Bucknell Engineering

National Instruments' LabVIEW^TM

Labview is a program created by National Instruments to control instrumentation for laboratory applications. The LabVIEW ^TM program is specifically graphical programming for instrumentation. The programs created are independent of the type of machine that they are created for so programs can be transferred between different operating systems such as an IBM, Mac, or PC. These programs are represented in two forms. The first is called the Front Panel this is the representation that the user sees this represents the front panel either of an actual instrument or a virtual instrument (an instrument that incorporates the features of more than one instrument created using LabVIEW^TM). The second representation of the programming is the Block Diagram, this is created using actual programming language of LabVIEW ^TM known simply as "G".  This part of the program is a collection of symbols that can represent several things, wires (which can carry numbers, character strings, commands used later in the program, or execution instructions), subVI's (these are smaller components in the programs which can represent other instruments or specific functions (such as save data to a spreadsheet or build an array of data)), or the components represented on the front panel (buttons, digital displays, graphs, or instrument handles (i.d. numbers so that the computer knows which device it is communicating with).

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For anyone who is interested in creating their own VI (virtual instrument) there are several 'helpers' to make things easier. Within the LabVIEW ^TM program there are several preprogrammed functions for specific manufacturer's products such as the Hewlett Packard Oscilloscope and other products of this type. These VI's are usable for the most part on their own without the need for any programming or they can be used as a component of a larger program. Wiring is also greatly simplified by the use of the "show help" command in the toolbar. This command enables the user or programmer to get a description and/or wiring diagram for each component that the mouse pointer is placed on. This is very useful when wiring a complex system because it displays each connection, the type of wire, and the specific input node. If a component is wired incorrectly the wire is shown as a dotted line. Problems with the block diagram will be also indicated by a broken run arrow. If the run arrow is selected the errors are displayed in a menu. All of the components used in the Block Diagram can be found by right clicking on the mouse and then choosing what function then what component from the pop-up menu. Once an item has been selected it will appear on the block diagram ready to be wired into the main program.

Hopefully there will be many resources listed here for your convenience. Please email me any comments, suggestions, or additions for this information site. Thanks.

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last updated 7/9/97

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