How Can I Read in and Display Unicode Character Files in LabVIEW on Windows XP?
Primary Software: LabVIEW Development Systems>>Professional Development System
Primary Software Version: 8.5
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: LabVIEW Development Systems>>Full Development System
Problem: I want to read non-English characters saved in a unicode text file and display the characters on the front panel of LabVIEW.
Solution: In order to display non-English characters, your Windows XP OS must support those languages. For example, if the unicode file contains East Asian characters you would need to complete the following steps in Windows XP.
- Select Start»Control Panel»Regional and Language Options.
- Select the Language tab and make sure that the Install files for East Asian languages is checked. If it is not checked, check it and click OK and Windows will install all the files necessary for East Asian language support (Windows XP CD required).
- Now open LabVIEW and go to the front panel. You can create free label and copy/paste East Asian characters on the front panel. If you want to be able to type your own characters please complete the rest of the steps of How Can I Use Chinese/Korean/Japanese Characters in LabVIEW on Windows XP?
- In order to enable unicode capability in LabVIEW, add
UseUnicode=TRUE at the end of the LabVIEW configuration file LabVIEW.ini located at C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW.
- Create a text file with East Asian characters and Save As unicode encoding.
- To display unicode characters on a string indicator. Right-click on the string indicator on the front panel and select Force Unicode Text.
- To display unicode characters on the caption of an indicator/control. Right-click on the indicator/control»Create»Property Node»Caption»Interpret as Unicode, wire a true constant to the Caption.InterpAsUnicode input and wire in the desired text from the unicode text file into the Caption.Text input of the property node.
Note: An example program is attached to demonstrate the front panel unicode capability of LabVIEW. (You must install East Asian Languages to your Windows machine for this example to work)
Related Links: KnowledgeBase 34HAOK5L: How Can I Use Chinese/Korean/Japanese Characters in LabVIEW on Windows XP?
Attachments: 
Report Date: 03/19/2008
Last Updated: 04/09/2008
Document ID: 4JIFM3UQ
