Labview System Ring control digital display properly hides after number entry in development environment but not in built exe

[Edjsch]

I have a System Ring control (in LabVIEW 8.5). In the Properties > Edit Items I have several items, and the "Allow undefined values at run time" checked. Also, the in the Appearance tab, "Show digital display" is NOT checked. When selecting <Other> in the drop-down list the digital display correctly appears. However, after entering a numeric value, the digital display properly hides after a number entry in development environment (LabVIEW IDE) but not in the built exe. It stays visible! See:

The current value is 40. Then <Other> is selected in the drop-down list and the Digital Display appears. "20" is entered. 

After pressing Enter (or the control loosing focus) this is what happens in the BUILT exe (but works correctly in the IDE):

The digital display stays visible, but only in the built exe, not in the IDE!

I use a probe or build a special version to show the Digital Display VISIBLE property at runtime in the exe:

and low and behold, the Visible property is FALSE, even though it is shown on the Front Panel (in the exe only).

The Digital Display now is now always visible, even if an item in the drop-down list is selected. When the exe is first run, the Digital Display is hidden / not visible. However, once <Other> is selected causing the Digital Display to appear, then it persists.

I have tried numerous work-arounds to hide the Digital Display in code, but so far everything I've tried has unintended side effects (such as NOT showing the Digital Display when it should be visible so the user can enter a value).

Has anyone seen this behavior? (Maybe it's been fixed in a newer version of LabVIEW, but 8.5 (I know it's old) is the version I have.)

Thank you for any advice.

[Edjsch · Accepted solution]

Never mind. It is what it is. I found a workaround. When the user accepts a value, <Other> or from the list in the System Ring control (effectively a "drop-down list box"), if the value is changed (using a local variable and a shift register and comparing the values), I set the DigDisp.Visible property to False (even though it seemed to be false when I probed it anyway). This hides the Digital Display box (which, as I've said, is hidden correctly upon data entry when run from the LabVIEW IDE).

The only very minor caveat is if the user selects <Other> and enters the same value, the Digital Display box remains open. This is not much of a problem. It's as if the control is waiting for a new value to be entered.

LMK if anyone has thoughts on this. Thanks!

[billko]

Do you have the ring terminal inside its event so it can be read?

[Edjsch]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your reply, but unfortunately I do not understand your question.

The problem was that in the LabVIEW IDE, the digital display always properly closed when a value was entered (Enter key pressed or lost focus) (because at design time I have the digital display set to not visible). In the exe it remained open. My "fix" was to close it in code by setting its visible property. I did that in the next frame of a flat sequence when the ring value changed.

Ed

[Edjsch]

Oh, I looked up Event Structure. No, I'm not using it. My version of LabVIEW is 8.5 and my company has the Base Edition plus the Application Builder. The Base Edition does not support events.

[billko]

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@Edjsch wrote:

Oh, I looked up Event Structure. No, I'm not using it. My version of LabVIEW is 8.5 and my company has the Base Edition plus the Application Builder. The Base Edition does not support events.

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I'm sorry, I completely forgot that back then, the Event Structure wasn't present in all LabVIEW tiers.

[Edjsch]

No worries. I assume Event Structures are now in all versions? (I was introduced to the event-driven model with Visual Basic 3.0 for Windows in the 1990's!)

Anyway, this issue was the first time I have experienced any difference between my application running within the IDE or with the run-time engine with the built exe. Have you or anyone else experienced any differences?

Ed

[billko]

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@Edjsch wrote:

No worries. I assume Event Structures are now in all versions? (I was introduced to the event-driven model with Visual Basic 3.0 for Windows in the 1990's!)

Anyway, this issue was the first time I have experienced any difference between my application running within the IDE or with the run-time engine with the built exe. Have you or anyone else experienced any differences?

Ed

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Hmm, I have never seen this before.  I wonder if this still exists in LabVIEW today?  I think system controls differ from the other LabVIEW controls because they borrow stuff from the system they are on.  (The same system control could look different on XP and Win10, for example.)  SO it could be a peculiarity with system controls.  Maybe you could test this by swapping it out for a modern control just to see if it still happens.

[Edjsch]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately the System Ring is the only one available in my version. This is the Modern controls palette:

This is the System controls palette (containing only 1 Ring control, the one I'm using):

Do newer versions of LabVIEW have more "standard" Drop-down List or Combo boxes (that allow custom value entry within the control itself, and not a separate Digital Display)?

Ed

[billko]

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@Edjsch wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately the System Ring is the only one available in my version. This is the Modern controls palette:

This is the System controls palette (containing only 1 Ring control, the one I'm using):

Do newer versions of LabVIEW have more "standard" Drop-down List or Combo boxes (that allow custom value entry within the control itself, and not a separate Digital Display)?

Ed

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I see in your screen shot that you have the "Text Ring" and I believe this is the analog of your "System Ring".  Now this is just a troubleshooting aid.  I don't know how to solve your real problem.  😞