Function Blocks Toolbar

A number of essential tools are included in a row of buttons along the top of the Function Blocks area (Figure 1). These tools allow you to add function blocks, remove them, and perform other important operations.

Figure 1: Function Block Toolbar buttons.

Function Block Controls

Table 1 illustrates and explains the toolbar controls seen in Figure 1.

Table 1: Function Block Toolbar Controls

Button	Icon	Description
Add Block		Displays a submenu that allows you to add a new function block to the current setup. See below for details.
Delete Block		Deletes the function block currently selected in the Function Block List. Vehicle Spy must be offline to delete a block. Note: Be sure you remember to choose the block you want to delete before pressing the delete button.
Cut Block		Copies the currently-selected function block to the Windows Clipboard, and then removes it from the list. Vehicle Spy must be offline to cut a block.
Copy Block		Copies the currently-selected function block to the Windows Clipboard without removing it.
Paste Block		Pastes a new copy of a function block previously added to the Windows Clipboard via the Cut or Copy buttons.
Undo		Reverses the last Cut or Delete operation.
Disable Filter		Clears any filters that have been entered into various columns in the Function Block List.
New Form		Allows you to create a new Function Blocks window.
Import		Opens a file selection dialog box where you can select a previously-saved function block to import into the current setup.
Export		Allows you to save a function block using a .vs3fb extension so it can later be imported into Vehicle Spy.
Find		Opens a small window that you can use to search within the contents of function blocks (see below).

Note: The Add, Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste and Undo commands are also available in a right-click menu in the Function Block List.

Adding Function Blocks

To add a new function block, click the button at the far left of the toolbar. A small submenu will appear, as shown in Figure 2. Select the type of function block you want to add, and it will be added to the function block list with a default name (which you can customize).

Figure 2: Add Function Block submenu.

Searching Function Blocks

If you click the button, Vehicle Spy will pop up a small dialog box to allow you to search for arbitrary text in any of your defined function blocks. At first, this dialog will only have a text box where you can enter the string to be found, with a blue arrow button you can click to start the search. Each press of the search button will display the next occurrence of the search string.

Press the button next to the word Options to expand the box,revealing more options as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Search Function Blocks dialog box.

The options are fairly self-explanatory, especially to anyone who has experience using a word processor:

Search Selected Block: Vehicle Spy will only search the highlighted function block, as opposed to looking through all of them.
Case Sensitive: Vehicle Spy will perform a case-sensitive search on the selected string.
Whole Word Only: When checked, only whole words matching the string will be found; otherwise, partial matches will be included.
Direction: Determines whether the search is done up or down through the function blocks.

Press the button to hide these options, or click again to hide the entire search box.