Improve Navigation of LabVIEW FPGA Read/Write Control Drop-Down Menu

LabVIEW FPGA modules allows to get access to Controls and Indicators or the FPGA Front Panel VI. For that, you can use the Read/Write Control Under the FPGA Interface palette in LabVIEW.
For some complex FPGA design, you may have several Controls and Indicators on the Front Panel to configure parameters of your code. This communication method fits well in this case compared to DMA  because you just need to transfer the latest value.
If your design is taking most of the FPGA resources, and you want to optimize the size on the FPGA, inserting Controls/Indicators inside Arrays or Cluster is not an option. In any case, it should be avoided as much as possible.

For complex designs, you can end up with a long list of controls/indicators that is not easy to navigate.

To improve navigation through this long list, there isn’t no sorting option available in LabVIEW for the moment. Nevertheless, there are few workarounds that are going to be expose just below.

Using “Tabbing” Order

By default, elements in the Read/Write Control drop down menu are sorted regarding tabulation settings in the LabVIEW FPGA Front Panel. Customize the order is explained in the LabVIEW help:
Setting the Tabbing Order of Front Panel Objects

Pros: Easy to set order to match your need and be reflected in the drop-down menu.

Cons: Does not scale well in case LabVIEW FPGA Controls and Indicators are often inserted or removed. LabVIEW Scripting method to change tabbing order programmatically isn’t working.
 

Setting Groups and Define Name Prefix

You can group  a set of Controls/Indicators inside the LabVIEW FPGA Front Panel. The elements inside this group need to have a common prefix for their Labels separated by a dot “.”.
For the following example, the prefix is “Grouped” but can be any other name related to your application:
           

Pros: Easy to define and group elements within the drop-down menu for an easier navigation.
Cons: This method won’t work if you configure the “Open FPGA VI Reference” with “Dynamic Mode” activated.