I was just catching up on the newsgroup, and read the article about
someone having a problem getting their software to show up in MAX.
I ran into this problem a few times when I had to install a small LV
program, and only
figured out what I had done wrong the last time. That last time, I spent
most of a
Friday trying to get a new laptop ready for a test on Monday. I installed
VISA,
the IEEE 488 software, IVI engine, and the LV runtime in every conceivable
order.
Then uninstalled, then re-downloaded, etc. Checked the cables, equipment.
Checked the docs.
I gave up on it, came in Monday morning, happened to see something about "F5
to refresh"-
then MAX "found" all the software, would let me add devices to the IVI
subtree, etc.
Overall, a pretty demoralizing experience. How do you explain that one to
the boss? "Remember that problem I was having... for 5 HOURS on friday...
just needed to press F5... silly me" Don't think they would trust me with
scissors at my desk anymore, let alone any instrumentation.
I don't think pressing F5 to refresh is intuitive. This is more like a
hidden feature, or
the developer's idea of a joke, or water torture.
That's just my experience though. I feel a bit better that I know someone
at NI did
realize that this is an issue. I hope they will take some action on it.
________________________________________________________
Artist,
It turns out that the software list in MAX has to be refreshed to be
updated, so if you have turned off the preference to refresh every
time MAX is launched, then you will need to manually refresh to update
the list. To refresh, simply do a "view >> refresh", or press "F5" as
a shortcut.
Definately let me know if this turns out to be the problem. I have
pitched the case that this refresh requirement for the software list
is not intuitive, and therefore is a cause of problems. Personally, I
learned this the hard way - uninstalling and reinstalling software
because the software list in MAX did not show what I thought it
should, when all along I just needed to refresh. If you (or anyone
else reading this) ran into this, please post a response and let me
know about the experience.
Greg Caesar
National Instruments
