How determine which add-ons and which Labview edition is needed for a certain application?

[andreas_nilsson]

I have developed an application that a guy from another company needs to continue developing. They do not currently have Labview. How can we determine which add-ons that are needed and which Labview edition (Base/Full/Professional) that is needed?

[wiebe@CARYA]

This site shows the difference between the LabVIEW editions.

I don't think there's a way to see which features are used in an application.

Same for toolkits. If one is missing you'll (often) get a meaningful message. But the only way to know this in advance is to analyze the code. Usually the developer(s) know...

Here is a somewhat related thread.

[andreas_nilsson]

Thanks! I am the developer in this case. But if a developer has Labview Professional and big bunch of toolkits. But how am I supposed to find out which parts of Labview I used, so that I can tell my friend at this other company which Labview version and which addons he should buy?

[JÞB]

My first question is....

Why are you even speaking to this company.?  

5 minutes.   That is all it takes to look through the project dependancies.  Put up a webex and see if the other developer knows that.  Any consultant on the Alliance Partner locator already has license keys.  No need to do the job for them!

I'll go one better,   Email me and I'll show you how it's done pro bono.

[wiebe@CARYA]

Does he need to build executables (as I would always recommend)? Then he needs pro or full with add on. Then I'd go for full, as full+application builder probably comes pretty close to pro.

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@andreas_nilsson wrote:

Thanks! I am the developer in this case. But if a developer has Labview Professional and big bunch of toolkits. But how am I supposed to find out which parts of Labview I used, so that I can tell my friend at this other company which Labview version and which addons he should buy?

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Experience, I'm afraid.

You can look which toolkits you have installed, and for each one see if it rings a bell (EDIT: or indeed cross reference with the project dependencies list). Same for each of the items in the LabVIEW comparison list, although I'd always recommend at least pro, but probably full...

[andreas_nilsson]

Thank you all for replying so promptly. 

So there is no automatic function with which one can get a list of the different Labview parts that is used by a particular application. The project dependencies is a list of Labview parts, for sure, but it is not clear what add-ons etc. those dependencies correspond to. 

The company in question has very limited Labview experience. I just wanted an automatic function like this so that I would've been able to help the company and tell them what to buy.

Finally, I think I expressed myself a bit unclear in my first post: "But if a developer has Labview Professional and big bunch of toolkits." That developer is me using my company's site license.

[Kevin_Price]

It may be simplest to put a fresh install of LabVIEW without any toolkits on some machine, try to open the code, and then pay attention to the list of any missing/broken vi's.   Not elegant, but not too painful since most of the install is walk-away time. 

-Kevin P

[JÞB]

Finding installed toolkit is easy NIPM VIPM do that gracefully. 

A where used list is tougher.  A what used here list is inspection only. 

Luckily,  there is a converse method that is surefire and highly effective. 

Define a "Development configuration " and have all developers develop to that list of modules.  And never outsource to a team that isn't familiar with the tools!  Do you have your car's breaks replaced by a dentist?  No,  your dentist works on stuff in your mouth and has training and tools for that.  You have your car maintained by an automotive technician. 

[ikaiser]

Hey Andreas,

Personally, I'd also go with Kevin's suggestion:

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@Kevin_Price wrote:

It may be simplest to put a fresh install of LabVIEW without any toolkits on some machine, try to open the code, and then pay attention to the list of any missing/broken vi's.

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Be aware that you can do this in a Virtual Machine as well. Switching between different editions of LabVIEW (Standard, Full, Pro, ...) can be done easily in NI License Manager. Just right-click any of the versions, click Deactivate/Reactivate/Activate. Restart LabVIEW afterwards.

And of course you can use an evaluation version of LabVIEW for this, no need to activate. Regarding your toolkits/packages though you might need activating them, depending on the licensing rules of those toolkits. Should be mostly straightforward all in all.

[JÞB]

Or

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@ikaiser wrote:

Hey Andreas,

Personally, I'd also go with Kevin's suggestion:

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@Kevin_Price wrote:

It may be simplest to put a fresh install of LabVIEW without any toolkits on some machine, try to open the code, and then pay attention to the list of any missing/broken vi's.

---

Be aware that you can do this in a Virtual Machine as well. Switching between different editions of LabVIEW (Standard, Full, Pro, ...) can be done easily in NI License Manager. Just right-click any of the versions, click Deactivate/Reactivate/Activate. Restart LabVIEW afterwards.

And of course you can use an evaluation version of LabVIEW for this, no need to activate. Regarding your toolkits/packages though you might need activating them, depending on the licensing rules of those toolkits. Should be mostly straightforward all in all.

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Just ask a guy that can train you how to do it in 5 minutes.

Then be ready to take notes in class.

Hmmm, maybe NI would like to host that web event... A professional shows how to debug a messed up project.... I am certain that an Nintern could provide the subject project.