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You can display VIs and Express VIs as icons or as expandable nodes. Expandable nodes appear as icons surrounded by a colored field. SubVIs appear with a yellow field, and Express VIs appear with a blue field. Use icons if you want to conserve space on the block diagram. Use expandable nodes to make wiring easier and to aid in documenting block diagrams. By default, subVIs appear as icons on the block diagram, and Express VIs appear as expandable nodes.

Note  If you display a subVI or Express VI as an expandable node, you cannot display the terminals for that node, and you cannot enable database access for that node.

Complete the following steps to display a subVI or an Express VI as an icon.

1. Right-click the subVI or Express VI.
2. Select View As Icon from the shortcut menu. The subVI or Express VI appears as an icon.

Remove the checkmark from View As Icon option to display the subVI or Express VI as an expandable node.

You can place subVIs on the block diagram as expandable nodes by default by placing a checkmark in the Place subVIs as expandable checkbox on the Block Diagram page of the Options dialog box.

Note  Only new subVIs you place on the block diagram appear as expandable nodes. You cannot convert all existing subVIs displayed as icons to expandable nodes. You cannot place Express VIs on the block diagram as icons by default.

You can resize an expandable subVI or Express VI.

You also can use the Expand When Dropped As SubVI property to display a subVI as an expandable node programmatically.