The structures and functions are found on the Functions palette and can be placed on the back panel.Ĭollectively controls, indicators, structures, and functions are referred to as nodes. The back panel also contains structures and functions which perform operations on controls and supply data to indicators. All of the objects placed on the front panel will appear on the back panel as terminals. The back panel, which is a block diagram, contains the graphical source code. Indicators are outputs: they indicate, or display, the results based on the inputs given to the VI. Controls are inputs: they allow a user to supply information to the VI. The front panel is built using controls and indicators. The last is used to represent the VI in the block diagrams of other, calling VIs. Each VI has three components: a block diagram, a front panel, and a connector pane. LabVIEW integrates the creation of user interfaces termed front panels into the development cycle. Since this might be the case for multiple nodes simultaneously, LabVIEW can execute inherently in parallel. These wires propagate variables and any node can execute as soon as all its input data become available.
Execution flow is determined by the structure of a graphical block diagram the LabVIEW-source code on which the programmer connects different function-nodes by drawing wires. If there is enough data available to a subVI or function, that subVI or function will execute. The graphical language is named "G" not to be confused with G-code.