MyLabVIEW Features

[Hooovahh]

EDIT: Sorry I guess I already gave this opinion in the idea exchange thread, where I guess I stated 3 hours a couple of years ago.  Maybe my computer is faster or I didn't have an SSD.

So we all have different work flows, but I find installing a new version of LabVIEW, or reinstalling a whole system isn't that big of a deal for me.  Every 6 months I download the newest developer suite DVDs (or copy them to a network location if they were shipped).  Then I combine the DVDs into a single folder on the network.  The WebInstalls can also help with this a bit since you only need to download the installers you'll actually use, instead of all of the developer suite stuff.

Then I run the installer, which on a modern computer might take an hour or so to install that version of LabVIEW, device drivers, and various other LV tools.  This only prompts once at the start, and once for the device drivers.  No downloading required at this point cause all the tools are already on the network or external storage.

Then I install reuse with a single VIPC that we made which includes all our internal libraries, tools menu items, reuse palettes, project templates, icon editor glyphs, quick drop tools, documentation, examples, etc.  And it sets up the INI keys with the settings that developers agree on.  This also installs all the OpenG, MGI, and other packages without the internet.  This all takes another 10 minutes or so but has no prompts or dialogs once it gets started.

Then my machine is 99% of the way setup.  There are a few INI keys that I prefer that others might not so it isn't included in the VIPC, but I have a VI I wrote that makes these changes.

I'd say in 2 hours I have a fresh computer with everything installed and ready to open any proejct we might have made.  PCs don't always have the internet, and networks can go down, which is why everything I've described can be done without it.  I'm still a fan of your idea and voted for it, but we have a solution that has seemed to work well for a while now.  I saw at other companies how when you have 15 developers, having to refresh or reinstall a PC would take all day.  And with 15 developers someone needs to refresh their PC semi-often, so coming up with an automated solution was a time saver, even if it took some time setting up VIPM packages, and combining DVDs.

[altenbach]

Installing a big system with many modules (FPGA, etc.) and drivers really does take a day on a computer with a conventional HD. It is significantly faster with an SSD. Even uninstalling takes a day witouth SSD.

In the ideal case I just use the NI update Service, expand the "upgrades and service packs", and pick everything offered. (still need to tweak the INI, but that's about it. I have a bare INI with the lines important to me that I paste in place.

The main problem with this that it typically does not work if the current version is beta, but that's a different discussion. In that case I use the NI web based platform installer. Here we really need a way to have web based personalized package definitions that we can apply to automatically pick one of my install templates. Picking and chosing modules is still tedious (Small, non-resizable window, etc.). Instead ot having to search for a web-based installer, I should be able to go to my profile, pick one of my install sets, and it would create a customized web based installer for me that requires no further action. Then it should apply my web-based ini file at the end. Voila!

[JÞB]

Mostly just complianing.  Its got to be faster!  Something SCREAMS at me that it should not take all day! 

[altenbach]

I think disk IO is the limiting factor. It creates huge temporary files, probably copies each small file separately after doing tons of dependency checks for each. Then verifies that all bit are written correctly before writing the next file... :). There has to be a better way!

(Just widely speculating, but that's how it feels like. I am probably completely wrong...)