[...]... conventional programming languages National Instruments focuses on products for T&M, giving them a good insight into developing LabVIEW This chapter will provide a brief introduction to LabVIEW Some basic topics will be covered to give you a better understanding of how LabVIEW works and how to begin using it This chapter is not intended to teach beginners LabVIEW programming thoroughly Those wishing to learn LabVIEW. .. subroutine in an application User interface elements such as graphs are easily accessed, as drag-and-drop units in LabVIEW 1 3325_C001.fm Page 2 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM 2 LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques FIGURE 1.1 1.1.1 THE FRONT PANEL Figure 1.1 illustrates the front panel of a LabVIEW VI It contains a knob for selecting the number of measurements per average, a control for selecting the... description of the function is provided in the FIGURE 1.6 3325_C001.fm Page 8 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM 8 LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques TABLE 1.1 Websites http://www.ni.com/support http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/default.htm http://www.ni.com/support/techdocs.htm mailto://info -labview- on @labview. nhmfl.gov Technical support and contact information Instrument drivers for more than 5000 instruments... diagrams and internal data every time they are called 1.5 MENUS AND PALETTES LabVIEW has two different types of menus that are used during programming The first set is visible in the window of the front panel and diagram On the Macintosh, 3325_C001.fm Page 10 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM 10 LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques FIGURE 1.7 they are visible along the menu bar when the application... first major breakdown: the Source tree Information related to compilation and installation of an application are kept in 3325_C001.fm Page 6 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM 6 LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques FIGURE 1.5 the second branch of the tree: Build Specifications Information relating to the target machine environment you are building an application to is located in the last branch: System... should consider attending a National Instruments LabVIEW Basics course Relevant information on the courses offered, schedules, and locations can be found at www.ni.com/training If you have prior experience with LabVIEW, you can skip this chapter and proceed to the advanced chapters First, VIs and their components will be discussed, followed by LabVIEW s dataflow programming paradigm Then, several topics related... Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM 1 Introduction to LabVIEW Programmers develop software applications every day in order to increase efficiency and productivity in various situations LabVIEW, as a programming language, is a powerful tool that can be used to help achieve these goals LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) is a graphically-based programming language developed by National... the code as needed when the Pause button is used in conjunction with Execution Highlighting As stated earlier, debugging techniques will be covered in Chapter 6 3325_C001.fm Page 5 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:11 AM Introduction to LabVIEW 5 FIGURE 1.4 1.1.4 LABVIEW FILE EXTENSIONS LabVIEW programs utilize the vi extension However, multiple VIs can be saved into library format with the llb extension... source distribution using the LabVIEW Project If you want to create a new library starting with one VI, you can use Save or Save As Then select New VI Library from the dialog box The File Manager can then be used to add or remove VIs from a library 1.2 LABVIEW PROJECTS Among other features in LabVIEW 8, the one you should be interacting with daily is the project view LabVIEW s new project view provides... 9.9.4 Using VI Priorities 432 9.10 Subroutines in LabVIEW 434 9.10.1 Express VIs 435 9.10.2 LabVIEW Data Types 435 9.10.3 When to Use Subroutines 437 9.11 Summary 441 Bibliography 441 3325_book.fm Page xviii Monday, August 21, 2006 2:07 PM Chapter 10 Object-Oriented Programming in LabVIEW 443 10.1 What Is Object-Oriented? .