Finding out where a vi is being saved to?

[Clueless1]

How can I find out the save path of vi that is in memory?

What actually happens when I "disconnect from library?

What actually happens when I "duplicate heirarchy to new location"?

How can I get unsnarled if I have duplicated the heirarchy to new location a couple of times, move some lvlibs around and have no idea where vi's in memory are being loaded from and saved to?

How can I search the file system and inside of lvlibs for vi's I've created and modified within say the last 3 weeks? And once I've done this, How can I find the last modified.

Is there a way to "diff" vi's?

Can I set up a text based makefile so I can know what the heck's happening?

[Steve.Briggs]

I use LabVIEW 7.1 and mine go to My Documents >> LabVIEW Data >> app

Unless you finish a new script within the library and actually build it, there will be nothing saved.

[Doug M]

1. The path to a VI can be found in several ways:
    a) Right-click on the path in the project explorer and select Properties
    b) Select File » VI Properties from the pulldown menu of the VI.
    c) Mouse over a subVI and view its context help window.  If necessary click the "Show Optional Terminals and Full Path button in the lower left corner of the Context Help menu.  Note that this doesn't work for vi.lib system VIs.

2. I assume you are referring to the "Disconnect from Library" method? This method supposedly disconnects a child item from an owning parent LabVIEW project library, however I had trouble getting it to work and will file a report to R&D.  Nevertheless, it doesn't sound like this would help in your scenario.

3. Duplicate hierarchy to new location is a Save As operation that saves the VI and all subVIs, excluding vi.lib VIs to a new location and updates the file paths for subVI references in the new instances accordingly, however the original VI or subVI instance is not replaced and the old location continues to be used.

4. How to get unsnarled -- this depends on your project -- you can use the methods I mentioned in #1 to figure out where your VI instances are actually coming from.  You may want to resave all your subVIs to a new location and make sure all references are updated if you feel things are screwed up.

5. How can I search the file system for Vis I've created and modified:  LabVIEW does not have its own file system -- it keeps track of subVI references within the VI itself, and additional hierarchy information can be stored in the LabVIEW project file which is just XML --  but timestamps don't really come into play.  If your project is large and you want tighter control of versioning LabVIEW integrates with many 3rd party source code control providers that provide much of that functionality.

6. Is there a way to diff VIs: See the tools available in Tools » Compare

7. Can I set up a text based makefile: No, LabVIEW uses its own build specifications dialog to create LabVIEW executables. See the LabVIEW Help for more information.

Hope this helps!

[Clueless1]

Thanks, that helps.  Too bad the show terminals&fullpaths button doesn't work with context help in the PROJECT explorer.  It's nice to know that it does work in the LV explorer though. 

Too bad the paths are so ungodly long. 

Sure would be nice if a home or base directory could be defined somewhere so that a short token can be substituted for great-great-... infinity grandparents of the project folder. 

Any NI developers, I hearby relinquish any rights to the idea.