View Front Panel Clusters as Icons

[Jarrod_S.]

Simple idea: Extend the View as Icon mode for clusters constants on the block diagram to cluster controls on the front panel! Simply right click any cluster and select View as Icon to change it from this to this:

We all use clusters on our front panels of our subVIs, but as we add and subtract elements from them, they shift around and start to overlap other controls or they slip off screen. Many times the typedef cluster is used in dozens of VIs. I don't have time to go fix up the front panels of all those VIs everytime I add a new element to the typedef!

Most of the time the cluster is used in a subVI, and I don't care about being able to see the elements inside it. I would prefer in this case just to see the icon on my front panel. In fact, this is one thing I LOVE about using LabVIEW classes! So why not extend that clean view of subVI front panel controls to clusters as well!

[_carl]

Came here to request exactly this.

I'm a big proponent of classes, but large typedef clusters do still creep into code for whatever reason.  Sometimes the code is inherited.  Sometimes it's code I wrote that's in need of refactoring.  Sometimes it just seems like a better way to implement something in a special case.  Whatever the reason for the existence of the typedef, it's there, it could be turned into a class, but it isn't currently, would take some time to refactor (and add risk!), and is causing an immediate headache because of the amount of unnecessary space it's taking up on the front panel. 

Seems like there isn't any harm in allowing for some easy, immediate cleanup by allowing the "view as icon" option on front panels...

[wiebe@CARYA]

>'m a big proponent of classes, but large typedef clusters do still creep into code for whatever reason. 

Pixmaps come to mind. If you're working with images, they are hard to avoid. You see your screen resources fade away.