Help transferring a LabView program to a new laptop

[karen.runge@ineos.com]

I inherited a LabView program that a colleague who has since left the company wrote. I do know how run the application that he wrote, but that's about it. Because the only copy of the program is installed on an old XP laptop we are understandably concerned that we will lose the application should the laptop die.

The contract that he used to pay for every year was for Developer's Suite Standard Service Program. It has been expired since 2016.

I tried speaking to technical support but they won't help me with any information of what specifically I need to transfer or re-install this program. I gather I need to purchase some sort of technical support contract, as well as renew the software license (????). 

Can anyone help me determine specifically what I need to go forward?

[Kyle97330]

Do you have an EXE file for the program, a bunch of *.vi files that run under LabVIEW, or both?

For either one (the application or LabVIEW, both if you have them) can you check the version of LabVIEW?  LabVIEW might show you on startup, or an EXE might need you to check it under Help -> About in the menus.

Do you have a program installed on the computer called "Measurement and Automation Explorer"?  Probably would be on the start menu, under "National Instruments".  If so, that's a great place to get information about what's installed.  If you can run that, there's a menu on the left side, where you can expand "My System" followed by "Software" and it will tell you all the versions of support software that PC has installed on it.  There should also be an option to export all of the settings from Measurement and Automation Explorer to a file that you can back up and import on a new PC if you need to.

Have you done some basic backups already?  Imaging the entire drive would be best, but at the very least getting backups of all files related to the program in question should be done at a minimum.

[JÞB]

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karen.runge@ineos.com wrote:

I inherited a LabView program that a colleague who has since left the company wrote. I do know how run the application that he wrote, but that's about it. Because the only copy of the program is installed on an old XP laptop we are understandably concerned that we will lose the application should the laptop die.

The contract that he used to pay for every year was for Developer's Suite Standard Service Program. It has been expired since 2016.

I tried speaking to technical support but they won't help me with any information of what specifically I need to transfer or re-install this program. I gather I need to purchase some sort of technical support contract, as well as renew the software license (????). 

Can anyone help me determine specifically what I need to go forward?

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I want to yell at you! SHOUT WARNING ⚠️. GET THAT CODE IN A SOURCE CODE CONTROL REPOSITORY!  Now, ASAP.  End of business today is overdue!

[Bob_Schor]

The "Good News" is if the code was developed with LabVIEW 2016, you can probably (I'd guess 95%, at least) be able to work with it with the current version of LabVIEW.  Do you know whether the old LabVIEW was 32-bit (probably) or 64-bit (probably not)?  You can tell if you can open LabVIEW on the original PC -- it will tell you.

You may need some assistance in figuring out which "edition" of LabVIEW to get -- Full or Professional.  I saw a Post in this Forum recently (I can't find it now) that argued the "extra cost" of the Professional license might well be worth it, as it gives you the Application Builder (which you'll need) and a few other "advanced" capabilities at a similar price for Full + additional licenses for "needed Extras".

I absolutely agree with @JÞB that you should get a Version Control System in place (popular ones with LabVIEW are Subversion (VisualSVN is a relatively inexpensive Server repository program that can easily be installed on a VM managed by the IT folks) and GIT -- I use the former, others use the latter, but having and using one is a "must" to preserve both your sanity and your LabVIEW code.

You may want to "invest in a LabVIEW consultant" to get you up-and-running.

Bob Schor

[RTSLVU]

As a stop-gap consider imaging the hard drive on the computer and having a spare computer that has similar enough hardware the imaged copy of XP will run on.

We have a few old pieces of test equipment in our lab that run Windows XP and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace. That's not going to happen very soon, so we make regular backup images of these systems.

[karen.runge@ineos.com]

Yes, we do have Measurement and Automation Explorer! Sounds like that's a great place to start to backup things? I did put in an IT request to image the hard disk. To my knowledge that wasn't ever done.

[karen.runge@ineos.com]

Definitely I will do this Monday when I return to lab.

Thanks.

[karen.runge@ineos.com]

How to invest in a LabVIEW consultant?

Thanks

[Bob_Schor]

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karen.runge@ineos.com wrote:

How to invest in a LabVIEW consultant?

Thanks

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Well, for one thing, you could tell us a little bit about yourself, your company, where you are located, whether or not you (or anyone) in your company has experience with LabVIEW, etc.  Are there Universities or Colleges, particularly with strong Engineering programs, particularly with Work/Study programs, where you could find someone who could help with LabVIEW?  Experienced members of the Forum can be found all over the world, but it's a Big World, and it is hard to connect with someone (like yourself) who is an unknown to us, having joined the Forum yesterday ...

Bob Schor

[santo_13]

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karen.runge@ineos.com wrote:

How to invest in a LabVIEW consultant?

Thanks

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You can search for a consultant/partner here - https://www.ni.com/en/partners/work-with-partners.html