CVI 7.1: Error occurred while reading the function panel customization file

[altella]

Hello colleagues;

Some years ago, I was using CVI 5.0 and 6.0. After some years of not using it, I ave recently installed CVI 7.1.1.
I had no software of NI in my PC, so I have installed the CD containing the LabWindows/CVI Full Development system and the two CDs containig the device drivers.
Everithing installs fine, and there is no problems, but when I launch the CVI environment, and I try to access the CVI libraries through the Function Panels, I obtain the following error message:

"An error occurred while reading the function panel costumization file
Error message:
       Could not load the Automation Support DLL"

This error repeats when I try to close the function panels, or in other kind of operations, otherwise the environment appears to work fine.

Could anyone, please report any information about this problem, or any clue to solve it?

Thank you very much in advance for your response.

Best Regards

[JonathanN]

Hi altella,

That error typically is associated with missing or corrupt MSXML component. This MSXML component allow us read the customization file for the UI library's function panels.  There is a good post on this topic here.  See if that forum provides any insight.

Also, does the machine that contains CVI 7.1.1 also have CVI 6.0 or 5.0 installed? If so, I assume you don't see the error in those environments?

Let me know the results!

Best Regards,

[altella]

Hello Jonathan N;

First of all, thank you very much for your response.
I have tested all the steps provided in the post you have mentioned in the previos post, and everithing appears to be correct, but the problem persist.
I don´t have any previous versions of CVI in my PC, only the 7.1.

This problem is quite important , because it doesn´t allow me to develop applications easily.

Any other clue about this issue?

Thank you all in advance,

Best regards

[JonathanN]

Hi altella,

If you install CVI 7.1 on another machine, do you see the same behavior? I am inclined to think this may be a machine-specific issue dealing with your MSXML components. I have seen cases where installing the service packs for MSXML has fixed the issue. Try installing the Microsoft XML Parser (MSXML) 3.0 Service Pack 5 (SP5).

I assume you followed Luis's suggestion on that post (i.e. verifying the msxml3.dll does exist and modifying the registry key?)

You could also just try loading that DLL into memory to see if that even works via a LoadLibrary call. LoadLibrary is a Windows SDK function that will load a DLL into memory.  As far as how you use it, you can simply call LoadLibrary passing in the path to the DLL. There is a KnowledgeBase entitled How Can I Access DLL Functions in a LabWindows/CVI Program Without Including the Import Library in t... that describes how to use LoadLibrary.  You do not need to worry about the rest of the code in this example: simply call LoadLibrary and then FreeLibrary (as shown in the example). 

If you are unable to load the DLL, that would indicate there is something corrupted with your XML components.

You could also try re-registering the component and maybe even unregistering and then registering via the Regsvr32 call.  To register the DLL, simply click Start, and then click Run.  In the Open box, type the following : regsvr32 MSXML3.DLL, and then click OK.  You can use the /u syntax to unregister the server (i.e. regsvr32 /u msxml.dll).

Hope this helps!

Best Regards,

[altella]

Hello again Jonathan;

After being unable to test your recomendations for a few days, I am back to CVI again.
I have tested all you indicate in your response, but I an still having problems:
1.- I have installed MSXML 3.0 Service Pack 5, but I had already installed MSXML 4.0 SP 2. Could this be a problem?
2.- I have also verified that I have msxml3.dll and the registry key that Luis indicates.
3.- I have registered and unregistered the component with regsvr32 calls
4.- And finally I have tried to load the library using the LoadLibrary function.

Until this point I can register and unregister the library with regsvr32 and I can load the dll with LoadLibrary function correctly, but the error when using the function panel still appears. I don´t get the error with the "Advanced Analisys Library", but I do obtain it with "ANSI C" and "Used Interface Library".

This problem is very annoying because the popup appears even if you are typing your code directly, for example I get the popup with the error when writting "printf("..."

I consider the error could be because of any software installed in my PC, but I don´t understand why It happends if I have all the components necessary for the CVI 7.1 to work.

I would appreciate a lot any other idea regarding this problem.

Best regards

[JonathanN]

Hi altella,

It wasn't explicitly stated so I wanted to make sure that you tried running the example that Luis mentioned. That example, XMLSample is located in the <CVI>\samples\toolbox\ directory.  When it asks you for a file, point it to <CVI>\bin\userint.fpc (this is the XML customization file for the UI library).  See if you can browse this file's contents using this example program.

Let me know the results. You may have already tried this, but I wanted to make sure about that.

Best Regards,

[altella]

Hello Jonathan N;

First of all I would like to thank you for the quick responses and help provided.
As you ask in your last post, I have run the XMLSample, and I have tried to read the userint.fpc file.
I get the following error:
"Could not load the Automation Support DLL"

So, here it is another clue about the problem, that adds to the problems stated in the previous post.

As always any clue about this will be deeply appreciated. 🙂

Best regards

[JonathanN]

Hi altella,

Actually I overlooked your initial post about the error message "Could not load the Automation Support DLL" as that message helps a lot.  My fault...  

Anyway, we report that message when we can't load our ActiveX library which is found in the cviauto.dll located in the c:\windows\system32 directory. 

Clearly there has been some installation problem but before we jump into repair mode, make sure that the cviauto.dll is in that system32 directory and it is the expected version 7.1.1.  If it is, then the problem is some kind of other incompatibility.  In that case, running Dependency Walker on that DLL should help us locate any dependencies not found.

Let me know what you find!

Best Regards,

[altella]

Hi Jonathan;

You have hit the nail on the head ¡¡¡¡ Thank you very much ¡¡
That was the problem indeed. I didn´t have the cviauto.dll in c:\windows\system32. Now I have the problem solved after copying the dll directly in its place (It all appears to work fine now), I have two final doubts:

1.- I performed the typical installation on CVI 7.1 only modifying the default values to include the installation of the Windows SDK. What problem could have occurred to miss the installation of cviauto.dll?

2.- I have executed Dependency Walker  on cviauto.dll. I get the following message:
" Warning: At least one delay-load dependency module was not found. "
" Warning: At least one module has an unresolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-load dependent module. "

In the table with the DLLs I can see:
"DWMAPI.DLL   Error opening file. The system can not find the specified file"

Is this normal?

Again, thank you very much for your responses and solution to the problem,

Best Regards,

Altella