Exercise 1-2 Concept: Locating Controls, Functions, and VIs

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Lesson 1
Goal
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Learn to use the palettes and search for controls, functions, and VIs.

Navigating LabVIEW
Description
1. Open a blank LabVIEW project.

 Click the Create Project button in the LabVIEW Getting Started window and then click Blank Project.

 Click Finish.

2. Create a blank VI and add it to the project.

 Right-click My Computer in the Project Explorer window and select New»VI from the shortcut menu.

3. Select View»Controls Palette from the menu of the VI front panel window.

4. Customize the Controls palette.

 Click the Customize button and select Change Visible Palettes.

 Select the following palettes to add them to the Controls palette and click the OK button. Do not deselect any palettes.

– Silver

– Control & Simulation

– Signal Processing

 Notice that the three palettes you just selected now appear in the Controls window.

5. Explore the Controls palette.

Use palettes to locate controls and functions when you want to explore the options available to you or when you are not sure of the name of the control
or function you need.

 Click the Search button.

 Type string control in the search text box.

 Click String Control (Silver) in the search results and drag it to the front panel window to place the object.
 6. Open the block diagram and right-click anywhere on the block diagram to display the Functions palette.

 Click the pin in the upper left-hand corner to keep the palette open.

Tip You can customize the Functions palette just like you customized the Controls palette.

7. Explore the Functions palette.

 Locate trigonometric functions.

– Click the Search button.

– Search for the term cosine.

– In the search results, double-click Cosine <<Trigonometric Functions>> to display the function on the palette.

 Locate file I/O functions.

– Search for the term file i/o.

– Double-click File I/O in the search results to display the File I/O palette.

– Drag the Write To Text File function from the palette to the block diagram.

8. Practice using the Quick Drop feature.

Use the Quick Drop feature when you know the name of the function or VI you want to use.

 Press <Ctrl-Space> to open the Quick Drop dialog box.

 Type Bundle By Name and double-click Bundle By Name in the search results. The cursor changes to a hand with the Bundle By Name function.

 Click on the block diagram to place the Bundle By Name function.

LabVIEW Core 1 Participant Guide

Open the Quick Drop dialog box again.
© National Instruments

 Search for the Wait Until Next ms Multiple.

 Double-click the function in the search results and place the function on the block diagram.

9. Practice using the global search feature.

 Type Random in the Search bar in the upper right hand corner of the block diagram.
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Note As you type, the global search automatically looks for matches in the LabVIEW Help and LabVIEW palettes. It also searches for online
material related to your query.
  Hover the mouse over the first result in the Palette section, Random Number (0-1). You now see the following three options:
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Lesson 1
– Drop—Allows you to place this function immediately on the block diagram
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– Find—Locates the function on the Functions palette

Navigating LabVIEW
– Help—Brings up the help topic for this function.

 Click each of these options to observe the different behaviors.

10. Practice accessing similar functions.

 Place an Add function on the block diagram.

 Right-click the Add function and notice that Numeric palette is available from the shortcut menu.

 Practice placing functions from the Numeric palette on the block diagram.

11. Close the VI and LabVIEW project. You do not need save the files.

End of Exercise 1-2