Determining Missing Libraries/Add-ons/Modules from an Inherited Project

[v_kaiser]

Hello,

Just a qualifier - I'm a pinch-programmer with *very* basic LabVIEW exposure, so apologies in advance for 'obvious' questions, and thank you for your help/patience.

Background:

I've inherited an automation project that needs some updates.  The company no longer has a LabVIEW license, there's no documentation, and it's considered controlled tech data. 

I've managed to piece together most of the dependencies and download (and document) the packages on the LabVIEW Community Edition v20.0.1 to try and understand if the updates are feasible, and what we'll need to buy - but I'm still missing a few items.  Google/VIPM doesn't seem to know where they come from - and I don't know if they were user-created and lost, or from an add-on or... other?

I'm missing:

RT Services GV.vi

TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi

TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi

Questions:

1. Is there a way to see what packages/add-ons were used in this project or decipher where LabVIEW thinks they should be coming from?  

I reviewed the topic How-determine-which-add-ons-and-which-Labview-edition-is-needed - it sounds like the answer may be "Nope" but is there another debug tool besides "find missing items" that might offer insights?

2. Is there a good way to see what VIs are are in an add-on or package (before buying/downloading it)?

I don't know if I'm looking in the wrong place, but for example does the LabVIEW Real Time Module list what VIs it contains so I can see if I need it?  I could try to debug that way.

3. We don't do a lot of LabVIEW - Any advice on what version/package I would need to do the occasional maintenance and generate deployable EXEs on a project like this?

Thank you for any guidance/suggestions!

[RavensFan]

Turn on Context Help (Ctrl-H) and hover over the missing subVI's.  It will show the path it is expecting them at.  That might give you more information as to what they are.

Does anyone have the PC these were originally developed on?  Knowing the path, you might be able to find the subVI's on the original PC.

It's possible (probable?) that these were all custom VI's the original programmer created, but wound up saving them in a file location that was under the LabVIEW Program Files directory rather than under the directory they were saving the rest of the project and thus didn't get copied over when they gave you the project files.

[v_kaiser]

Context help is a terrific thing!

Unfortunately it says "No Description Available" which sounds like it supports the "User-Created" theory.  Should I be seeing a path?

RT Services GV.vi is called in Modbus Manage Semiphore as local variables...which is I think a labview driver? 
It seems to be a "Global Variable" (GV I suppose) - when I click on the variable I get the error "RT Services GV.vi not found."

TNul/TNum do seem to be 'blocks.' 

I got the project in a zip file - so that seems like a likely theory... although surprising.  I'm not very LabVIEW savvy, but this application seems to have been written by a very knowledgeable individual.  I'll check with the IT guy - maybe there's a computer or a backup on the server?

Thanks for these pointers!

[Mark_Yedinak]

Do you have a .lvproj file? If so, you can open that in a text editor and search for the names of the missing VIs. You should see the path there. It might be listed as a relative path so you will need to kmow the path for where the project file was located.

[RavensFan]

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@v_kaiser wrote:

Context help is a terrific thing!

Unfortunately it says "No Description Available" which sounds like it supports the "User-Created" theory.  Should I be seeing a path?

I've seen a path show in context help for missing subVI's near the top of the window.  I can't say for certain that EVERY missing subVI would show a path.

RT Services GV.vi is called in Modbus Manage Semaphore as local variables...which is I think a labview driver? 
It seems to be a "Global Variable" (GV I suppose) - when I click on the variable I get the error "RT Services GV.vi not found."

I agree that GV probably stands for global variable.  Does it look like a subVI?  Or like a variable?  I know several Modbus libraries, but I don't know of any that have a "Manage Semaphore".  Maybe that is some other Modbus library besides the commons ones in LabVIEW, NI.com, or JKI VI Package Manager.

TNul/TNum do seem to be 'blocks.' 

What do you mean by "blocks"?  Do you mean subVI's?

I got the project in a zip file - so that seems like a likely theory... although surprising.  I'm not very LabVIEW savvy, but this application seems to have been written by a very knowledgeable individual.  I'll check with the IT guy - maybe there's a computer or a backup on the server?

Thanks for these pointers!

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Why don't you give us a picture of the VI block diagram that shows the missing "GV" and the missing "blocks"?  Seeing how they fit into the VI might give a clue as to what they are and how they are used.

[v_kaiser]

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New user restrictions - I could only post twice in the first 24 hours!  😂

@Mark_Yedinak wrote:

Do you have a .lvproj file? If so, you can open that in a text editor and search for the names of the missing VIs. You should see the path there. It might be listed as a relative path so you will need to know the path for where the project file was located.

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 That is a very nifty trick. I guess ../ is the project home directory?  I don't seem to have those folders (except Utilities, but TNumBoo does not seem to be there)

<Item Name="RT Services GV.vi" Type="VI" URL="../Services/RT Services GV.vi"/>

<Item Name="TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi" Type="VI" URL="../Tool Kit/Utility/TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi"/>

<Item Name="TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi" Type="VI" URL="../../Utilities/TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi"/>

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@RavensFan wrote:

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I agree that GV probably stands for global variable.  Does it look like a subVI?  Or like a variable?  I know several Modbus libraries, but I don't know of any that have a "Manage Semaphore".  Maybe that is some other Modbus library besides the commons ones in LabVIEW, NI.com, or JKI VI Package Manager.

It does seem to be a variable:

What do you mean by "blocks"?  Do you mean subVI's? 

subVIs - I think?  They are the Question Mark squares.

Thank you for correcting my terminology!  Much appreciated.

Thank you very much for all the help.  It's been rather exciting tracking down deprecated VIs and missing packages and bit-by-bit seeing different elements start to work as I learn (trial by fire I suppose!)

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[Mark_Yedinak]

"../" is the the level above your project folder. "./" is the project folder.

[RavensFan]

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@v_kaiser wrote:

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 That is a very nifty trick. I guess ../ is the project home directory?  I don't seem to have those folders (except Utilities, but TNumBoo does not seem to be there)

<Item Name="RT Services GV.vi" Type="VI" URL="../Services/RT Services GV.vi"/>

<Item Name="TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi" Type="VI" URL="../Tool Kit/Utility/TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi"/>

<Item Name="TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi" Type="VI" URL="../../Utilities/TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi"/>

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That helps to give you a chance to look for some files on the original PC if you still have access.

../  means go up a directory level.  And I'll assume from which ever directory the .lvproj resides in.   ../../ means go up 2 levels.

So if your .lvproj file is in c:\{some common path}\{one additional level}\MyProject\

Then

"RT Services GV.vi" is being searched for in c:\{some common path}\{one additional level}/Services/RT Services GV.vi  (Services directory adjacent to MyProject

"TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi" is being searched for in "c:\{some common path}\{one additional level}/Tool Kit/Utility/TNulNum Get Current Time dual output.vi"  (Toolkit is adjacent to MyProject, and Utility below that)

"TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi" is being searched for in URL="../../Utilities/TNumBoo Set boolean when time has elapsed.vi">where Utilities is a directory adjacent to the {one additional level} directory.

Someone did a bad job copying all the needed files over from the original development PC.  The global variable and TNum subVI's seem to be created by the original developer, or were a part of a toolkit they found, but there is not enough information to know where they found them.

You might have to figure out what they are meant to do and recreate them.