Debugging RT EXEs in 8.20

[Khalid]

Am using LV and LV-RT 8.20.  When building EXEs, unlike for the host, RT targets do not have the debug option of "Wait for debugger on launch."  And without this setting, I am unable to do much debugging because my application launches on startup, and when I connect to it from my host via the debugging option, I cannot get to the block diagram of the VI.  There's no way to get to the block diagram. 

To compare and contrast, for an EXE built on the Windows host, I can enable this "Wait for debugger on launch" option and when my EXE is "run", it actually waits for my debugger, i.e., the VI is not running yet.  I can now go to the bloack-diagram, and then choose to run the VI at my convenience.  I hope I am explaining this clearly enough. 

So my question is, how can I debug the block diagram of an RT EXE using the debugging feature of 8.20?

Thank you in advance!

-Khalid

[Ben]

HI Khalid,

I do not know if this will work in LV 8.20 but it did help in LV 7.1 RT.

Copy the exe from the RT node (using ftp) to an identicle location (exact same file spec) on the Windows machine.

I have not tested this (yet) but it was reported to work with LV 7.1 RT with an embeded app.

Just trying to pay you back for all of your help!

Ben

[JR_A.]

I was curious so I tried it out with a shipping example in LabVIEW RT 8.2. I opened the example project, created an RT build spec, selected the top level VI, and enabled debugging. Then I built the app, deployed it, set it as startup, deployed the target, and rebooted. Then once it was booted, I went to 'Operate>>Debug Application or Shared Library...'. The front panel opened up and I was able to open the block diagram. I even created a subVI and was able to open subVIs and their block diagrams without changing additional settings. So it should work and it did for me. Maybe there is something different about your VI/application such as having your VIs password protected. You might try a shipping example just for a sanity check.

-JRA

[Khalid]

Thank you Ben and JR! 

I guess it was my VI.  My top-level VI was set to 'Run when Opened.'  Disabling this gave me the chance to go to the block-diagram, and then start the VI.  I guess I was put-off a little by the way the same VI behaved when building a non-RT EXE -- even with the 'Run when Opened' setting enabled.  I am guessing this is because for non-RT builds we have an additional setting of "Wait for Debugger on Launch." 

I have a related question:  what are the "Value" settings for under Source File Settings?  Nothing shows up under Context Help nor could I find something obvious in Online Help. 

Thank you again! 

-Khalid

Message Edited by Khalid on 12-13-2006 09:03 AM

[JR_A.]

Those "VI Settings" give you the ability to change/override those settings for the VIs in your application. You can click on the VIs in the Project Files tree to select which VI to operate on. The "Value" column is showing you what is set in that VI's properties. If you uncheck the "Use VI Setting", the Value check box should become enabled allowing you to override it.

I don't use that much for built applications, but a similar option is available for source distributions. That is a handy way to distribute code with custom option such as removing all block diagrams or other performance tweaks like disabling debugging, automatic error handling and other properties.

-JRA

[Khalid]

That makes sense.  I should start having my coffee earlier 

Thanks!

-Khalid