LabVIEW: Creating custom buttons

It's been something that I have been thinking about for a while but never really got round to trying. Creating custom buttons have a number of different applications and they are really easy to make.

To start off, you either need to decide if you want a button with an emblem (same image for true and false) or if you want a button that has a different image for true and false. You also need to find the images that you want displayed on the buttons. A good place to start is a clipart website like this one.

Download the images and then resize them. I use an image size of about 60px x 60px.

• Open the LabVIEW start up window and under New, select More
• Under Other Files, select Custom Control
• We now need to place a button so we can change what it looks like
• Place a button control onto the front panel
• Select your first image by navigating to Edit >> Import Picture to Clipboard
• Right click on the button and select Import Picture from Clipboard >> True/False/Decal
• True will display the picture when the button is in a true state. False will display the picture when the button is in a false state. Decal will embed the picture for all states.
• Do the same process to attach the next image for the other state
• Save the control and then use it in a normal VI

That's about it. Pretty simple to create custom controls.

To download the example control, use this link.

Greg