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I remember this in previous (pre-8.2) versions of LabVIEW - not sure why it was removed. I have a use case to use projects as templates (like when someone wants to write a plugin for a utility I've written, I want to be able to send them a zip containing a project, methods, etc). The project includes installer settings (so their files go into the right place under my util's plugins folder, but when they build and try to install their plugin, they get an error if another plugin bult using the same template has already been installed. This is because the "Upgrade Code" (stored in the lvproj file) is the same (it tells Windows that the two products are the same, so subsequent installs are seen as upgrades or replacements, not new installs.

My memory tells me that I used to be able to hit a "Generate" button somewhere which would give me build a new code - all I'm asking for is that back (I can add a step in my work instruction to hit that button before you build).

I don't currently have a workaround for this (other than having engineers manually edit the lvproj file) - if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it for the interim!

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This is in addition to New LabVIEW Installation Retains Options

During LabVIEW installation if it detects a previous version of LabVIEW has been installed it should present the user with the option (or have a flag when running the installation to allow this to be done silently) to import all VIs which are not installed by default that are present in the following folders:

vi.lib (VI Package Manager installs packages to this location by default)
instr.lib
user.lib

Upon importing the VIs to the new LabVIEW installation it should also mass compile them to the new LabVIEW version so the user is not faced with having to save loads of VI dependencies each time the user opens a VI which uses them.

This would make the getting started with the new version of LabVIEW a lot more seamless when just upgrading from a previous version.

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Developer Suite Installer Enhancement

NI flavor of Linux

A lot of engineers prefer Linux over Windows and would use it on there test machines if at all possible. Instead of attempting to support a wide variety of flavors, wouldn't it be better if NI would derive it's own flavor from an existing distribution and committed to having full support for all NI software and hardware for this new flavor. This would give Linux aficionados the OS they crave and NI the power to control the direction of the OS such that it makes hardware and software compatibility easier.

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LabVIEW version alert

When you try to open VI saved with later version of LabVIEW, you get this error :

Sans titre.png

But when you open VIs in a given version with a later version of LabVIEW, you have no information and that could cause big problems.

For many reasons I have to work with different versions of LabVIEW (right now I have 8.6, 2010,2011 installed at the same time), and it's a major problem when I open a project and by mistake choose the wrong version of LabVIEW.

Someone proposed to display a saving selection popup Here

But when you have already made some modifications, it's enoying to discover that you won't be able to save it.

I propose instead to display a message when opening a VI, and let the user chosse either he want to upgrade is VI version or not.

At least he can see his mistake and decide to open the VI with the good version of LabVIEW.

One of the more annoying features (see also here) is the unzip operation after downloading a LabVIEW distribution. As a first step, it will unzip somewhere into the "National Instruments Downloads" folder.

Of course it will place the progress window right in the middle of your monitor. Typically this takes a while and actually want to do something else and move that window out of the way, so we can still watch it in the corner of the eye. Easier said than done! A simple click in the window header pauses the unzip operations and asks if I want to abort... NO!!! I simply want to move that window is the same way I can move any other window from any other application!!! Why that nonstandard behavior? Just to annoy us??? Here's what happen if I click anywhere near the top edge of the window:

When we righ-click the window header, we see two options "(1) move" and "(2) close". Why is close the default??? If we really want to close, the [x] button is right there another inch to the right and nobody should have trouble finding that spot. If I click elsewhere in the header, I most likely want to move that window!

In order to actually move it, I have to right-click the window header and select "move". That seems silly!

IDEA: The unzip window should should be less annoying and easy to move elsewhere. Thanks!

Smart DAQmx/MAX

So, having a new computer and installing the 4 versions i currently need i ofcourse missed to reinstall DaqMx after the last and most important LV install. After alot of time i managed to get hold of a disc, ofc slightly lower version so i first have to uninstall my current DaqMx ... this cost alot unnessecary time, when e.g. MAX should be able to add/complement itself to installs.

When i run the installer, it feels which versions of LV has Daq and which doesn't, it'd be great if you could add/complement Daq to LV's without having to reinstall it!

If this is best handled by MAX or some DAQ-installer i dont know, but as MAX feels like a hub it sounds logical to add some Update/Add/Attach DAQ-function to that.

Alternative Licensing option

Is it possible to have a USB dongle license option rather than a registration key?

When the USB dongle is attached the user will have the full access to the Labview Version s/he has registered for, when it is not the program will only run in runtime engine mode. The advantage of this is that it would allow for system developers of multiple systems to be able to debug and test programs on the machines without needing to either have several licences or continually uninstall and reinstall labview from the machines everytime a change in the software is required.

At the same time, a USB dongle can only be used on one machine at any one time, thereby making it possible to ensure that there will not be more than one user of the same license.

I've seen this work for several small software companies as well as hardware companies with proprietary software. Why not for Labview?

Just a thought,

Karl

According to the LabVIEW 2013 readme file (see attached image), NI installs a so called NI Launcher to work around serious shortcoming in the Windows 8 start menu.

This is an essential tool because the Windows 8 start menu is flat (non-hierarchical) and if there are many NI products installed, the "all apps" screen shows pages and pages of tiles of e.g pdf help documents and it is impossible to find anything without scrolling forever.

Unfortunately, the NI Launcher functionality is quite limited to what we were used to be able to do in e.g. the Windows 7 start menu. All we can do is browse and launch a NI application.

While the readme suggest to pin often used program to the desktop, taskbar, or start screen, we can only do this by finding the icon on the Windows 8 "all apps" start screen first, where we can easily get lost if many NI products are installed! Yes, believe me, it is very tedious!!!

I suggest to add several right-click options to each entry directly in the NI launcher (similar to what we see in the windows 7 start menu):

open
pin to task bar (very important!)
open file location
troubleshoot compatibility
run as administrator
pin to start menu
...
(anything that is easily possible to implement)

Idea summary: NI Launcher should have right-click options for each entry similar to the Windows 7 start menu.

Add an option in the installer build to run cleanup-programs during uninstall.

On the advanced tab in the Installer build there is an option called: "Run executable at end of installation", but there is no such option for the deinstallation.

We use the existing option to run a batch file that installs and starts the application as a service. If the user decides to uninstall the application we would like to run another batch file to stop and deinstall the service - but there is no option to run an executable during deinstallation.

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After much frustration searching the Labview help and NI website I finally came across the reason why my project kept coming up with vi file conflicts and/or using the incorrect version of a vi. Apparently when searching for a vi, if there is a windows shortcut (.lnk) in the search path, it follows it! Now this is a very powerful feature but a dangerous one too. Apparently this has been a feature of Labview all the way back to version 1.0 This fact is not mentioned anywhere in the Labview help but I did finally find this article: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/B43C655BA37AFFA0862575EC0051E936

In my case I have lots of example code on my PC. I often put shortcuts to similar code in the same folder with VIs and project as a quick way to reference alternate methods of accomplishing similar tasks. No problem, I'll just turn off this feature in the VI Search Path page of the Options dialog, right? Much to my surprise there is no way to turn this off.

Suggestion: Please add an option to disable this feature in the VI Search Path page of the Options dialog. Even if this option is dismissed and not implemented, please at least add this information to the Labview help, perhaps in the Paths Page (Options Dialog Box) if not in several other places in the help. It would certainly have same me hours of frustration and lost productivity.

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Hi all LabVIEW fellows and users,

I know this has been asked many many times but one more might still help getting it.

Everybody agrees to say that today LabVIEW has became a great general purpose programming environment not only dedicated to test, measurement, instrument control or data analysis but able to manage virtualy any kind of requirement which is very cool for us LabVIEW programmers.

However, to my opinion one thing is still slowing down the use and spread of LabVIEW for developping general purpose applications that is the HUGE SIZE of its run-time engine!!! An average executable size for an application ranges from 1mb or less to 10 or 20 mb for quite large applications. The run-time for being able to execute it is at the very least 10 to 20 times larger which makes it very difficult to release over the internet.

I recently created a small application that monitors the state of the caps and num lock key and indicate the state with a tray icon since my computer is not equiped with those LEDs. I know some other users would appreciate to have that little piece of code since they might experience the same problems I had. How can I explain them that the application and installer is about 200 MB for such a tiny little piece of code? Don't you think people might believe that the proposed application is stuffed with malwares of that there is a BIG probleme with it?

Please dear NI decision makers make LabVIEW a "real" general purpose developping environement by adjusting the installer size to only what is required for the application, the whole community would appreciate so much at least make this option selectable.

Hope this will be listened.

Best Regards,

Brice

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Time Based Evaluation Software

For all NI software that has an evaluation license available I propose that instead of a number of days the evaluation would be good for a number of hours. Whenever the software detects user activity it will start to decrement the hours remaining. If no activity is detected after some number of minutes the timer will stop decrementing.

I installed the Test Stand evaluation and ran out of time even though I only got to play with it for maybe a few hours. I did get an extension from our sales representative. I am hoping I will get the time to thouroughly check out this software before trying to get funds from the boss.

This idea is not specific to LabVIEW but all NI software for which evaluation licenses are available. I am posting this here since the LabVIEW idea exchange is the most visible.

free label format

How often do you find the need to orginize data into a table format while documenting your vi? I for one, could & would use it all the time! Creating a resizable table free label we all use in word & excel seems like a simple task and would aid in organizing and documenting data into a more readable format. A ctrl+double-click or shift+double-click could serve as an easy access method, tab through the contents, and resize rows and colulmns vis a cursor change while hovering at the specific borders. Free Label, New type, table format, organize data, rows, columns.

The Registry Settings within the Build Spec from an installer is using fixed values only.

It would be nice to have somthing like varaibles that contain the information that are entered on the page
"Productinformation" in the settings window from the installer.

Productname -> %productname

Productversion -> %productversion

User selected Path for installation -> %installdir

This would allow something like this:

The values {%productversion} etc. will be replaced during the setup with the real values. The %installdir contain

the selected installation dir from the user.

The latest release of the Vision toolkit (Vision 2012 SP1) provides some much needed improvements to the AVI functions.

But at the same time, it introduced a new issue:

"The Quality input in the IMAQ AVI2 Create VI is only implemented for Windows
codecs. The Quality input is not implemented for codecs installed with the
Vision Development Module."

This is very unfortunate, because it worked fine in the previous release (see here)! This means you may want to reconsider upgrading to SP1!

My idea: Fix this! Re-allow the use of the quality parameter in the AVI functions so we can better compress our video!

Remake For Loop

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LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Allow us to change the "Upgrade Code" in an installer

Option to migrate VIs installed in a previous version LabVIEW folder to new LabVIEW installation

Developer Suite Installer Enhancement

NI flavor of Linux

LabVIEW version alert

LabView should provide more options during installation

Make "move" the default action for the unzip window when clicking the header

Smart DAQmx/MAX

Alternative Licensing option

NI Launcher improvements (Windows 8 only)

New Installer Option: Run executable at start of uninstall

Windows Shortcuts (.lnk) Become Part of LabVIEW Expected File Path

Installer automatically 'Force Re-install' if the software already exists

Reduce LabVIEW Runtime size to only what is required for the *.exe to run

Create shortcuts to folders when configuring an installer

Time Based Evaluation Software

free label format

Application Builder, Installer Registry -> allow variables like %productversion, %productname, %installdir in the Registry

Bring back the quality parameter for vision codecs!

Remake For Loop