Programmers develop software applications every day in order to increase efficiency
and productivity in various situations. LabVIEW, as a programming language, is a
powerful tool that can be used to help achieve these goals. LabVIEW (Laboratory
Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) is a graphically-based programming
language developed by National Instruments. Its graphical nature makes it ideal for
test and measurement (T&M), automation, instrument control, data acquisition, and
data analysis applications. This results in significant productivity improvements over
conventional programming languages. National Instruments focuses on products for
T&M, giving them a good insight into developing LabVIEW.
This chapter will provide a brief introduction to LabVIEW. Some basic topics
will be covered to give you a better understanding of how LabVIEW works and
how to begin using it. This chapter is not intended to teach beginners LabVIEW
programming thoroughly. Those wishing to learn LabVIEW should consider attending
a National Instruments LabVIEW Basics course.
If you have prior experience with LabVIEW, you can skip this
chapter and proceed to the advanced chapters.
First, VIs and their components will be discussed, followed by LabVIEW's
dataflow programming paradigm. Then, several topics related to creating VIs will
be covered by explaining the front panel and block diagram. The chapter will
conclude with descriptions of icons and setting preferences.