A natural approach to new subVI creation

[X.]

Expanding a little on the idea I hinted at in this recent thread, here is something that strikes me as a missing feature in LabVIEW.

I'll start with some illustrations.

Starting situation: let's say I have a main VI and I create a new case in a case structure, because I need to perform some data processing. I drop a few property nodes, references, have data flowing from shift registers left to right , and I pull a Data Value Reference wire from a big data structure:

New feature 1: I drop a BLANK VI on the block diagram (which I choose with the appropriate number of connectors):

New feature 2: I now CONNECT my inputs and outputs to this blank VI:

ending up with this:

New feature 3: Now, I can double-click the blank VI to open its panel, which reveals a neat FP and a BD with the Controls and Indicators I need (not shown). I now can start wiring the functions I need to implement.

I'll comment on the idea next.

[X.]

I just wanted to point out that the illustration above is a bit misleading since one of the inputs (Error Cluster, bottom left) is not connected to the actual, already existing, subVI. Obviously, I should have posted this instead:

I am also not sure how indicators could be handled... My initial intent was to pull a wire from a control or branch out from an existing wire, but there are cases where we want to create an output that needs to be connected to an indicator on the calling diagram. Currently, LV will only allow you to pull a broken wire from those, so somehow this feature will have to ignore that and create an output with the correct type (somewhat as the "create constant" tool does, although that does not work from a broken wire).

But I suppose that we also may sometimes want to just have a wire go through the subVI (hence appears as both an input and an output), as the "Sequence Structure" trick (or any other structure for that matter) allows to do so easily (well, not counting clicks). How might this be handled "naturally"? I have no clue.

Anyhow, I would not hold my breath about this suggestion...

[Mark_Yedinak]

I too agree that this should be limited to new VIs only. I would add to this that if the VI is saved into a library or a class that it would automatically pick up the default icon for that entity.