Description of LabVIEW

What is LabVIEW?

LabVIEW is a "program development application". LabVIEW is a graphical programming language, as opposed to a text-based language, used to create programs in a block diagram form.

LabVIEW is a "general-purpose programming system." The LabVIEW program contains the following:

• extensive library of functions
• library for data acquisition
• data presentation
• data storage

The above is a simple summary of what LabVIEW can do. For a more detailed explanation of LabView, check out the National Instruments official web site.

---

Learning Labview Basics

In this section, the user will learn about the four basic operations of labview. The four basics are: virtual instruments, front panel, block diagram, and icon and connector.

• Virtual Instruments

  LabVIEW is defined as a general-purpose programming system. A LabVIEW program is also referred as virtual instruments. Virtual instruments means that the operations and appearance can imitate actual instruments.

  Virtual instruments are structured as follows:

  1. The control or user interface of virtual instruments is known as the front panel. The front panel simulates the panel of a physical instrument.
  2. Instructions that are given to the virtual instrument are in the form of a block diagram.
  3. Virtual instruments can be used as a "top-level program", or as a subprogram of another program.

• Front Panel

  The "user interface" of VI looks like that of an instrument (check the illustration below). This "user interface" is known as the front panel.

• Block Diagram

  With the block diagram, you can construct a block diagram that wires together objects that send or receive data, perform specific functions, and control the flow of execution.

• Icon and Connector

  An icon is either the pictorial or the textual representation of the purpose of the Virtual Instrument, or its terminals. A connector is a set of terminals that correspond to the sub Virtual Instrument controls and indicators.