Measurement Studio (2019 C#) connection to Instrument Studio

[Theo88]

Dear NI support,

Your Instrument Studio seems a software worth investigating, so I have a couple of questions:

1. At the moment I’m using C# with Measurement Studio (2019) with a lot of inherited code. Your website (video) says that I can connect my C# code to IS as an out-of-process server. What can I do that way – collect data, control device parameters, or both? Is there a protocol with example code on how to do that from C#?
2. Your panels (virtual devices) in IS look nice but is there a plugin standard, so I can write my own panels? In case there is: a link to the protocol would be great and some example code too (preferable C#)
3. The virtual instruments are connected to the hardware via drivers (depending on device type). If In case of non-NI device and lack of a driver, is there a protocol including code examples to create such a driver (what language)?

Thank you

Theo

[JP-NI · Accepted solution]

Hi Theo88, 

Thanks for posting the questions here. 

Please be aware that InstrumentStudio was designed to work as a software front end for NI's modular instrument driver sets only. 

A full list of compatible hardware is found here: http://www.ni.com/documentation/en/instrumentstudio/latest/instudiohelpmanual/supported-devices/ 

The debug session ability is really neat, allowing you to pause the current code session to manually adjust the instruments for debugging, however this functionality supports the NI hardware listed above.

For c# breakpoints specifcally, you could try this feature: ni.com/documentation/en/instrumentstudio/latest/instudiohelpmanual/debug-c-cplus-net/

I can see that the name InstrumentStudio could be misleading to be an add-on for Measurement Studio, but it is software that NI maintain and manage with an API for automation rather than open source code for creating your own front panels etc.

There is however an experimental ability to host your application in InstrumentStudio: https://www.ni.com/documentation/en/instrumentstudio/latest/instudiohelpmanual/hosted-applications/

More information and videos are here, but I imagine you've seen this already, so it is just for reference: 

https://www.ni.com/en-gb/shop/electronic-test-instrumentation/application-software-for-electronic-te...

I appreciate it's not necessarily all the answers you were hoping for, but I trust it clarifies the use case for InstrumentStudio and provides some possibilities to explore.

Thanks