LabVIEW 2017.0f2 crashes when modifying Type defined clusters

[Freelance_LV]

Hi

I have been seeing some strange behaviour with LabVIEW since yesterday.

I have a not-so-big project in which I am using 3 Type defined clusters on the UI, for defining some test parameters. I am not using Strict TypeDef, as I have some combo boxes in each cluster which need to be listed programmatically (Strings[] property).

This project was developed in October last year and has been working fine all these days. I have been adding some new features to it since a month and its been fine till yesterday noon. I have added and edited the type defined controls all these days without any issues.

Since yesterday, LabVIEW began to crash in any of these instances, if the VI has errors (not because of the mismatch type def, but for any other reason like an incomplete sub VI):

1. when I edit the Type Def cluster (any of the 3), save the file and Approve changes on the UI instance (right click on the instance and select Review and Approve changes)

2. when I rearrange controls on a tab page where these clusters are placed

LabVIEW does not crash:

1. If I rearrange all objects on the tab page except these clusters.

2. If there is no other error in the VI except the mismatched type def (there would still be a broken arrow but that seems to be ok for LabVIEW).

Fix or disable all other errors and leave only the type def related errors and the changes are approved without crashing.

Has anyone seen this behaviour? Is it a known issue?

[billko]

Maybe something is corrupt with your LV installation that a repair might fix?

[Bob_Schor]

You describe your system as LabVIEW 2017.0f2.  Is there any relationship between the appearance of this (new) Crash Behavior and installing the f2 Update Patch?  

You could try to "go back to a previously-working Situation".  The first involves some Pain and Risk, but you could try to remove LabVIEW completely and then re-install it (this is similar to the Repair suggestion others have made, possibly a bit more radical).  Feel free to reach out to Support.ni.com (and see below).

[I apologize if this "pours salt into a wound", but ...]  Are you using some form of Version Control System (such as Git or Subversion)?  If so, can you bring down an earlier version of the code that used to work and see if it still crashes?  If so, that really points to "bad LabVIEW".

I presume you are getting the infamous "We apologize for the inconvenience" messages that LabVIEW generates when it goes south.  I hope you are sending the reports to NI.  In my experience, this hasn't been a lot of help, but I have gone to Support.ni.com and filed a "Reporting a Bug" Service Request, and did it by asking to speak to an Applications Engineer for suggestions and help.  That, at least, gets it on NI's Radar, and they can also access their own database to see if this is a Known Issue, and maybe has a "Try This" fix.

Good luck.  LabVIEW 2018 should be out in about a month -- maybe it will be better than LabVIEW 2017 (shades of LabVIEW 2011!).

Bob Schor

[Freelance_LV]

Hi Bob

Apologies for such a delayed reply.

I have had this patch of LabVIEW for some months now. So, I do not expect it to be a problem with the patch. As I said, everything was the same as it was for months and LabVIEW just decided to crash on that one day, for various reasons.

I have sent the reports to NI, with my office email ID (which was registered for SSP) and some comments each time it crashed but I have not heard from NI, as you correctly guessed.

LabVIEW has not crashed since, may be it just caught cold and decided to sneeze hard on that one day!