Available in LabVIEW 2012. In LabVIEW 2012 and higher, you have the ability to select multiple items on a block diagram (like elements in a cluster) and have a common right-click menu items available (like Visible Items>>Labels)
Here's how we currently make cluster element labels appear, and a proposed idea for improvement.
This is a must have. Even if you went in and did it manually the next time the cluster changes you lose the labels. It's always been like that and it's always annoying.
PaulG.
LabVIEW versions 5.0 - 2023
“All programmers are optimists” ― Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
I agree this would be nice. I often do this operation manually.
What about more complicated data structures. For example if we have clusters of clusters, should it only do the toplevel or recursively also apply the operation to subclusters? I think toplevel is sufficient and less messy.
I like this idea, but why put the labels to the side instead of on top? To my eyes, the ragged alignment makes it hard to scan for a particular element. Thoughts?
> but why put the labels to the side instead of on top?
I guess it depends on how the elements are arranged. If we do a vertical arrangement AND have many element, placing the labels on the side prevents the cluster from becoming gigantic vertically. This is typically the case in my applications. At the moment we don't have control over the vertical alignment if we auto-arrange, but one solution here would be to e.g. vertically align the edges where the label meets the control by default. Or we could try to ensure that all elements have the same width, which is probably not always possible..
OTOH, for tiny clusters, the label on top might be better ...
(It is one current shortcoming of the cluster autoarrange operations that if we select e.g. " arrange vertically", the horizontal alignement is also forced (=left aligned) for no real obvious reason. . I typically align vertically, then disable all autosizing and do some manual horizontal shifting for a clearer look. That might belong into another idea though... ;))
Excellent idea. This has always been a huge annoyance for me.
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