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You can customize the Controls and Functions palettes, and you can use the Options dialog box to select a palette format and set other work environment options.

Customizing the Controls and Functions Palettes

You can customize the Controls and Functions palettes in the following ways:

• Add VIs and controls to the palettes.
• Edit a palette set to rearrange the built-in palettes, create and move subpalettes, and so on.
• Add toolkits to the palettes.
• Add items on the Functions palette to the Favorites category.

Caution  Do not save your own VIs or other files in .llb files installed with LabVIEW in the vi.lib directory because LabVIEW uninstalls the .llb files, including any VIs and other files you saved in the .llb files, when you uninstall or reinstall. Save your VIs and controls in the user.lib directory to add them to the Functions and Controls palettes.

Adding VIs and Controls to the User and Instrument Drivers Subpalettes

The simplest method for adding VIs and controls to the Functions and Controls palettes is to save them in the labview\user.lib directory . When you restart LabVIEW, the User Libraries and User Controls palettes contain subpalettes for each directory, LLB, or palette (.mnu) file in labview\user.lib and icons for each file in labview\user.lib. After you add files to or remove files from specific directories, LabVIEW automatically updates the palettes when you restart LabVIEW.

The Instrument Drivers palette corresponds to the labview\instr.lib directory. Save instrument drivers in this directory to add them to the Functions palette.

When you add VIs or controls to the Functions and Controls palettes using this method, you cannot set the name of each subpalette or the exact location of the VIs or controls on the palettes.

Editing Palette Sets

Use the Edit Controls and Functions Palette Set dialog box to edit a palette set. Select Tools»Advanced»Edit Palette Set to display the Edit Controls and Functions Palette Set dialog box.

LabVIEW stores Controls and Functions palette information in the labview\menus directory. The menus directory contains directories that correspond to each palette category.

Note  You can add a line to the preference file that sets the menusDir preference to an alternative path, one that is unique for each user preference file.

If you edit the palettes, LabVIEW saves the edits to the x.x\Palettes folder, where x.x is the version of LabVIEW, in the default data directory. LabVIEW saves the edits in a copy of the original palette. The protection of the original palettes ensures that you can experiment with the palettes without corrupting the original palettes. To revert to the original palettes, click the Restore to Default button on the Edit Controls and Functions Palette Set dialog box.

How LabVIEW Stores Palettes

The .mnu files and .llb files contain one Controls palette and one Functions palette each. In addition, each file contains an icon for the Controls and Functions palettes. You must store each subpalette you create in a separate .mnu file.

For each VI or control, LabVIEW creates an icon on the palette. For each subdirectory, .mnu file, or .llb file, LabVIEW creates a subpalette on the palette.

Building .NET and ActiveX Subpalettes

If you use .NET or ActiveX controls on the front panel, select Tools»Import».NET Controls to Palette or ActiveX Controls to Palette to convert a set of .NET or ActiveX controls, respectively, to custom controls and add them to the Controls palette. LabVIEW saves the controls in the labview\menus\Controls\DotNet & ActiveX directory by default because all files in this directory automatically appear in the .NET & ActiveX palette.

Representing Toolkits and Modules in the Palettes

Toolkits and modules with controls or VIs in the labview\vi.lib\addons, labview\menus\Categories, or labview\menus\Controls directories appear on the Controls and Functions palettes after you restart LabVIEW. If you installed toolkit or module controls and VIs outside these directories, you can move the controls and VIs to one of these directories to add them to the palettes.

Setting Work Environment Options

Select Tools»Options to customize LabVIEW. Use the Options dialog box to set options for front panels, block diagrams, paths, performance and disk issues, the alignment grid, palettes, undo, debugging tools, colors, fonts, printing, the History window, and other LabVIEW features.

Use the Category list at the left side of the Options dialog box to select among the different categories of options.

How LabVIEW Stores Options

You do not have to edit options manually or know their exact format because the Options dialog box does it for you. LabVIEW stores options differently on each platform.

Windows

LabVIEW stores options in a labview.ini file in the LabVIEW directory. The file format is similar to other .ini files. It begins with a LabVIEW section marker followed by the option name and the values, such as offscreenUpdates=True.

If you want to use a different options file, specify the file in the shortcut you use to start LabVIEW. For example, to use an options file on your computer named lvrc instead of labview.ini, right-click the LabVIEW icon on the desktop and select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and type labview -pref lvrc in the Target text box.

Mac OS

LabVIEW stores options in the LabVIEW Preferences text file in the System:Preferences folder.

If you want to use a different options file, copy the LabVIEW Preferences file to the LabVIEW folder and make options changes in the Options dialog box. When you launch LabVIEW, it first looks for an options file in the LabVIEW folder. If it does not find the file there, it looks in the System folder. If it does not find the file there, it creates a new one in the System folder. LabVIEW writes all changes you make in the Options dialog box to the first LabVIEW Preferences file it finds.

Linux

LabVIEW stores options in the .labviewrc file in your home directory. If you change an option in the Options dialog box, LabVIEW writes the change to the .labviewrc file. You can create a labviewrc file in the program directory to store options that are the same for all users, such as the VI search path. Use the .labviewrc file to store options that are different for each user, such as font or color settings, because entries in the .labviewrc file in your home directory override conflicting entries in the program directory.

For example, if you installed the LabVIEW files in /opt/labview, LabVIEW first reads options from /opt/labview/labviewrc. If you change an option in the Options dialog box, such as the application font, LabVIEW writes that change to the .labviewrc file. The next time you start LabVIEW, it uses the application font option in the .labviewrc file instead of the default application font defined in /opt/labview/labviewrc.

Option entries consist of an option name followed by a colon and a value. The option name is the executable followed by a period ( .) and an option. When LabVIEW searches for option names, the search is case sensitive. You can enclose the option value in double or single quotation marks. For example, to use a default precision of double, add the following entry to the .labviewrc file in your home directory.

labview.defPrecision : "double"

If you want to use a different options file, specify the file on the command line when you start LabVIEW. For example, to use a file named lvrc in the test directory instead of .labviewrc, type labview -pref /test/lvrc. LabVIEW writes all changes you make in the Options dialog box to the lvrc options file. When you specify an options file on the command line, LabVIEW still reads the labviewrc file in the program directory, but the options file specified on the command line overrides conflicting entries in the program directory.