VS2008 VISA library not deploying?

[Penny]

Hello,

In trying to teach myself C#, I have created a VS2008 project with VISA communication that I would like to deploy as a standalone application.  It runs fine on the development machine, but the error that I get on the deploy is:

"The VISA driver library cannot be found.  Either VISA is not installed, or VISA is improperly installed."

I have attached a jpeg of my VS2008 solution explorer that shows NationalInstruments.Visa.NS library being referenced explicitly in the project, as well as the mstudiovisa.2008.msm dependency that was automatically detected by the installer project.  I have rebuilt both projects many times, and even deleted the app.config file to force it to update.  Nothing seems to help.  Is there something else I can do to make the VISA library deploy, besides starting over with a new project (last resort)?

Thanks for any advice.

Best regards,

Penny

[John_M.]

Hi Penny,

At first glance, it looks like you are referencing VISA correctly from within your program. However, VISA must also be installed on the deployment machine for the program to be able to reference it. It sounds like VISA is not installed on that machine, so although your program is looking in the correct location for the VISA files, it cannot find anything there to use.

Try installing VISA on the deployment computer and then try running it again.

Best Regards,

John M

[Penny]

Hi John,

Thanks for the clarification.  That would explain why the application deploys to some remote machines and not to others.  I had hoped to bundle all necessary libraries to the deployment but it sounds like that is not going to be an option for this one.  Good to know what to expect, anyway.

Best regards,

Penny

[John_M.]

Hi Penny,

Glad to help - As another option, you can look into building a distribution, which will allow you to bundle the necessary measurement studio dependencies into one installer. Take a look at this KB on Creating Distributions which should give you some direction getting started with that process. That said, you will still have to install the drivers (or at least the run-time engines) separately on the new computer.

Have a great weekend!

John M