After building .exe, program can't find .vi (mine or "standard" NI dependencies)

[Steven8R]

Nuub alert!  Couldn't find a tutorial for extreme nuubs on this.. Tried NI's tutorial but this always happens.  LabView 2011/XP Pro. Nothing but LabView - no DAQ's or NI hardware.

I designed a new board, created an RS232 interface, and wanted to build a LabView GUI.  Usually used VisualBasic (stop jeering!).  Followed tutorials to create the "tree" in project file (Public/Private/etc).  I have about 10 vi's that open->get or set data->close.  These vi's use a lot of several standard timers, string manipulation, etc. built into Labview.  Was following NI's tutorial for building drivers.

I made an top-level vi called EXAMPLE with a buttons to call sub-vi's, display data, etc.  When I set up the build, I send EXAMPLE.VI to startup, and the .lvlib. to include.  When the exe runs, it can't find some sub-vi's, and can't find the built-in vi's (like trim_whitespace", simple_error_handler", etc.).  So it looks like my prob is two-fold (dependencies & my sub-vi's)?  I tried throwing everything into the startup - bad mistake - all 10 sub-vi's were complaining about not finding stuff, took me about 15 minutes to close everthing down.

I can see the list of dependencies in the project explorer; but nothing shows in the "properties" of the build to make sure they get added.

Is there a basic tutorial to create an .exe from a vi (that is built from many sub-vi's), that addresses how ti get the dependencie included in the build?  While on the subject, I found tons of tutorials, books, etc. about how to use labView 2011, but zero on the "driver side" - I don't want to be a LabView expert like you guys, just learn to create the basic vi's to create good drivers for my instruments I design 🙂

Thanks!!!
Steve 

[smercurio_fc · Accepted solution]

That's noob, not nuub.

You said that when you set up the build you "sent" Example.vi to "startup", but I do not see that. None of your build specs have a startup VI. You also have 4 different build specs, so I have no idea which one you're talking about.

Standard VIs are not included in an application. They are pulled in through the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine which will have those libraries. You need to make sure that the target machine gets the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine installed as well as NI-VISA (you're using VISA).

General code comments:

• Overuse of sequence structures. Most of the ones you have aren't even necessary. The others can be removed by making use of the Time Delay VI, which has error cluster to force data dependency.
• Overuse of local variables. 
• It's a bad idea to embed the Simple Error Handler dialog VI in subVIs. That subVI should be called in your top-level VI.
• Use the conventional 4-2-2-4 connector pattern.
• Not following conventional connector pane assignments. VISA references top-left and top-right. Error clusters bottom-left and bottom-right.

[Steven8R]

Thanks! I was trying so many things I have no idea what I left in the build properties 😞  I am "testing" the build of the .exe by closing out LV and running it on the developer PC.  Maybe what I need to do is start from scratch with all the useful info I've been finding - such as a great soda dispensor state machine concept video.  I'll search YouTube for a click-by-click .exe build 😛