com.
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Added: 7 months ago
Views: 852
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