One way you can go about this is by creating a DLL and calling it from VB. The only problem is that when you call the DLL you cannot multitask in VB. VB isn't multithreaded. But yes you can create a DLL and show front panel and it would be just like in the LV Development environment and when the DLL is done it would return to your VB code. Hope this helps.
BJD1613
Lead Test Tools Development Engineer
Philips Respironics
Certified LV Architect / Instructor