Developing a User Interface for a Measurement Plug-In

Use the UI Editor to quickly create a user interface for your measurement plug-in. UI element datatypes must correspond with the datatypes and labels specified within your measurement logic.

Note You can also create a UI with LabVIEW and associate it with any measurement. To function, control and indicator labels and datatypes must correspond to the inputs and outputs of your measurement logic. Note that you can use captions to display text that is different from the label.

Creating a UI File

Complete the following steps to create a UI:
  1. Launch UI Editor. Search installed applications or navigate to National Instruments » Measurement Plug-In UI Editor in the Windows start menu.
  2. Select File » New » Measurement UI. A new project is created and a *.measui file opens for editing.
Note To rename project files, right-click the file in the Project Files pane and select Rename.

Linking the UI with Measurement Data

  1. In UI Editor, select your measurement from the drop-down list below the file tab bar. If your measurement is not listed, ensure that your measurement service is running.

  2. Use the left rail of the UI pane to add controls and indicators to the UI.
  3. Use the Data source selector to associate measurement data with a UI element. The selector automatically appears when you add an element to the UI and can be accessed by hovering over a UI element.

    Note Selecting a data source automatically updates the name of the UI element. You can manually change the name without disrupting the data source association.
  4. Save your completed UI and edit your measurement to associate it with the new UI.
Note It is possible to associate a *.measui UI with a LabVIEW measurement in place of the default Measurement UI.vi. In your measurement service library, edit Get User Interface Information.vi to specify the path to your UI.

Specify the Measurement UI

You can associate a LabVIEW VI or a Measurement UI Editor interface (*.measui) with your measurement service.

Complete the following steps to associate a UI with a Python measurement service.

  1. Open measurement.py for editing.
  2. Locate the measurement_info variable declaration.
  3. Edit the ui_file_path value with the path to your *.measui or *.vi file.

To specify the UI for a LabVIEW measurement service, update Measurement UI.vi in the measurement service library within your LabVIEW project. To associate a Measurement UI Editor interface (*.measui) with your LabVIEW measurement service, edit Get User Interface Information.vi in your measurement service library within your LabVIEW project.