Introduction to LabVIEW

What is LabVIEW:

National Instruments LabVIEW is an industry-leading software tool for designing test, measurement, and control systems. Since its introduction in 1986, engineers and scientist worldwide who have relied on NI LabVIEW graphical development for projects throughout the product design cycle have gained improved quality, shorter time to market, and greater engineering and manufacturing efficiency.

Because LabVIEW has the flexibility of a programming language combined with built-in tools designed specifically for test, measurement, and control,  you can create applications that range from simple temperature monitoring to sophisticated simulation and control systems.

Structure of LabVIEW:

The structure of VI (Virtual Instrumentation) is basically of a    (i) Front panel    (ii) Block diagram

Front panel: The front panel can contain knobs, push buttons, graphs, and other control and indicators.

Block diagram: The VI receives instructions from a block diagram. The block diagram is a pictorial solution to a programming problem. The block diagram is also the source code for the VI. 

Palettes:

Tool palette: Tools palette is available on the front panel and the block diagram. A tool is a special operating mode of mouse cursor.

Control palette: The controls palette is available only on the front panel. The controls palette contains the controls and indicators you use to create the front panel.

Function palette: The functions palette is available only on the block diagram. The functions palette contains the VI and functions you use to build the block diagram.

 

Status Toolbar:

• Click the Run button to run the VI. While the VI runs, the Run button appears with a block arrow if the VI is a top-level VI, meaning it has no callers and therefore is not a sub VI.
• Click the Continuous Run button to run the VI until you abort or pause it. You also can click the button again to disable  continuous running.
• While the VI runs, the Abort Execution button appears. Click this button to stop the VI immediately.
• Click the Pause button to pause a running VI. When you click the Pause button, LabVIEW highlights on the block diagram the location where you paused execution. Click the Pause button again to continue running the VI.
• Select the Text Setting pull-down menu to change the font setting for the VI, including size, style, and color.
• Select the Align Objects pull-down menu to align objects along axes, including vertical, top edge, left, and so on.
• Select the Distribute Objects pull-down menu to space objects evenly, including gaps, compression, and so on.
• Select the Resize Objects pull-down menu to change the width and height of front panel objects.