Test Stand: TestStand Engine Process

[ParamNirvana]

I'm looking into an application (written by someone else of course) which calls a "Test Stand Engine" to execute a test.

First thing is what is this "Test Stand Engine" ?

I have been using Test Stand GUI (Test Stand Sequence Editor) to execute such test cases in the past so I never knew what do they mean by Test Stand Engine.

The problem i'm looking into is simple.

They say that Test Stand Engine is being executed as part of a thread and my task is to make it execute in a process.

But I Can't find the actual call to test stand engine itself.

I'm on Windows box and all I can see in Task Manager => Process is TSAUTO~1.EXE which is same whether I run GUI or my application with Test Stand Engine.

What should I look for in my application code to find the "Test Stand Engine"?

Any Help?

Nirvana

[ParamNirvana]

It is TSAutoMgr.exe isn't it?

Now I have next question I can't see any referenc eof TSAutoMgr.exe in my application.

Could it be possible that TSAutoMgr.exe is being called by any API provided by TestStand which is part of TestStand library and that is why I can't find ref. of TSAutoMgr.exe in my application code?

Nirvana

[Dennis_Knutson]

You might want to review Chapter 1 in the Using TestStand document. Go to Help>Search the TestStand Bookshelf.

Basically, the engine is the set of DLLs that provide the ActiveX  API for TestStand. It is all of the properties and methods for 'creating, editing, running, and debugging sequences' to quote the above chapter. The sequence editor uses this API. If you are looking for a LabVIEW program that uses the API, then look at the two operator interface examples that ship with TestStand. Both the simple and full example call the engine to execute sequences that you create in the editor. Other examples are written in CVI, VB.Net, C++, and C#.

I'm not sure if I understand what your problem is or who 'they' are. You might want to post in the TestStand forum with some more details of what you need to do.

[SachaE]

Hi,

  just to clarify that - there's two approaches to making an operator interface with TestStand.

1) Use the TestStand UI controls and manager controls or 2) Go directly to the TestStand Engine.

Option 1 actually overwraps the calls to the TestStand Engine anyway to make it easier to implement an operator interface. That's not to say that going directly to the TestStand Engine  ActiveX automation server is difficult, but you have to do certain things, like shutting down in a sepcific way.

Your best other resource is the TestStand help (rather than the bookshelf pdf's) and have a look at the topic about "Writing an application with the teststand engine"

As Dennis says - you might get more help on the TestStand forums rather than the LabVIEW ones though.

Thanks

Sacha Emery National Instruments (UK)

Message Edited by SachaE on 02-22-2007 10:26 AM