Icon Editor Templates

Have there been any changes between LabVIEW 2012 and 2014 in the way the Icon Editor handles the templates?
I opened a file in LabVIEW 2012 and started modifying the icon from the default. I picked the _box template and worked from there. It is a black outline with a white background.
Later, I was doing the same thing to another file in LabVIEW 2014. I picked the same _box template. It looked like a black icon with a transparent background once I got to the Layers page.
I thought maybe I had different version of icon templates, until I realized both LabVIEW version point to the My Documents\LabVIEW Data\Icon Templates folder. The _box is a .png file in VI\Frameworks subfolder. So I'd expect it to look the same in both LabVIEW versions.
Or is it somehow related to the .bin file?
However, working with the box with transparent background in LV14, it at least seems to treat the background as white when I place it on other block diagrams. I'm not seeing wires show through transparent areas. So everything is just fine.
I just can't figure out why the icon template looks different in LV12 versus LV14.
See the attached .png file to see what I'm talking about.
Attachments:
IconEditor.png ‏156 KB

Interesting problem, I will add that this happened to me with fresh LabVIEW installs and the change seemed to occur between LabVIEW 2013 SP1 and LabVIEW 2014
I also played around with the transparency and it seems that the transparency will be kept only if it is not within the borders of filled in areas. I made some weird shapes to show what I mean.
Here is the Icon Editor for the VI I made
And here is what it looke like in another VI. I changed the background color to show transparency.
So ya, no answers here but that sure is interesting. I'll see if I can ask someone who might know more tomorrow
Matt J
Professional Googler and Kudo Addict
National Instruments

Similar Messages

Icon editor lock up in LV2009 for Template VIs (.VIT)

I have reproduced this on two different LabVIEW 2009 installs (two different PCs).
Setup:
- I create a VI and save it as a Template VI (.vit) and then I try to edit the icon for the .vit by right clicking on the icon and selecting "edit icon".
What happens:
- The icon editor does not open and I cannot close the .vit. I can still make changes to the .vit, but I cannot close the .vit without using Win Task Manager.
Any Ideas?

If you double-click on the icon, the icon editor should open. I've only reproduced the issue by using the right-click menu shortcut for the icon editor in a .vit.
To reproduce the issue:
From a .vit right-click the icon and select "Edit Icon"To avoid the issue:
Double-click on the icon to open the icon editor
This appears to work on my system, any other takers?
-Bob
-Bob

Text based VI Icon editor with letter compression

For anyone who is looking for a quick and easy text based icon editor I've posted my latest version in the LAVA CR
http://forums.lavag.org/downloads.html&showfile=56
Description:
This is the second version of my vi icon editor and was created in LV8.2. The purpose is to help quickly create text base icons. The editor can be used in place of the standard NI icon editor or as a stand alone vi. see instructions. My original posting of the icon editor Ver. 1 can be found here
LabVIEW 7.0,7.1 http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=19022
LabVIEW 8.0 http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=12920
Instructions:
1: The icon editor was designed to be used as a replacement for the standard NI editor LV8.x only. To get LabVIEW 8.x to use the editor place the three files (lv_icon.vi, color templates.bin and the folder lv_icon_Subvis) in the LabVIEW 8.2\resource\plugins directory.
The next time the icon editor is called LabVIEW will use the lv_icon.vi instead of the standard one.
There is a button on the editor that will allow you to use NI’s editor when a text icon is not desired.
2: The icon editor can also be called from another vi or used as a stand alone tool. Make sure the “From Editor” control is set to false either via terminal in the lower left corner of the connector pane or manually in the FP. This setting indicates to the vi that a vi reference will be used to extract and save the icon information. If the “VI REF” input control is invalid at runtime a dialogue box will appear asking the user to select a vi.
New features:
Along with the auto drawing and Text compressing from version 1, version 2 has 2 new features.
1: In addition to the 2 color format in version 1 the icon editor now supports a 5 color format (Frame, Header text, Header Back, Body Text, and Body Back). This is the standard frame that many programmers use.
2: In version 2 the last 10 icon color sets are saved in a binary file and are recalled each time the editor is open. These color sets can then be selected and reused.
Future Ideas and improvements:
A graphics picker that would import a list of graphics to choose from
Template creators were text zones could be created to avoid interfering with graphics.
Incorporate some or all of the Ni editor functions.
Text extractor that would fill in the text boxes from the icon image.
Please feel free to give me feedback. This version has benefited greatly from ideas given to me by coworkers and other programmers.
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

For anyone who is looking for a quick and easy text based vi icon editor I've posted my latest version in the LAVA CR
http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?automodule=downloads&showfile=56
File: Mark Balla Icon editor V2.2
Author: Mark Balla
[email protected]
Description:
This is the newest version of my vi icon editor and was created in LV8.2. The purpose is to help quickly create text base icons. The editor can be used in place of the standard NI icon editor or as a stand alone vi. see instructions. My original posting of the icon editor Ver. 1 can be found here
LabVIEW 7.0,7.1 http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=19022
LabVIEW 8.0 http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=12920
Instructions:
1: The icon editor was designed to be used as a replacement for the standard NI editor LV8.x only. To get LabVIEW 8.x to use the editor place the three files (lv_icon.vi, color templates.bin and the folder lv_icon_Subvis) in the LabVIEW 8.2\resource\plugins directory.
The next time the icon editor is called LabVIEW will use the lv_icon.vi instead of the standard one.
There is a button on the editor that will allow you to use NI's editor when a text icon is not desired.
2: The icon editor can also be called from another vi or used as a stand alone tool. Make sure the "From Editor" control is set to false either via terminal in the lower left corner of the connector pane or manually in the FP. This setting indicates to the vi that a vi reference will be used to extract and save the icon information. If the "VI REF" input control is invalid at runtime a dialogue box will appear asking the user to select a vi.
Version 2.1:
Along with the auto drawing and Text compressing from version 1, version 2 has 2 new features.
1: In addition to the 2 color format in version 1 the icon editor now supports a 5 color format (Frame, Header text, Header Back, Body Text, and Body Back). This is the standard frame that many programmers use.
2: In version 2 the last 10 icon color sets are saved in a binary file and are recalled each time the editor is open. These color sets can then be selected and reused.
Version 2.2:
Along with the all the features from version 2.1, version 2.2 has several new features.
1: A new color picker was added. The standard NI color picker has been replaced by one that will only show the legal 221 colors allowed by LabVIEW for icons.
My thanks to Justin Goeres for the idea.
2:Key navigation has improved. The key navigation will only set focus to the text boxes to navigate between boxes use the tab, enter, up and down keys.
My thanks to boone_93 for the idea.
3:Improved UI. The buttons and current and previous icons have been relocated for a more intuitive look. I have also added tip strips to the buttons and history array.
My thanks to ahull for the idea.
4:Random color picker. A random color button has been added to help pick colors.
My thanks to Dave Graybeal for the idea.
5: FP auto centers. The icon editor will now open in the center of the primary display.
My thanks to tcplomp for the code.
6: The ability to read the text in the icon was added. If the icon to be changed was previously created by this icon editor the program will automatically detect the characters in the icon and convert them back into strings. This function allows for small changes like color changes and spelling mistakes to be changed without having to type all the text over.
This one was all mine.
7:Bug with Panel close fixed. When the user presses the x in the upper right corner the editor will shut down gracefully instead of locking up.
I made a avi file that shows some of the new features for Version 2.2 which I posted the support thread.
Please feel free to give me feedback. This version has benefited greatly from ideas given to me by coworkers and other programmers.
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
Attachments:
picture of editor.png ‏47 KB

Icon Editor Bug/Feature?

In the linked video, I am showing a puzzling behavior of the icon editor (LV 2012 (12.0f3, Windows XP 32 bit):
I have two lines of text defined in the Icon Text tab. The second and the third lines, the other two are empty.
I am trying to draw a frame around them.
If I draw a large frame (in green in the video), things behave as expected (that is everything remains put).
If I draw a narrow frame (my initial intent, in red in the second part of the video), the text jumps up. Not expected (maybe intented, NI will tell me).
Notice that id doesn't matter that I am using line 2 and 3. The behavior also occurs if I move my test to line 1 and 2 instead.
Edit: Actually, while checking that the video was playing correctly from the link, I noticed that the first case is not as I intended it to be, as the jitteriness of Jing (which I used to capture this video) prevented me from drawing a full frame box. The result is that the first line of the text actually also jumps! If I draw a full frame, this does not happen.

The jump occurs in 2009 and 2011 as well. It also seems to be related to whether the box you draw hits the bottom row of pixels or not. It doesn't seem to matter much whether the box is wide or narrow in the left/right direction.
It also seems to be related to whether you have a background template defined. It tries to squeeze the text data into the boundary of the background template, and if a background template is not defined, then it becomes that much more confused as to where it squeezes the text. It uses other non-transparent pixels (such as the box you draw) to determine the vertical positioning of where to squeeze the text.
I don't think it is actually a bug. I think it is an artifact of other code that calculates where to put the text when that code uses inputs that haven't been defined within your icon. As you add those other inputs (turning other pixels non-transparent), it is a recalculation of where to position the text.

Icon Editor bug - random rotations

While editing icons with the new icon editor in LV 2009, I keep finding that my icon (or selection, or layer) rotates when I type the letter "r" into a layer name. Are others seeing this? What tool do I need to have selected to avoid this? I've installed the icon editor update and this bug is still there.
Also, is there some way to define the default VI Icon layer to be something other than a white square with a black border?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I have noticed this, too. In fact, it's pretty easy to reproduce.
Open the icon editor and show the layers page. Now select a layer. At this point pressing "r" should rotate the layer, which makes sense.
Now, click in the layer name, which un-highlights the layer, and any time you type an r it will rotate.
There are some other issues with rotate: if a selection or layer goes outside the icon canvas, it will be trimmed permanently (not so great if you wanted to flip it 180 degrees).
As for changing the default icon background, I'd suggest making some templates for general use. You can save templates from within the Icon Editor. The first thing I do when editing an icon is delete the default layer and select a relevant template I've made. Or you can just use the filled rectangle too. If there is a way to change the default icon, i'd be interested in finding out.
-Barrett
Message Edited by blawson on 11-12-2009 03:27 PM
-Barrett
CLD

Excellent custom icon editor

Hello All,
Just thought I would share this little tool with the rest of the forum. It is a custom icon editor with a load of nifty features such as dragging template icons in and also storing pre-set icon layouts. I can't really describe it properly, its best experienced!
It lives here, download and run the install VI (the whole tool is in G), then to use it just double click on the icon like you would normally do to edit it.
There are a couple of things it can't do yet, but to work around this just press CTRL-. to abort the VI and then the normal icon editor will appear!
Neil
ps: Sorry if this is old news to some people, but I only discovered it recently and figured it may be helpful to others.
nrp
CLA

Great, I managed to download it fine. Thanks.
I followed your (careful) installation instructions, after losing my templates last time, and am pleased to say it all works as promised
Although I didnt need to back up the ini file as your installer doesnt copy over that directory.
I like the additional icons.
Another feature request! (Tell me when you get sick of them.) It would be great to be able to use the cursor keys to move the Text around when using that tool (like in the NI icon editor), moving it one pixel at a time is very handy, as usually I dont put it exactly where I want to when I place the first character.
Again, thanks on this excellent tool! I hope your manager at NI knows how good it is
nrp
CLA

Icon editor - no glyphs

Hi, I'm using LabView 2009 and have an issue with the Icon Editor - no glyphs are listed. I've tried syncing with NI.com icon library and that still won't work.
I found this thread: http://decibel.ni.com/content/thread/8011?tstart=0 and applied the fix near the end of the thread to GET HTTP.vi. That fixed my original downloading problem (Error 42) but now I run into Error 7. The dialog box says this: Error 7 occurred at File/Directory Info in Check Path.vi->Read PNG File.vi->ni.com_iconlibrary.vi
I found instructions to update the icon library manually (http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361F-01/lvhowto/synchronizing_icon_library/), however the option to manually sync never comes up as the dialog box just closes and reverts me back to the Icon Editor.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks!

Is your LabVIEW data folder set to read-only?
C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\\My Documents\LabVIEW Data\
The icon editor tries to create two folders:
..\LabVIEW Data\Glyphs
..\LabVIEW Data\Icon Templates
If none of those folders exist and/or it is not possible to get access to the LabVIEW Data folder the icon editor won't be able to show any glyphs/templates.
Attached pls find my version of the LabVIEW Data\Glyphs folder.
http://www.newgistics.com
Attachments:
Glyphs.zip ‏407 KB

LabVIEW 2012 f1 Icon Editor Error

I am having an issue with LV 2012 Icon Editor. 32 bit installation, Windows 7 Enterprise. Fresh install I downloaded from the website.
Everytime I try to edit an Icon, I get an error 7, File not found. It seems that it cannot find any of the template or glyphs.
Frameworks:\
LabVIEW Data:\Glyphs
Error 7 occurred at File/Directory Info in Check Path.vi->Write PNG File.vi->Icon Editor First Call.vi->ReadDataFromLabVIEWINI.vi->Load.vi->Icon Editor Init Refs.vi->Classes Initialization.vi->lv_icon.lvlib:lv_icon.vi->lv_icon.lvlib:lv_icon.vi.ProxyCaller
I should mention that it still pulls up the old Icon editor, but I would like to use the newer one (introduced in LV2009/10 ish)
Has anyone else seen this error with the Icon Editor?
I am also getting a pop up that LV failed to create the Recovery VIs.
It seems like I am having some file path issues, but I left everything as LV defaults. These would seem to be standard config items...
Kenny

It sounds like your LabVIEW installation was corrupted in some manner, since the new icon editor should be the default on a new install. I would try repairing that first.
For the new icon editor to show up, you should have a file called lv_icon.lvlibp in <LabVIEW>\resource\plugins. This is the icon editor. If it is missing or renamed, you get the old editor.
The glyphs and templates are in your <Documents>\LabVIEW Data directory, in subdirectories Glyphs and Icon Templates, respectively. These are shared by all versions of LabVIEW installed. A fresh install of LabVIEW will have very few templates.
You can use the icon editor to sync your glyphs with the library at ni.com. Use the tools menu to get them.
Let us know if this does not help.
This account is no longer active. Contact ShadesOfGray for current posts and information.

How to use high resolution image as glyphs in icon editor?

i want to use a hiigh resolution image in icon editor . how do i use it?

Icons can be up to 32x32 px in size, so first you need to reduce the resolution of the image. Save as .bmp, .jpg or .png.
From the icon editor, select Edit -> Import Glyph from File... and choose your image. Done.
-Benjamin
CLA

LabVIEW 2010 icon editor -- why is white not white

OK, so I'm creating an Icon in LV 2010.
I want a white background.
So I choose the white color in the palette. But that doesn't quite look like white (a little darker than white).
so I go get a custom color, and set it to 255/255/255 (R/G/B). add it to my custom colors. hover over it quickly with the mouse and see that it is actually 255/255/255.
Then I go back to the actually icon editing, and make sure my color selection (foreground/background) is both WHITE (255/255/255).
I draw a box.
The box isn't white!!!
the box is drawn with colors 246/246/246 (R/G/B) not 255/255/255!
Go create another custom color of 255/255/254.
Draw the box again.
Box looks white, but it is actually 255/255/254 (what you would expect to get). Close enough for me to use, so I can get on with making my icons, but I just need to remember to not try to actually set the color to 255/255/255 -- actually use something ever so slightly different.
Best I can figure out -- if you hover over a transparent section, you see the color go to 255/255/255, so LV must be using 255/255/255 as transparent. But then it says that color is 255/255/255, and it's not, it's transparent. So the color should be shown as T/T/T so I don't need to know the special magical decoder of 255/255/255 = transparent to see if one single pixel is transparent color or not.
End of rambling and venting, and on to the real question:
What's special about taking 255/255/255 white and converting it to 246/246/246 instead of something closer like 254/254/254?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

The Icon Editor thinks it is doing you a favor, and it probably really is given the (perhaps outdated) method LV uses for transparency on the BD. By design, any "white" on the outside of a BD object (ie. icon) is considered transparent and not part of the object as far as clicking is concerned. I have also discovered the hard way that "white" means any pure grey (R=G=B) with R,G,B > 246. Tweaking the B value is one way to avoid this (as you have discovered).
You can get some very interesting effects when LV thinks your entire subVI is transparent.

Custom icon editor BUG

If you use a custom Icon editor (as shown here and here), and you want to create a smaller Icon this will be meaningless.
Because the lv_icon interface only allows you to generate the 2-colour and 256 colour icon. The 16 colour icon will be untouched so the total size of the icon will still be 32x32 pixels.
I consider this a serious bug in the lv_icon customization scheme.
Ton
Message Edited by TonP on 01-02-2008 08:59 PM
Free Code Capture Tool! Version 2.1.3 with comments, web-upload, back-save and snippets!
Nederlandse LabVIEW user groep www.lvug.nl
My LabVIEW Ideas
LabVIEW, programming like it should be!

I thought I had a CAR...
But unfortunatly I can't locate it, so I assume their isn't any.
Could you supply us with one?
Thanks,
Ton
Free Code Capture Tool! Version 2.1.3 with comments, web-upload, back-save and snippets!
Nederlandse LabVIEW user groep www.lvug.nl
My LabVIEW Ideas
LabVIEW, programming like it should be!

Missing tab in icon editor

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a tab in my icon editor...
Can anybody tell me where my missing tab (forgot the name of it) has been gone to?
Furthermore I can't synchronize with the NI icon library.
The problems occured today for the first time. After I tried to synchronize with the NI icon library... So I guess it must be kind of related...
Any thoughts?
Just to be clear... I don't have any debug info since the icon editor does not give me any
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You're missing the layers tab. Click layers--> show layers page.

Alternate Icon Editors for LV 2013

I am trying to determine if there are any alternate Icon Editors that can be intergrated into LV 2013. I recall a great editor that I used with 8.6 and another pretty good one that I was able to use with 2009 but from what I can find, there is nothing out there compatible with 2013.
Using the default editors, My experience is that the readability of the text has degraded over the years as NI revises the editors. Examples here:
Actual LV 8.6 code wtih icons created with that version (Ignore broken items, old code that is missing things)
Notice that the lower case text is readable which is nice when you have longer words you are trying to get fit into a small space. "Bellows" will not fit using Small Fonts when typed in all Caps. The first part of the B and last part of the S are cut off.
And now, some of these exact same icons re-created in LV 2013
Using the default format (small fonts) there is a definite difference in the quality of the text. In particular, compare the "ER3000" text. It is pretty crisp in the old version but the zeroes are narrow and fuzzy in the new one. The word "Control" is clearly identifiable above but could be read as Control or Central below.
I know icons are not supposed to be used to document the full extent of a vi but given the continuing improvements in graphics capabilities, I would expect the clarity of the icons to improve over time, not degrade.
If anyone knows of an alternate editor that I can try out in 2013, I am ready to do it.
Thanks....
Doug
"My only wish is that I am capable of learning each and every day until my last breath."

Everything was set as default when creating new one. Old one was created w/ built in editor in 8.6 from a few years back. If there is a different font I can use that would appear better in the current editor I will try it but what little I did find was that the Small Font was the only one that would provide useable results.
Doug
"My only wish is that I am capable of learning each and every day until my last breath."

Glyphs in icon editor : gone

Ok- so I just opened my icon editor in 2013 and noticed my glyphs have dissapeared entirely.
I found these while searching:
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Icon-editor-no-glyphs/m-p/1302384/highlight/true#M536775
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Glyphs-no-longer-appear-under-glyphs-tab-in-icon-editor/td-p/1391478
I tried the "syncronize with ni.com" and I get this:
http://imgur.com/bEOK8gU
My Glyphs folder in LabVIEW Data dir is no longer read only...
I downloaded the glyphs zip from ThSa (5th msg in the 1st thread I linked to) and got the ones from his zip to load, but I'm still missing most...
where o where have my glyphs gone?
Thanks for any help!
-pat
EDIT: I didnt mention the lead in the one post linking to the NI library itself - I couldnt get the link to work at first, but now I got it- I guess I was too quick to post.
sorry for the repost. http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361F-01/lvhowto/synchronizing_icon_library/

I have attached a more uptodate glyph folder (assuming you just want the NI ones and don't have a load of custom ones).
Try adding to My Documents\LabView Data\Glyphs
Attachments:
Glyphs.zip ‏1159 KB

Icon editor sneaks to 2nd monitor

A WindowsXP setup with primary monitor as portrait and secondary as landscape orientation.
But in LabVIEW 2009 the icon editor always appears on the 2nd screen. Most of the
time my 2nd monitor is off but thankfully I turned the 2nd on just to discover this behavior.
Is there an ini file setting to make the icon editor always appear on the primary screen?
Thanks in advance
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Odd_Modem,
I hope the Icon Editor is working properly now. Please mark GerdW's post as the solution. I've followed the link and verified that it fixes the issue.
Regards,
Imtiaz Chowdhury
Head of Digital Technologies
Brand786

Icon Editor Templates

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