Analyzing VIs with the VI Metrics Window

Complete the following steps to analyze VIs.

1. Open the VI or VIs you want to analyze.
2. Select Tools»Profile»VI Metrics to display the VI Metrics window.

Note  VI Metrics are available only in the LabVIEW Professional Development System.

3. Use the Select a VI pull-down menu to select from the list of VIs whose front panels are open. In the statistics table at the bottom of the window, LabVIEW displays the names of the VI and its subVIs and metrics for each VI.
   
   For each VI in the selected hierarchy, the window lists the number of nodes that VI contains. This number is a rough metric comparable to the SLOC metric commonly used with text-based programming languages. The number of nodes includes functions, subVIs, structures, front panel object terminals, constants, global and local variables, and Property Nodes. However, LabVIEW counts reading multiple properties with the same Property Node as one node. Place a checkmark in the User interface checkbox to determine the total number of properties a VI reads or writes.
   
   The number of nodes does not include wires, tunnels, or objects that are subcomponents of structures, such as the iteration terminal of a For Loop or the sequence local terminal of a Stacked Sequence structure.
4. (Optional) Place checkmarks in the Show statistics for checkboxes to display additional information related to the complexity of each VI, including block diagram, user interface, global and local variable, shared library, and subVI interface metrics.
5. (Optional) Click the Save button to save the metric information for the VI hierarchy to a text file.
   
   The file contains the metrics from visible columns in the statistics table. The file also contains the number of user VIs and the number of labview\vi.lib VIs. LabVIEW saves the information in tab-delimited format so you can open it in a spreadsheet application or read and parse it using VIs.