Learn LabView

A tutorial to jumpstart LabView learning.

Object 2 1

Getting Started

When you start LabView 8, you will see the Getting Started screen. Earlier ersions may not ha e this screen and may automatically come up with a blan! program. "o get started trying things on your own, you will want to clic! #$lan! V%# under the #&ew# Section on the le't. #Empty (roject# would start a new project. LabView (rojects are a relati ely new 'eature and not necessary to learn at this point. V% 'rom "emplate is an ad anced LabView 'eature which allows you to create templates as starting points 'or your de elopment. Again, this is an ad anced 'eature so we will s!ip it 'or now. )ou will start a #$lan! V%# and in the 'uture, you can open recently created LabView programs 'rom the #*pen# section. A #V%# is a LabView program which is contained in a 'ile with a . i e+tension. E ery time you create a LabView program you will end up sa ing a . i 'ile. "his 'ile is binary in nature so opening it in a te+t editor such as notepad will be o' limited use. When you start, you will typically see a #,ront (anel# which is a window with a grey bac!ground-

"his is the graphical user inter'ace .G/%0 'or your program, where you .and others0 will interact with it while it is running. %t is de'initely not much to loo! at yet, but it can be, and you will be surprised at how easy it is to build a nice inter'ace 1uic!ly in LabView. "he #$loc! 2iagram# appears to be similar to the #,ront (anel# to a no ice user , other than the 'act that it has a white bac!ground instead o' grey. %n 'act, this window is where the program will actually be written. When you de elop the bloc! diagram, you are actually writing the program that ma!es the 'ront panel operate as you desire. %t is here that you will ma!e the computer per'orm calculations, write 'iles, communicate with hardware, etc. "his iew o' the V% is what most programmers would call a #program# or #source code#. $loc! 2iagram-

)ou will notice that i' you select one window or the other in LabView 8.3, you will see a conte+t sensiti e menu appear. "here are menus associated with the ,ront (anel and $loc! 2iagram that allow you to do e erything you need to do to design your user inter'ace and implement the logic

that ma!es it wor!. $loc! 2iagram 4enu

,ront (anel 4enu

"o see how easy it is to design user inter'aces, lets 'irst go to the 'ront panel. *nce you do that, clic! on the menu where it says #&um 5trls# and notice that you ha e na igated deeper in the menu system-

All the items at this le el in the menu are #5ontrols#. 5ontrols are user inter'ace elements that you can place on the ,ront (anel. "here are also #%ndicators# which are not shown in this menu. 5ontrols allow you to input something into your program. "hat means you get to change the alue and a''ect the program while it is running. %ndicators output results 'rom the program. )ou cannot change their alue. "hey are your way o' seeing what has happened. %' you clic! on #&um 5trl# in the menu, you can then drop a control on the 'ront panel that will allow you to enter a number. %ts as easy as that. ,ront (anel with &umeric 5ontrol dropped on it 'rom the menu-

&ow you will notice something automatically happened on the $loc! 2iagram. A #terminal# appeared corresponding to the 5ontrol that was dropped. %n your LabView code, this terminal represents the number entered on the 'ront panel control. %' you type in 6.7 in the control, then this terminal in your code is a representing that number. )ou will soon see that you can wire the terminal to other elements in the $loc! 2iagram to create a picture that loo!s li!e a 'lowchart, schematic, or blueprint, which de'ines what the program should do. "his terminal ser es as a starting point 'or the alue you ha e entered and you will be able to connect it to the input o' another element.

$e'ore we go 'urther, lets loo! at how the menus operate so you !now how to interact with it and e+plore the possibilities. )ou ha e seen the de'ault menu 'or the 'ront panel and bloc! diagram, and you ha e used the 'ront panel menu to place a numeric control. Lets start with this 'ront panel menu. ,irst, try right clic!ing on the 'ront panel. )ou will see that the same menu appears as a pop up. Le't clic! somewhere else to ma!e it go away.

At the bottom o' the menu you will see a strip li!e this%' you clic! it, you will see that the menu e+pands pro iding you with a large number o' submenus. "he de'ault menu gi es you the options that &ational %nstruments belie es will be most common or ma!e the program easiest to use 'or beginners. 4any o' these are #E+press# menus which pro ide some built8in 'unctionality. We are going to dig into classic LabView programming to ma!e sure you get a solid 'oundation 'irst. "o do this, you will need to become 'amiliar with e+panding and na igating the menu as time goes on. )ou may 'ind that it is easier to right clic! on the LabView windows to pop up menus as you need them rather than using the windowed ones. &ow try na igating to the 'ull 'eatured numeric control and indicator menu on the 'ront panel. )ou should be able to use what you9 e learned to do that. :ere is a picture that shows e+actly how you na igate there in LabView 8.3. .:int- E+pand the menu0

)ou see the numeric indicator highlighted by the mouse cursor in the abo e screen capture. ;emember, an indicator pro ides a alue to the user rather than allowing the user to enter the alue. (lace an indicator in much the same way as you did the control. Select it 'rom the menu and drop it on the user inter'ace. )ou will see that an indicator terminal appears on the bloc! diagram. )ou can distinguish the two by the thic!ness o' the border around the terminal on the bloc! diagram and by the color o' the de'ault bac!ground on the 'ront panel .white 'or controls, grey 'or indicators0. %ndicator (laced on ,ront (anel-

$oth terminals isible on the $loc! 2iagram-

% ha e run out o' time 'or today, but this lesson will be continued with the ne+t post. Labels- <<<7 8 Getting Started 3 comments: E. said... "han! you 'or ma!ing this blog, % can9t tell you how much this is going to help me= >anuary 7?, 7<@@ at A-BA A4

Anonymous said... ,antastic tutorial. "han! you ery much= 5ristian .%taly0 >une 78, 7<@@ at 6-@< A4 Anonymous said... "han!s 'or the tutorials= "hey are good, but they could ha e been better i' you could gi e us e+ercises to practice a'ter reading through each tutorial session. 2ecember 7@, 7<@7 at @-66 A4 (ost a 5omment

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Object 3

Guide to learning LabView

The intent of this blog is to accumulate a series of lessons to help beginners get started using LabView. The lessons are geared towards LabView 8.5. The latest posting will be displayed on the main page but please na!igate the lessons as you would an online course or a boo" by using the Table of #ontents below. $ou should start at the beginning and wor" your way through e!ery posting to get the benefit of the entire tutorial in the intended order. %ote the Learn LabView Store a!ailable in the &seful Lin"s Section. There are se!eral highly recommended LabView boo"s a!ailable for purchase !ia 'ma(on.com. Some of these boo"s are geared specifically to beginners.

Table of #ontents
<<<@ 8 %ntroduction .@0 <<<7 8 Getting Started .@0 <<<6 8 Getting Started .(art 70 .@0 <<<B 8 2ata'low Languages .@0 <<<3 8 /se'ul *ptions 4enu Settings .@0 <<<C 8 5reating SubV%s .@0 <<<? 8 (rogress 8 What9s &e+tD .@0 <<<8 8 (rogramming LabView 8 Structures (art @ &seful Lin"s for the .%ntro and while loops0 .@0 <<<A 8 (rogramming LabView 8 Structures (art 7 LabView )eginner .5ommon Structures0 .@0 Learn LabView Store 8 "utorial <<@< 8 (rogramming LabView 8 Arrays .@0 $oo!s <<@@ 8 (rogramming LabView 8 5lusters (art @ Search Ebay 'or Student Version o' .@0 LabView <<@7 8 (rogramming LabView 8 5lusters (art 7 *''icial &% LabView Site .@0 <<@6 8 (rogramming LabView 8 Arrays o' 5lusters .@0 <<@B 8 (rogramming LabView 8 Shi't ;egister .@0 <<@3 8 LabView 2esign (attern 8 State 4achine .@0 <<@C 8 5ontact %n'o 8 &eed AssistanceD .@0 <<@? 8 "ip 8 E+press V%s and Wa e'orm "ypes .@0 <<@8 8 G/% $utton State 4achine .@0 <<@A 8 LabView $oo!s .@0

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'bout the 'uthor

% am a so'tware engineer. % ha e been de eloping in LabView since ersion B.< in @AA8. % am also an embedded 'irmware de eloper and utiliEe LabView e+tensi ely in test and production applications, communicating with the arious products % ha e wor!ed on. % ha e a $.S. in 5omputer Engineering 'rom (urdue /ni ersity.