Can a labview .vi instrument driver be used with Labwindows/CVI

[hy-tech]

I am trying to interface with a Sacher laser. They only supply a LabView .vi driver. We only use Labwindows/CVI here. Is there any way to access the LabView driver from Labwindows/CVI? There seem to be tools to convert labwindows/CVI drivers to LabView (why would you want to do that?), but not from Lab View to Lab Windows. Any help would be appreciated.
eric

[msaxon]

The easiest thing to do (well, easy if you have LabVIEW) is to build the driver VIs into a DLL. The functions in the DLL can then be called by the CVI application.

[MJF]

Just a little musing on this subject...

It sure would be nice to have a tool to do this directly within CVI, perhaps a Library of some sort to access the VI or a VI to DLL converter utility. LabView runtime support is installed as part of the support functions when you distribute an application using the distribution kits generated in more modern versions of CVI so it seems that at least a portion of the necessary code is already there.

[MissyS]

Hi MJF,

You can create a product suggestion by clicking on the "feedback" link at Contact NI. We take these suggestions seriously, and this feature could make it into a future version of our software. However, we don't know if or when this feature would be implemented. If you are interested in creating a product suggestion, here is the link:

Contact NI

Click on the link under Product Feedback and you can enter a suggestion.

Regards,

[rolfk]

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@MJF wrote:

Just a little musing on this subject...

It sure would be nice to have a tool to do this directly within CVI, perhaps a Library of some sort to access the VI or a VI to DLL converter utility. LabView runtime support is installed as part of the support functions when you distribute an application using the distribution kits generated in more modern versions of CVI so it seems that at least a portion of the necessary code is already there.

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The most important part for this is the application builder in LabVIEW which is only included in the development system of LabVIEW but not in the runtime. Adding that to the runtime would make it almost like the development system 😉 so I'm not sure this is going to happen.

Instead you could consider buying one of the LabVIEW Developer Suites, where the core system already contains:  LabVIEW Professional Development System
LabWindows/CVI Full Development System
Measurement Studio Enterprise
SignalExpress

and a whole bunch of Toolkits

Most probably there is an upgrade path from LabWindows CVI too.

Rolf Kalbermatter

Message Edited by rolfk on 06-28-2006 08:33 AM

[MJF]

But you see, that is the problem. I have no desire to buy Labview as I will never use it for any other purpose. I cannot justify the expense of purchasing the development system for a single tool.

[thehobbs]

NI is working on a tool to create a CVI "wrappers" for LabVIEW drivers.  The tool leverages the project introduced in LabVIEW 8.0.  It works with LabVIEW Plug and Play (project-style) instrument drivers.  NI is will work with suppliers of LabVIEW instrument drivers so that they can provide these wrappers.  We can also create the wrapper for you.  Again, the LabVIEW driver must be based on the LabVIEW project.  If you would like additional information, you can email instrument.drivers@ni.com.

Jason Hobbs

Instrument Drivers