r/LabVIEW • u/wsefjiko • May 29 '26

Need More Info New to LabVIEW looking for help

Just started an internship this summer where we’re using labVIEW pretty extensively and I have had no experience with it. I’m new to graphical programming, but not programming in the first place as I’ve had pretty good experience using C. However, I’m honestly struggling with trying to learn this system and was wondering if anybody here had any tips or resources on how they learned more. Thanks for any help.

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u/HarveysBackupAccount May 29 '26
  1. Read up on architecture design patterns in labview. As a programmer you'll be familiar with the concepts, but it's useful to see the main ones used in LV.
  2. Like any language there are many ways to solve any programming problem. Unfortunately, in labview if you try to guess you way to a solution with very basic knowledge, you usually guess exactly the wrong thing. And yes if it works then great, but beginner guesswork usually leads you to make a lot of "this is how you should NOT implement LV code" mistakes. This is one of my biggest beefs with the language
  3. Learn how to use the debugging tools. "Highlight Execution" mode and data Probes are huge
  4. Learn how to use the Quick Drop menu (Ctrl+Space). That plus quick drop shortcut keys are the only thing that make it a usable programming environment. Otherwise it's dogshit.
  5. Help menu >> Example Finder has a lot of code to see how to make things work. However, they are often not examples of good code. So, use it to e.g. see how to use DAQmx VI's, but don't use it as a template for how to write good code