Displaying SubVIs and Express VIs as Icons or Expandable Nodes

You can display VIs and Express VIs as icons or as expandable nodes. Expandable nodes appear as icons surrounded by a colored field. When displayed as expandable nodes, subVIs appear as icons surrounded by a yellow field and Express VIs appear as icons surrounded by a blue field. Use icons if you want to conserve space on the block diagram. Use expandable nodes to make wiring easier and to aid in documenting block diagrams. By default, subVIs appear as icons on the block diagram, and Express VIs appear as expandable nodes.

Note  If you display a subVI or Express VI as an expandable node, you cannot enable database access for that node.

Complete the following steps to display a subVI or an Express VI as an icon.

1. Right-click the subVI or Express VI.
2. Select View As Icon from the shortcut menu. The subVI or Express VI appears as an icon.

Remove the checkmark from View As Icon option to display the subVI or Express VI as an expandable node.

Note  Only new subVIs you add to the block diagram appear as expandable nodes. You cannot convert all existing subVIs displayed as icons to expandable nodes. You cannot add Express VIs to the block diagram as icons by default.

You can resize an expandable subVI or Express VI. When you resize an expandable subVI or Express VI, the input and output terminals of the subVI or Express VI appear below the icon.

You also can use the Expand When Dropped As SubVI property to display a subVI as an expandable node programmatically.