Welcome!

Workshop
1 of 6
National Instruments
Leader in data acquisition technology with  Corporate headquarters in
innovative modular instruments and LabVIEW Austin, TX
graphical programming software  More than 40 international
branches

 5,100 employees
 More than 1,000 products
 600 Alliance Partners

Fortune’s 100
Best Companies
to Work For
Twelve
Consecutive Years

Dr. James Truchard

Diversity of Applications
No Industry > 10% of Revenue

Telecom Automotive Semiconductors Electronics Computers

Advanced Food
ATE Military/Aerospace Petrochemical Textiles
Research Processing
LabVIEW Student Design Competition
• Deadline: June 10

• Prizes
• Popular Vote
• First Prize: $750 USD
• Second Prize: $500 USD
• Third Prize: $250 USD
• Critic Vote
• Grand Prize: $2,000 USD
• Trip to NI Week 2011 in Austin, TX

http://www.ni.com/studentdesign/
Today's Topics
 What is LabVIEW?
 LabVIEW Environment
 LabVIEW Project
 Parts of a VI
 Menus & Palettes
 Configurations

 LabVIEW Data Types

 LabVIEW Data Flow
What is LabVIEW?
Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench

Compiled graphical development environment

Development time reduction of four to ten times
Tools to acquire, analyze, and present your data
Open and Run LabVIEW
Start»All Programs»National Instruments LabVIEW 2009
»

Start from a blank VI:

New»Blank VI

or
Start from an example:
Examples»Find Examples…
Project Explorer Right Click!

Use LabVIEW Projects to:

• Group LabVIEW files and non-LabVIEW files
• Create build specifications (i.e. stand-alone applications)
• Deploy or download files to targets (i.e. FPGA target)

8
What is a Virtual Instrument (VI)?
Answer: a LabVIEW program
1. Front Panel * Conn. pane
available from
User interface (UI) FP only

– Controls = inputs
– Indicators = outputs

2. Block Diagram
Graphical source code
– Data travels on wires from control
terminals through functions to
indicator terminals
– Blocks execute by data flow

3. Icon/Connector Pane
• Graphical representation of a VI
• Means of connecting VIs (subVIs)
Demonstration:
Creating a new VI
Front Panel Toolbar

It is best not to use the Abort button

because you run the risk of not closing
references or cleaning up memory
correctly
Pause
Run

Abort

Reorder
Run Continuously

Align Objects

Resize Objects

Context Help
Text Settings

Distribute Objects
 Front Panel Controls and Indicators
Numeric Boolean Customize
Palette
View

String Right click!

Shortcut Menus and Properties Dialog
Right Click!
 Run
Run Continuously
Abort

Block Diagram
Pause Front Panel
Highlight Execution
Retain Wire Values
Step In
Step Over
Step Out

Text Settings
Block Diagram Toolbar

Align Objects
Distribute Objects
Resize Objects
Reorder
Clean Up Block Diagram
Context Help
 Block Diagram
Terminals
• Block Diagram appearance of front panel objects
• Entry & exit ports that exchange information
between the front panel and block diagram
• Analogous to parameters and constants in text-
based programming languages

Wires
• Transfer data between block diagram objects
• Wires are different colors, styles, and DBL Integer
thicknesses, depending on data type Numeric Numeric String

• A broken wire appears as a dashed Scalar

black line with a red X in the middle 1D Array
2D Array
 Block Diagram: Wiring Tips
• Press <Ctrl>-B to delete all broken wires
• Right-click and select Clean Up Wire to reroute the wire
• Use the Clean Up Diagram tool to reroute multiple wires and
objects to improve readability
Select a section of your block diagram
Click the Clean Up Diagram button on the block diagram toolbar
(or <Ctrl>-U)

16
Block Diagram
Nodes
• Objects on the block diagram that have inputs and/or
outputs and perform operations when a VI runs
• Analogous to statements, operators, functions, and
subroutines in text-based programming languages

Functions subVIs Structures

• Fundamental operating
elements of LabVIEW
• Do not have front panels or
block diagrams, but do
have connector panes
• Double-clicking a function
only selects the function –
does not open it like a VI
• Has a pale yellow
background on its icon
• VI that you build to use inside • While loops, for loops,
another VI event structures
• Any VI has potential to • More discussion later
become a subVI
• Double-clicking a subVI will
open it (exception: Express
Vis- config. window opens)
• Icon represents subVI in main
VI
Common Data Types Found in LabVIEW
Numeric Controls and Functions
(Front Panel) From the (Block Diagram) From the
Controls»Modern»Numeric Functions»Programming»Nu
subpalette, select the meric subpalette, select the
Numeric Control icon. Add icon.
Mathematical Operations
(Block Diagram) From the Functions»Mathematics»Integration and
Differentiation subpalette, select the Derivative x(t).vi
Boolean Controls and Functions
(Front Panel) From the
Controls»Modern»Boolean
subpalette, select the Push
Button icon.
(Block diagram) From the
Function»Programming»Bool
ean subpalette, select the OR
icon.
String Controls and Functions
(Front Panel) From the
Controls»Modern»String
subpalette, select the String
Control icon.
(Block diagram) From the
Function»Programming»String
subpalette, select the
Concatenate icon.
Demonstration :
Using the Functions and Controls Palette
Polymorphism
 Definition: a programming
language feature that allows
values of different data types
to be handled using a
uniform interface.
 In LabVIEW: the ability of
VIs and functions to
automatically adapt to
accept input data of different
data types
 i.e. Numeric Functions
 Useful when performing the
same operation on different
data types
Data Flow
 Block diagram execution is
dependent on the flow of data
 Block diagram does NOT
execute left to right
 Node executes when data is
available to ALL input terminals
 Nodes supply data to all output
terminals when done
 If the computer running this
code had multiple processors,
these two pieces of code could
run independently without
additional coding
Demonstration 1:
Creating a simple VI
Homework
• Create a new VI with a front panel that looks like
this one: (image also available at ni.com/ou)