LABview Project dependency paths

[md12g12]

Hi,

I had a working labview project, then the main VI was moved and renamed and finally added back into the project. Now if I try to run the VI I get Invoke node errors, see the attached picture. ("The refnum class that is being passed into this node is not fully defined.  This is because the refnum is defined using external files, and one or more of these files are missing.")

As far as I can tell it is struggling to access several .dll files to load the correct nodes but all the dependencies are in the same folder as the VI and project, so is it just a case of pointing the VI towards the right .dll files? If so how do I do that?

Thanks!

[Bob_Schor]

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@md12g12 wrote:

I had a working labview project, then the main VI was moved and renamed and finally added back into the project.

When you have a LabVIEW Project, you should use the Project Explorer to move items in the Project (i.e. do the Move from within LabVIEW, and from within the Project.

Are you using some form of Version Control (I use Subversion)?  If so, get back the Project before you moved the file and redo the Move from within the Project.

If not, try moving the file (with LabVIEW not running) back into the Project and see if that "fixes" things.  [Make a copy of all of the files into another Folder so that if things go very far South, you can safely "undo"].  If it does, then open the Project, right-click (in the Project Explorer) the file you want to Move, and choose Rename to move it.

Bob Schor

[wiebe@CARYA]

Revert from SCC, then do it again, but from the project.

EDIT: Already mentioned (TL;DR)

[md12g12]

Sadly I dont have any version control, and I have tried the other suggestions but I still have the same errors.

Im starting to think its not about the file paths, and something has gone wrong so that the VI isnt trying to call the external dll's or something to that effect.

[billko]

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@md12g12 wrote:

Sadly I dont have any version control, and I have tried the other suggestions but I still have the same errors.

Im starting to think its not about the file paths, and something has gone wrong so that the VI isnt trying to call the external dll's or something to that effect.

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Wow, you need to wear your seat belt BEFORE you crash your car.  Now you have a possibly corrupt project and a possibly invalid edit in your VI causing it to not function correctly.  How are you going to backtrack?  Never, EVER develop software without having some kind of versioning software.  😞

[md12g12]

Sorry if I have confused you, the VI has not been edited in any way, nor have any other files except their names and locations, which I have reverted to how it was before. The problem is not within the files, but with them talking to each other.

[Bob_Schor]

Two points, one "trivial and picky", the other substantive.

• Thanks for trying to use the correct capitalization for LabVIEW.  Unfortunately, you capitalized the wrong half!  It's an acronym, Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench.
• If you've only moved stuff, and "broken" the links within the Project, several of us have "been there, done that, recovered from that."  If the Project is of a reasonable size, you could consider compressing the Folder holding all of the Project and its files and attaching the resulting ZIP files, along with the location of the DLLs you are referencing (their position on your disk, of course), and ask if we can "fix the links".  Alternatively, you can try to do this yourself.

If you want to try doing it yourself, first make a copy of the files to another folder (just in case you make it worse).

Open the Project.  If it starts showing "missing files", hit the Ignore button (if you are quick, you can hit "Ignore All" while it is searching).  The goal is to get the Project File loaded, even with broken links.

Actually, it would help to see a picture of the Project Explorer window, so we can see the nature of the problem.  You probably have Conflicts, or things like that.  Are there also "broken links" in Dependencies?

Right-click a broken link.  Is it a Conflict (meaning there are two possible places it might be)?  See if it pops up two places, one with an Icon (oh, I hope you make Icons for your VIs!), the other maybe greyed out.  Choose the one that "seems real", tell it this is the one, and let it save it.  One down, 99 to go ...

Sometimes when you right-click a broken link, you'll see a choice "Replace with an Item found in the Project".  This is a Good Thing -- do it.

There are other cases where it doesn't quite work as well.  This is where you find a LabVIEW Guru in your School/Company and get her/him to give you 10 minutes of "hands-on time" ...

Bob Schor

[md12g12]

Hi Bob, thanks for the advice - It is only a small project but I have tried a few times to repair it with no luck, I am a bit out of my depth. Here is a zip containing the project and offending VI. I hope all the dependant files are in there as well, they are all saved in the same folder on disk (C:\labview_programs\Phase_change_MD ). If you can take a look that would be great, at this point I don't know what is wrong with it!

[Bob_Schor]

Oops -- I'm home (about to go in to work), and don't (anymore) have LabVIEW 2017 on my machine (a long story, but it involved reformatting the C: drive, reinstalling Windows 10, and installing LabVIEW 2016, but not 2017 ...).  But I'm going in to work, where there's a Tame Test Machine that I managed to get 2017 on without it corrupting everything ... (one success, three failures so far).  I'll be back ...

Bob Schor

[Bob_Schor]

OK, I have News:

• Successfully opened the Project, let it load ignoring all errors.  The Project File had multiple VIs/Controls of yours listed under Dependencies (Control 2, Control 6, Piezo_stage_and_Tcube_Conrol, TF_control_fianiuum, VB_power_supply_(SubVI)).  I dragged them from Dependencies to the My Computer window (so they'll be visible).
• On opening Piezo_Stage, multiple references to missing Virtual Bench routines.  So I download/install VirtualBench.  It shows up in vi.lib.
• No obvious errors in the Project.  VB_power_supply opens with no errors.
• Piezo_stage has errors.  Seems to be involved with BenchtopPiezoControl and TCubeDCServoControl.  I'm guessing I'm missing ThorLabs Kinesis Software, so I'm downloading the 32-bit software for 64-bit Windows (my LabVIEW is 32-bits).  And, of course, it wants to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable Package ...  And restart ...  Back in a second.
• OK, now have Kinesis installed, makes no difference.  But I now think I see the problem -- the Front Panel shows BenchtopPiezoControl, with a bold Red lettering saying "Control could not be loaded".  It appears to be a .NET control, but I don't know where/how to find it.  Same for the TCubeDCServoControl.

I'm guessing/hoping you have some "additional information" on these Controls.  They do seem to be from ThorLabs -- does your documentation have some clue?

It seems to me that if I could get these Controls defined, they would let the Property Nodes be define, and most, if not all, of the Errors I'm seeing would disappear.  As my wife's grandmother used to say, "We're Nearer than Further".

Bob Schor