Summary, Tips, and Tricks on Customizing VIs **new** 2004/06/16 09:44:07.743 GMT-5 2004/06/16 09:45:28.968 GMT-5 National Instruments certification@ni.com Harika Basana ilsai@rice.edu Malan Shiralkar mshiralkar05@hotmail.com Elizabeth Gregory lizzardg@rice.edu National Instruments certification@ni.com National Instruments LabVIEW Summary Customizing VI A summary and a few tips and tricks on customizing VIs. Select File>>VI Properties to configure the appearance and behavior of a VI. You also can right-click the VI icon on the front panel or block diagram and select VI Properties from the shortcut menu. If you want a single instance of the subVI to open its front panel when called, right-click the subVI and select SubVI Node Setup from the shortcut menu. Place checkmarks in the Show Front Panel when called and Close afterwards if originally closed checkboxes. If you want every instance of the subVI to open its front panel when called, select File>>VI Properties and select Window Appearance from the Category pull-down menu. Click the Customize button and place checkmarks in the Show Front Panel When Called and Close Afterwards if Originally Closed checkboxes. Assign keyboard shortcuts to controls by right-clicking the control and selecting Advanced>>Key Navigation from the shortcut menu. Before you change VI properties, save a backup of the VI to a new location by selecting File>>Save with Options to avoid making the VI difficult to edit. To edit a VI with properties that make the VI difficult to edit: Break one of its subVIs. The VI opens in edit mode because it cannot run with a broken subVI. If the VI has no subVIs, place it on the block diagram of a new VI. The simplest method for adding VIs and controls to the Controls and Functions palettes is to save them in the user.lib directory. To create or edit a custom palette view, select Tools>>Advanced>>Edit Palette Views. Change to an icon- or text-only palette view by selecting from the Format pull-down menu.