<B>Measurement Studio 7.1 Just Released!!</B>

[Nate D'Anna]

Check out the new features of the latest version of Measurement Studio for Visual Studio .NET - click here. Measurement Studio 7.1 includes more the twice the number of native .NET user interface controls, the Instrument Driver .NET Wizard, and support for the next generation of DAQ boards boards (M Series). Upgrade Today! Feel free to post any questions regarding this release here.

[Colin hughes]

Why am I responding here
Becouse I cannot see the post qestion button?

I would like to update my Measurement Studio 7 to 7.1
I orderd 7.1 for another developer in our team.
So I need the same version.
As the update seems to only have extra controls and 3D control that we should have had in the first place I dont see why we should have to pay.
Also my version (7) has bug in it that screws up the path in Visual studio MFC.
MFC no longer compiles proberly.
So why don't national instrument do the right thing and give us customers free upgrades and not expect us to pay for beta testing your products.
As a customer that uses a lot of NI products I would expect NI to show some leways on this one a I will not pay for this type of upgrade.
Seem that M
easurement Studio 7 .net is still not finnished as there ae few visual controls.
and next to no non visual controls so you have to hunt for the class to use.
My local NI rep tells me that as I have the Ent version that I would also get an update for Labwindow as well so a free upgrade was not on.
I dont use Labwindows verry often mainly becouse I am aften rebuilding my development machine and find that activationis a pain in the *** which has no place in development software and I for one will not purchase activated software in the future.

So how about the free upgrade to 7.1 for user of version 7 as it is mainly only bug fixes and DotNet 3D controls that should have been there in the first place.
I have so far had no comeback from my local rep who told me he would see what he could do.

[Nate D'Anna]

Dear Colin,

When moving from version 6.0 to version 7.0 of Measurement Studio, the product had to be completely re-written to move from ActiveX to native .NET components. This includes the user interface components, analysis routines, and DAQ and Instrument I/O libraries. Also, all of the Visual Studio integration provided by Measurement Studio had to be reimplemented for the latest version of Visual Studio. You mentioned that you have the enterprise version - this included all of the ActiveX components included with Measurement Studio 6.0, plus new .NET components. Thus, you are getting full support for Visual Studio 6.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2003.

Now, looking at the move from Measurement Studio 7.0 to 7.1, there are also quite a few new features:
1)Seven new native UI controls, including gauges, knobs, thermometers, slides, tanks, numeric edits, and dials. These controls offer significant improvements over their ActiveX counterparts. Since they are native .NET controls, you can fully extend and customize them to fit your own application. Measurement Studio even includes methods that are only useful for extensibility such as MapDataPoint which transforms a data point on a graph to the device data point.
2)Graph enhancements: improved performance, in addition to annotations (both point and rang), and cursor and mouse labels
3).NET Designers: In order to more quickly design your user interface, Measurement Studio 7.1 includes .NET designers such as the annotation editor
4)Property window integration: In addition to the usual property window integration, there are now graphical representation of properties like start and sweep angles of dials and gauges.
5)Auto format menus: Allows you to quickly configure UI to pre-defined states
6)Instrument Driver .NET Wizard: This feature is now integrated with Visual Studio .NET, which automatically wraps existing instrument drivers using P/Invoke with work with .NET.
7)Support for M Series DAQ boards

For a full list of all new features included in version 7.1, you might take a look at http://www.ni.com/mstudio/whats_new.htm#dtc

Another option to consider is the Software Service Program (SSP). With a subscription to SSP, you will automatically receive all upgrades in a given year for Measurement Studio, in addition to 1 to 1 phone support.

I would also like to hear more information about the MFC problem you reported. If you can provide further details, this bug can be reported ASAP to R&D. Also, I would like to follow-up for you with your local sales engineer about your earlier conversations � which region are located in?

Please feel free to follow-up and I will do my best to respond quickly.


Best Regards,
Nate D�Anna

[Colin hughes]

Hi Nate

My point is that having purchased Version 7 for DOT.NET I am very disapointed, evern my local rep was surprised at the lack of user interface controls with this version. (my users only see the user interface)
>>Seven new native UI controls

About time to.
It OK to state that NI has added this and that to version 7.1 it does not change the fact that Version 7 should have had more controls in the first place.
I am not interested in using the ActiveX controls in a DOT.NET program so the addition of version 6 controls are of little use to me.
I am not saying that NI are not doing a good job, just that they should not expect there customers to pay for unfinnished software for there R&D.
I consider Version 7 as unusable for my needs and expect a free upgrade as I have not used version 7.0 in any of our projects except Labwindows as I could not do what I wanted in DOT.NET.

>>Support for M Series DAQ boards
Confused as I thought that was the job of NIDAQmx

I think the MFC bug could be that I was using an early MSDN version of Visual Studio 2003 so it might be OK with the normal retail version. (MSDN version should have been the same) I have looked at my old e-mails but can not find the details.
The problem was that the installing V7 overwrites the settings in MFC projects.
Also I had unresolved problems in porting code to managed C++ as the program could not find the standard headed files that I added.
Old code should have compiled using microsoft (it just works), I gave up in the end.
To many problems.
This problem should be in your database as I reported it at the time.
The fix was to copy the mising detail from an instulation from your tech support but it did not solve all the problem created after instaling MS 7.

SSP was sliped in with out me noticing it.

I did get SSP for my co worker who has v7.1 pro.
But as I have not had an upgrade and will not pay for one my DOT.NET project are on hold.

Which also means the purchase of NI hardware is on hold.

>>1 to 1 phone support.
I get that any way so why pay for it.

At some stage in the future I will need to use an FPGA host compiled as a DLL and use it from DOT.NET.
I hope by then there will be some sample code around showing me how to use the Labview memory manager from DOT.NET. as NI is short on sample code using Labview copiled DLL's.

Activation is another big problem that NI should drop.
Most development Software is licenced to a named user not a machine.
I can understand this to some extent with labview as it seems that a lot of enginears do not compile there projects and use Labview in production.

Not so with Labwindow.
Why becouse I can only use one machine at a time.
My version of VS does not need activation.

As I have more that one development machine and often rebuild my computers, I consider actiavation as unsutable.


I droped Borland when they added activation to there C# Builder.


>> which region are located in?
UK.

Thanks for your time.

Colin Hughes
Delphi Diesel Systems
London

UK