Diagram Grid Contrast

[nonecure]

With today’s high resolution monitors, the old grid shows up too heavy. For me and many others I have talked to, we like using the grid, but we like it soft so it does not become distracting. To make the grid soft, it is very difficult to set since the slider is very small.

The easy fix is to simply increase the slider size so we can dial in a small contrast level.

[Intaris]

Or just give us a digital control for finer control

[elset191]

It'd also be nice if I could see the grid updating as I move the slider so I don't have to exit and enter the dialog 10 times until I get it how I like.

[CMal]

I think showing the digital display would be very helpful, much more useful than making the slider bigger.

[nonecure]

I agree with you guys, this might look better.  I wish I could have edited my original post.

[Darin.K]

IMO if you need two controls for the same value then you have chosen poorly.  If you really need fine control of the value, then the slider is not a good bet.  What good is rapid control over the full dynamic range when it is coupled with super-slow feedback of accepting the option, going to a BD and forcing a redraw?

If you really need that type of precision, it should probably just be a spin control like the grid size.  Personally, I'd just like to choose the color for the grid.

Of the two options here, I think the larger slider is better.  If you insist on the digital display then I say bag the slider altogether.

[nonecure]

Initially I thought the larger slider would be quick and easy for NI to implement.  Then Intaris' response about a digital box made sense, and that is a normal function of Labview to show the digital value of a slider.  I personally don't use this feature, but it is there.  It would be nice to have a digital value since I have many versions running, I can just enter a number and not mess with getting the slider in the right spot. 

[Ironman99]

Kudos! I perfectly agree with the nonecure's explanation of the idea.

In fact, for bypassing the problem I started to use the LABVIEW.ini setting.

SnapGridBlockDiagramContrast=2

is my personal preference (it also depends on the monitor setting choiches).

Since the value I use is so small (2/100) I would prefer a digital control, and a fast refreshing preview would be welcome.

In any case, if you don't change too often your preference settings you can also save the whole LABVIEW.ini file,

and reuse it when you need to reinstall LV.

[altenbach]

Let's remember that is value is a "contrast" with the background color (256 choices) and I wonder if somebody could give me the definition of this value and how the actual grid color is calculated from the background color and contrast setting.

We don't have that much control anyway, because the grid is always grey (we cannot have a pink grid on a purple diagram background :D)

I think having a slide from 0..100 is way overkill. Maybe all we need is four choices with an integer slide with text scale labels: off, very low, low, medium, high. 🙂

[JB]

Kudos... even though I have never changed the default value of the contrast (unlike the size of the grid).

Altenbach's four five choices seem enough for me.

[Ironman99]

No, please, don't vote for reducing too much the number of possible choices. Expecially if you never use the grid contrast control.

The right setting depends on user preferences, but also on the monitor type, setting and quality. Probably 100 contrast levels are too many, mainly because those above the value of 50 are really dark, but I would not reduce the number of possible steps under 16, may be in the current 0-32 range.

Just for giving you an idea about the effect of some different contrast levels, please download the file at the included link.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49748266/Contrasts.7z

Thanks.

Marco