The activity starts with development: using LabVIEW, MS Paint, and our own creativity, we all create ornament designs that inspire us for the year. We then print them, laminate them, and hole-punch just like any paper ornament before the best part: hanging them on the tree!

The activity is a team effort, as after several years of festive ornaments, we must be selective about what makes the tree each year. This year, themes like AI, LabVIEW package managers, and our ongoing NASA project felt particularly topical to keep on the tree, as well as some classic LabVIEW icons and the Top Level at the top of the tree. If you want to check out some of the prior years’ events, check out 2023 and 2025!

One of DMC’s core values is Have Fun, and we’ve found that our ornament tradition helps us do just that. It’s a great way to refresh your focus with some creativity and come together as a team to make something we can enjoy for the rest of the holiday season.

Celebrating the Season as an NI Platinum Partner

Our ornament tradition is also a reminder of how closely we work with NI technologies throughout the year. DMC is proud to be one of NI’s highest-ranked partners worldwide and the exclusive Platinum-level partner in the Americas. Since 1997, our teams have partnered with NI to deliver complete instrumentation, measurement, and automated test solutions for clients across a wide range of industries.

The same LabVIEW tools that spark our creativity during the holidays are the foundation of the work we do every day. Our engineers bring deep knowledge of NI products to projects involving LabVIEW programming, automated test equipment, real-time and FPGA development, and more. This expertise helps us design solutions that are consistent, scalable, and built for long-term success. Visit our NI partner page to learn more about our expertise.  

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Target Connection

Firewall issues typically emerge when communicating with multiple targets (computers or DAQ hardware). The first step when connecting to an external target is to confirm that you can at least ping it—preferably both directions. By default, Windows Firewall disables incoming ping requests to its computers.

Enabling Ping

Perform the following steps on any Windows device where you want to receive pings.

1. Open Windows Defender Firewall and select Advanced Settings in the sidebar. Depending on your organization, you may need administrator rights or an IT employee to do this.
2. Switch to Inbound Rules via the Getting Started page or the sidebar.
3. Find the rule named “Core Networking Diagnostics – ICMP Echo Request (ICMPv4-In).” Right-click the rule and Enable Rule for all relevant network types (Private, Domain, Public). The rule may also be named “File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In).”

Once you can ping back and forth between your two targets, then you know the connection is set up correctly, and any additional issues are in the LabVIEW and Windows Firewall interaction.

Common Firewall Issues

So, how do you know if Windows Firewall is causing your problem? Here are a few common symptoms you might see.

1. TCP or UDP messages sent between two separate LabVIEW applications on the same or different targets aren’t making it to their destination.
2. Intermittent connection errors to external devices or computers. If connecting via TCP, this will likely manifest as Error 56.
3. Failure to connect to NI hardware in NI MAX, or open DAQmx or IMAQdx resource connections.
4. If using Shared Variables, errors when pulling data from the Shared Variables.

If you’re seeing unexplained or inconsistent network operation errors after you’ve confirmed that the two targets are connected, then Windows Firewall should be a suspect.

Troubleshooting and Resolution

Disable the Firewall and Add Rules

The first step to determining if the firewall is the culprit is, if possible, disabling the firewall altogether. If this resolves the issue, but you can’t leave the firewall off, then it’s time to explore adding firewall rules. NI has a list of ports that they use that can be worth enabling if you are experiencing an issue with one of their listed tools. However, it’s common for custom LabVIEW applications to use custom or dynamic port numbers. In that case, you’ll want to make firewall rules not only for the ports you’re using, but also to allow all ports for the specific LabVIEW application you’re running. Microsoft outlines some risks to doing this, as well as instructions. The important thing to remember is that with no firewall, the ports and applications are more vulnerable, so only allow what you actively plan to use.

Run a TCP or UDP Tester

If you’ve added firewall rules or haven’t been able to troubleshoot whether the firewall is the issue, a great way to test LabVIEW’s ability to access network resources is using a tester. LabVIEW ships with a TCP/IP communication tester. Running this for a while and logging any errors can help determine if the issues you’re encountering are intermittent and possibly firewall-related, or if there’s something else in your application causing issues. Running just this tester distills out only the network operation from LabVIEW—it’s like the LabVIEW equivalent of constantly pinging. If you’re able to run this successfully, then there may be other issues at play beyond the firewall.

We Can Help

Fighting with the firewall, or any mysterious LabVIEW TCP connection errors, is better with a partner. If you’re looking for support as you troubleshoot existing systems or prepare to set up new ones, we’d love to help.

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DMC Chicago’s team decorated the tree with LabVIEW ornaments

Step 1: Ornament Design 

To start the process, we use the Icon Editor to come up with our best ornament creations. Typically, the Icon Editor is used to identify LabVIEW functions, but for this event it’s simply a 32×32 pixel canvas. 

DMC San Diego hard at work creating their masterpieces

 
Left: A snowman drawn in the Icon Editor; Right: An ornament depicting a play on Data Acquisition (DAQ)

Step 2: Print and Cut the Icons

Next, we bring the icons to life beyond the page. After printing, laminating, and cutting, the ornaments will be ready for the tree! 

Darren and Christian prepare the pages for laminating

Roman, Derek, and TJ cut out the laminated ornaments

A few ornaments after being cut, laminated, and hole-punched

Step 3: Display the LabVIEW Ornaments

DMC loves to decorate for all kinds of holidays, and hanging ornaments on a tree is no exception. It’s a great excuse to spend time together and explore the more creative side of engineering. 

Milos and Rachel hold up a few ornaments in front of Chicago’s tree

Cecilia, Teddy, and Fadil show off Houston’s mini tree

Michael, Josh, Noah, and Casey stand by Denver’s tree with their ornaments

Step 4: Spread the Cheer 

This year, DMC worked with NI to spread the LabVIEW ornament tradition even farther. A social media campaign #DMCLabVIEWOrnamentComp brought out some new and creative ways to make ornaments fit for a LabVIEW tree! 

A fun LabVIEW-inspired tree made by GDevCon North America, one of the premiere LabVIEW conferences, featuring the faces of their organizers and presenters

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The new toolkit allows for edit-time customization and application of color themes for a variety of controls and indicators via a Quick Drop shortcut. Additionally, the toolkit provides an API for runtime application of existing styles.

What’s a Style?

A “style” is a collection of colors to be applied to different properties of controls and indicators. You choose the colors and can apply them to things like button outlines and fills, label text, or graph lines.

Configured styles are stored in a style file (.STYL), which is a text file that contains the data needed to color the front panel elements. It holds your chosen default colors for all supported controls and indicator types, as well as any specific colors picked for each individual VI. You can have multiple style files with various color palettes, and you’re able to change them out as you please.

Quick Drop Plugin

The Quick Drop plugin is your one-stop shop for all things control decorating. With Quick Drop open (CTRL+Space) the plugin defaults to CTRL+J. Entering this combination will pop open the UI Style Configuration Tool, as detailed below.

Style Configuration Tool

The example UI we’ll be customizing looks like this:

While looking at the front panel, enter CTRL+SPACE and then CTRL+J to launch the plugin.

If it’s the first time for a given project that you’ve opened the tool, you’ll be prompted to select a style file. If you already have a style file, select it. If you don’t, feel free to name your file and then click “OK.” This will create a new style file in that directory.

Note: Although the plugin can be used on individual VIs outside of a project, the plugin associates style files with a given project. This means you can have a style filepath saved to the project. This also means that if you’re not in a project, you will be prompted to select a style file every time you run the plugin.

After selecting a file, you get the Style Configuration Tool!

The screenshot above shows the tool populating a style file that contains a “DMC Theme” style, which is present on the new GUI Suite regular and square buttons.

Let’s go over everything in the tool:

1. Style File Name – This filepath is the currently loaded style file
2. Toolbar – There are six buttons in the toolbar, as explained below:
   1. Open Style File – Allows you to select a different style file to load
   2. Copy Style File – Allows the user to make a copy of the current style file
   3. Save Style File – Saves any changes made in the configuration to the current style file
   4. Save and Apply Styles – Saves the style file and applies the styles from the file to the VI from which the tool was opened
   5. Maximize Window – Maximizes the tool window to full screen
   6. Close Tool – Closes the tool window
3. Type Defaults – This tree contains a list of all supported controls and indicators, as well as their properties. For each item, there is the option to set a type default style. Each kind of control or indicator is listed with selectable properties below it. When a type default style is selected for that property, it will appear in the “Style” column. The default style is used when a style is applied to a VI and there are no specific style settings from the VI Styles tree.
4. VI Styles – This tree contains a list of all controls and indicators on the front panel of the VI from which the tool was called. As with Type Defaults, each control and indicator is listed with selectable properties the user can choose a style for. The selected styles are particular to that UI element and override any type defaults for that type of control or indicator for that specific item.
5. Color Selection – These two fields allow the user to choose a style for selected properties. The top dropdown shows all Named Colors. The bottom colorbox allows the user to pick a specific color. In both cases, clicking the checkmark button next to the field will select that color for the properties that are currently checked in the Type Defaults or VI Styles tree.
6. Named Colors – This list allows the user to name certain colors for reuse, similar to a variable in code. The user can type a name into the list and then click the colorbox to select a corresponding color. The named color will then appear in the Color Selection dropdown menu for application to properties. When the user changes a named color’s value (e.g. changing from blue to pink), the next time the style file is applied to the VI, any properties linked to that named color will be updated with the new color value.

Once you are content with the styles chosen for controls and indicators, clicking the Save and Apply Styles button will refresh your UI with the new look. After that, you can close the tool and save your VI to keep the changes.

There are an incredible amount of customization options, so have fun with it!

Example UIs with Various Themes

A lot of the time, it will make sense to update the style of a VI during edit time. However, there are cases where updating the style at runtime will be necessary. For example, if you want to switch an application from a dark theme to a light theme at runtime, you would want to use something programmatic instead of the Quick Drop tool. For this reason, the new DMC UI Styles Toolkit palette features APIs for use in your projects:

These APIs are designed to perform many of the same operations as the Style Configuration Tool, except programmatically.

Set Style Filepath

This VI programmatically changes the style file used by the Apply Styles for VI API. This VI performs the same operation as the Open Style File button in the Style Configuration Tool described above. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can change style files at different points in the program.However, it’s recommended to set the file on your application startup so VIs applying styles dynamically know what to reference.

Apply Styles for VI

This function refreshes the style for a given VI, which is identical to the Save and Apply Styles button in the tool. It reads the styles from the style file you set via Set Style Filepath, rather than the one you’ve linked to the Quick Drop shortcut. Before placing it, make sure you’ve set the style file somewhere in your program. This function applies styles to whatever VI reference you pass into it.

Return Named Colors

This VI returns an array of all named colors in a style file. If you’re looking for specific color names, this is the way to get them. Additionally, it can be used to look up the actual colors using Return Named Color Value.

Return Named Color Value

This VI inputs the name of any named color in the style file and determines whether the color exists, and if so, what its actual color value is. This is a way to use the style colors in other UI elements that aren’t covered by the toolkit, or to gain access to the colors directly in your program.

Configure Styles for VI

This VI is the exact same Styles Configuration Tool that’s launched from the Quick Drop toolkit! If you wanted your user to be able to customize the UI at runtime using the tool, this is the way to do it.

How Do I Get It?

The styles toolkit comes in the form of a VI package which you can download and install through VI Package Manager! We also recommend installing our DMC GUI Suite, which is used in both the toolkit and the demo UIs shown above.

Happy customizing!

Learn more about DMC’s LabVIEW programming expertise and contact us to get started on your next project.

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