How to get image of entire tab control in LabVIEW

[Kyle97330]

Have you actually tried it or are you just assuming that it won't work?

Just because a node is blue doesn't mean it won't work in an EXE.  Most blue scripting "read" nodes will work just fine, like this one.  It's mostly the write nodes that don't.

Also I expect you could use the method shown anywhere if you use the Pane "Origin" property node as an offset.  

[raphschru]

I can confirm "blue" does not mean incompatible with the runtime engine. All blue property "reads" I have ever used do work in the runtime engine, because they do not modify the code like some actual scripting code.

If you are really allergic to blue nodes though, you can combine Position and Bounds instead:

Regards,

Raphaël.

[wiebe@CARYA]

I don't remember if this this was ever reported, but this bug has been bugging us since tab controls exist (LV5?).

Getting the image from the front panel is the only way I know of to get the image. It's obviously not the same, as you'd also the images of all objects overlapping the tab bounds.

I think I've at some point made code that changed the VI's background color, and then restored it, getting 2 images and using the color difference as a mask, also overlaying the control's image. But even going through all that won't result in a perfect image (as the borders have alpha values that are not 0 or 1). *sigh*.

You'd only need this for a general 'image getter'. If it's a feature in your application, simply arrange the tab so it works by getting the FP image and let it go.

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@raphschru wrote:

I can confirm "blue" does not mean incompatible with the runtime engine. All blue property "reads" I have ever used do work in the runtime engine, because they do not modify the code like some actual scripting code

Blue nodes are only visible with scripting on (you can still QD, CTRL+SHIFT+B them if you know the property name).

There are also brown (secret\NI private scripting) and pink (obsolete) nodes.

[jqu]

Well, actually no, you can use the TotalBoundsRect in a compiled executable. I do it and the LV help also says it's possible:

The color certainly is misleading here...

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@jqu wrote:

The color certainly is misleading here...

Why?

Blue nodes are only visible with scripting on .

There are also brown (secret\NI private scripting).

Pink nodes are obsolete nodes.

Nothing misleading about it...

[rolfk]

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@jqu wrote:

The color certainly is misleading here...

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Nobody claimed that blue nodes only work in the IDE (but many indeed won't work in the runtime engine). The color is not about if it works or not in an executable but what type of application it serves. The blue nodes were considered mostly important when wanting to script VIs and diagrams. The yellow ones are the general ones. It is a pretty good idea to distinguish between such classes of nodes to reduce the amount of nodes a normal LabVIEW user has to browse through. With scripting enabled the number of properties gets quite a bit bigger and if you also enable the private ones, things get totally messy.

If you want to know if a method or property is available in a particular application mode, you need to check the help text for that, not think the color implies something like this. There are yellow methods and properties too that won't work in the runtime engine.

[TeraTech]

I had either read or mistakenly recalled that scriptiong/blue nodes wouldn't work at runtime. Thanks everyone for the clarifications. I've marked the solution.