Request clarification on 'Tips & Tricks' from NIWeek session on LabVIEW Project

[mike_nrao]

I missed this session (Why I hated but now love LabVIEW Project) and I'm looking at the slides online.  Can someone please give me a paragraph (or so) explanation on the first two 'Tips and Tricks' from this presentation?  It says:

 

•The right way to include built executables

• ‘builds’ virtual folder
• cannot be Auto Populating

•Avoiding the cross-linking nightmare

• use the Files View not Windows Explorer
• create an allVIs.vi if none exists

[Brinoceros]

Hi mike_nrao,

Unfortunately I did not attend this session either, so I'm afraid I wont be much help..  The first tip seems to refer to the virtual folder in the Project Explorer called "builds" as seen on slide 10.  Its a good tip just to keep track of your builds!   The files view is simply the other tab of the Project Explorer where you can see the actual file location of the VIs used in the project (which is VERY useful).  I have also come across a number of allVIs.vi VIs (thats a mouthful ).  Basically you make an allVIs.vi in your project that simply contains every other VI you have in the project as a subVI.  This way you can look at everything you have developed at once, check out their context help (which of course you added documentation for) etc..   It gives you a good overview of what you have in the project, and can also serve as a temporary custom palette!

I know this isn't much of an explination, but it's what I got out of just going through the slides.  Hope it helps!

[mike_nrao]

Thanks Brian.  Why does it say the 'builds' virtual folder cannot be Auto Populating?  Does it mean "should" not?  and why?

I suppose using the Files View helps avoid cross-linking problems by protecting you from opening a VI with the same name (but different location) as one already in the project.  Is that what he's getting at, or is there more to it?

[Brinoceros]

hmm.. not sure.  I really don't know why the builds folder "cannot" be auto-populating.  I see no problem with it, but maybe I'm missing something.  In any case, I think it should read "should not" be. I've tried it and it seems OK.  That's really all I've been able to get out of the slides, maybe somebody else has a bit more input (maybe someone who actually attended the session?!).

Cheers, 

[shew82]

just a thought but....  I had a situation once where a build with some dynamically called VIs caused cross linking when it was added to the project - maybe only adding the exe to the project (and not the dynamic VIs that go with it) would get around this - something that is not possible with autopopulating folders.

Shaun