Is there a way to unlock a packed project library?

[LearningLabVIEW]

So I have code that was developed in LabVIEW 2015 SP1 64 bit. I am trying to move it over to LabVIEW 2020 64 bit. It contains packed project libraries. Can I "unlock" these to use them and edit? They are locked for use it seems and I am not finding any documentation on how to access them for editing and to then move to LabVIEW 2020.

[Gregory]

I believe a packed project library (PPL) is built from a LabVIEW Project (.lvproj). You need to get the LabVIEW Project that built the PPL in order to edit the contents.

Some more info on PPL's here

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview/page/lvhowto/caveats_recommend_packed.html

[LearningLabVIEW]

Thanks for the information! It seems what i thought the original project also has these packed project libraries. Is it possible these libraries come from another project as well?

[Mark_Yedinak · Accepted solution]

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@LearningLabVIEW wrote:

Thanks for the information! It seems what i thought the original project also has these packed project libraries. Is it possible these libraries come from another project as well?

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It's not possible, it is that they were generated using another project. Think of a PPL as a DLL or exe. You cannot modify them unless you have the source code for them. The block diagrams are stripped from PPLs and all they contain is the compiled code. You can view the block diagram for any public member of a PPL but they are not editable.

[JÞB · Accepted solution]

Just a little bit of additional information. 

A lvlibp (packed project library) is "built" or maybe "quasibuilt" by packing a library, *.lvlib, of items that have a bidirectional membership. 

Library members know they belong to the library and the library knows what items it owns.  Since the relationship is bidirectional, the library can be "packed" into a single file.  The downside is that it can't be unpacked.  You need to edit the source library to make changes then repack it.

Libraries (*.lvlib files) cannot be created or edited outside of a project (*.lvproj) context. 

That is lvproj, lvlib and lvlibp files.  llb Files are completely different and if you are using them .... just don't. 

[LearningLabVIEW]

Thank you for the information! I guess I had to dig further into the files to find the original files. Thanks for the clarity.

[Gregory]

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@JÞB wrote:

Libraries (*.lvlib files) cannot be created or edited outside of a project (*.lvproj) context. 

Good information JÞB, just wanted to note that lvlib files can be created and edited on their own without an lvproj file.

[billko]

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@Gregory wrote:

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@JÞB wrote:

Libraries (*.lvlib files) cannot be created or edited outside of a project (*.lvproj) context. 

Good information JÞB, just wanted to note that lvlib files can be created and edited on their own without an lvproj file.

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True, and I didn't know that.  It's buried way down in the "Other Files" section.  I don't know that I'd create a library without a project first, though.  To me, it always felt "safer" to have a library inside a project, but I don't know if this is actually the case.

One other thing is that you can't really build anything without a project.