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