Place error-in and error-out at same time.

[_Ian_]

Most of the time when I want an error control I find a terminal, right-click, create indicator/control etc and in future will probably use the block diagram error constant .

However, at other times, I want to start from scratch with a blank vi and need to navigate the palettes.

It always annoys me that if I am working on a front panel and want to place an error-in control, I then have to repeat the action to put down a corresponding error-out indicator (or ctrl-drag, right click, change to indicator). It is pretty rare that I would want one without the other!

I propose the option to put both down at once, for example, by ctrl-clicking the palettes to make a multiple selection (i.e. similar to 'normal' windows based selection behaviour).

(I was going to suggest making ctrl-clicking for multiple selections standard across the palettes, but I can't think of any other sensible occasions where it would be useful)

[crossrulz]

personally, I made a VI with just the error in and error out terminals and put it in the palettes using the "Place VI Contents" option.  The down side is that I have to call it on the block diagram and then move the error clusters to where I want them on the front panel.  It would be great if I could either do this on the front panel or do as you suggested.

[X.]

I would definitely vote for being able to select several objects at once (like grocery shopping: you don't park your cart next to the register and fetch one item at a time, put it in the cart, go back to the same aisle, etc).

[_Ian_]

As I said, I don't think there would be many occasions where selecting multiples would be too useful as the useful combinations (e.g. numeric constant and 'plus' primitive) are quite correctly on different palettes. 

I disagree with your grocery analogy - let me rewrite it as follows; in grocery shopping I do pick up and apple from the vegetable aisle and put it in my basket, I then walk to the tinned goods and pick up a tin (i.e. pick an item from one palette, place it, move to the next palette select an item etc) Thats fine, thats what we have. It would be silly for a good shop to keep the apples with the tins just on the off chance that this is what I need.

What I'm saying here is more akin to picking up a couple of apples and putting it in the basket, then picking up a bag to put the apples in and putting that in the basket, then grovelling around trying to put the apples in the bag at the bottom of the basket. Why can't I pick a bag of apples ready made?

Not a huge deal, but it annoyed me enough to suggest it.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I like the idea of adding a merge VI to the palettes that can drop both controls simultaneously.

[elset191]

I think I would like to be able to select multiple items, but I don't know how often I would use it.  The one scenario that jumps out is when I'm wiring up some equation and need to drop a lot of things off the numeric palette.  It would save a lot of mouse movement to the palette and back.

[X.]

elset191, that's exactly what I was thinking about (sorry if the grocery shopping analogy did not cut it). When I usually go "shopping" for Array functions, for instance, I have things in mind that require a bunch of tools. I am just saying it could save some time to be able to grab those all at once...

[Darin.K]

For this use case, VI templates could be your friend.  On a few occasions I have advocated for a simple method to drop a .vit file to a specified location to be used in the case of New VI.  There is a way to hack into a LV callback VI, but that is not really a clean solution.  A while back I hacked LV this way so that my new VIs come preloaded with the Error In/Out and some other default settings I like.  Personally, I write about 10-20 subVIs for each UI VI, so I am deleting the controls a small fraction of the time instead of adding them most of the time.  As a bonus they are already wired as well.

For me, waiting for the New... dialog and picking a template is a bit too slow.  I could drop two controls in less time.  I'd like a middle ground, a New menu item, 'New VI from Template ->' which then autopopulates a list of templates stored in a specified location.  (Similar behavior to the Tools menu).

The *other* solution I would have for your problem is the ability to say Dbl-click on a palette item and just have it dropped onto the FP/BD without closing the palette.   Instead of grocery shopping, I'll use a jigsaw puzzle analogy.  I like to dump the pieces out of the box and then put them together.  I don't dig around the box, pull out one piece and then put it in place.

[crossrulz]

I just found out about a (sort of a) hack.  When editing the controls palette, you can right-click and add controls.  In the dialog, change the type filter to *.* and select a VI.  It is magically a merge VI that is accessed via the front panel!

[X.]

@ crossrulz: that's genius! Needs to be nuggetized right away... I am kudo-ing the present idea in hope to raise attention to your nugget.

[crossrulz]

@ X: Done:http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Micro-Nuggets-Post-em-if-you-got-em/m-p/2632293#M787251