NI TestStand Idea Exchange

In a custom UI I currently need to have two AxSequenceView controls to display sequences:

1. Connected to the AxSequenceFileViewMgr. This shows the static view of the sequence file and is where you can attach the debug context menu to loop selected steps etc.
2. Connected to the AxExecutionViewMgr. This shows exactly the same view of the sequence file during execution, with just an additional "Status" column with the result status of each executed step. You can toggle a breakpoint by clicking in the margin but can not select steps or operate a debug context menu here.

Of course I could display both views in the UI but this feels illogical for the user, so I prefer to show only one and switch between them according to context. However this presents problems:

1. As this post (not one of mine!) says, you have to display the SequenceFileViewMgr view after loading a program because the Execution View would be blank, and then switch to the Execution View when the program is running.
2. You have to switch back to the Sequence File view when the program ends in order to re-enable the debug context menu. This means that the step statuses disappear before the user has a chance to look at them in detail. It also means that the new view is not aligned to the execution view (i.e. the first visible step is different) - this may be solvable with a lot of programming but I haven't worked out how!.

It feels to me that it would be better for the API to provide a single view of the sequence file that has the debug facilities available, with a status column that is blank (and gets reblanked at the start of every execution). My UI code would be considerably simplified!

Could some distinction be made between a button timeout and a button press, on a Message Popup step? Step.Result.ButtonHit returns the same value regardless. Perhaps return a negative value for a timeout, and a positive one for a button press?

Thanks 

Bruce

Hello,

Many SW-Tool providers have realized that how comfortable it is for a programmeruser to work with dark backgrounds. Microsoft did it in 2013 for visual studio and now browser companies are doing the same. Unfortunately, I can Change background color of MAX and TestStand. This makes longer working painful for eyes.

An example of such a bakground is attached with the message.

Such a feature will improve ergonomics.

Thank you

Regards

Ricky

Custom TestStand UI suggestion.

I would like the same functionality as with Sequence Editor when double clicking on Sequence Call step (already configured) and it goes into the Subsequence directly and you can view the SubSequence.

I would like to see that functionality in the TestStand Custom UI when double clicking on the Sequence Call step with Sequence View Manager and it goes into the Subsequence so it can it viewed. 

This would come in handy when debugging a subsequence and setting break points in the subsequence and then viewing variables during execution.

In our Company also hardware developer creates testsequences in teststand, so it would be nice, if there could be a small user interface to configure the values of the parameters for a subsequence.
The solution could be, if they drag and drop a sequence into their main testsequence, a user interface pops up to configure the parameters for this subsequence. So it would be possible to restrict the values with a drop down menu or Radio Buttons or to give some graphical help to choose the right values.

Or maybe i could create something similar to the IVI sequences, where i can click on a button and a small editor window is opened.

Hi,

I'm using TS2016. I'd like to suggest adding multiline watch view. I put some serial communication data in a variable, and watch it, but I can only see the top line. Of course, I can mouse over it, and see the entire thing, but it would be nice if I could see it automatically.

Hello,

With the strongest possible emphasis I would like to propose the following new command line arguments for the ORPU. These are desperately needed.

1. /minimized    Launch ORPU truly minimized without having it steal window focus.
2. /no-splash    Launch ORPU without splash screen
3. /silent           Launch ORPU in the tray, without a splash screen and without having it steal window focus.

This is a profoundly useful tool and we are adopting it on dozens of stations around the world... but not having these improvements is really frustrating for operators and these improvements appear to be low hanging fruit. No thanks, I don't want to recompile the ORPU for several very good reasons.

Please help us out by carefully considering the daily use cases for this tool.

References:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/How-do-I-get-the-TestStand-Splash-Screen-to-not-appear-when-I/m-p/3120481

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/teststand-api-reference/page/tsref/using-command-line-arguments-with-the-offline.html

Feature request 523524

Hi all,

At times when I am filling out an expression, I'd like to be able to refer other developers to a specific sequence or step within the file.

I think it'd be useful to be able to add clickable "hyperlinks" to other steps or sequences within the same file.

Would anyone else use this if it were a feature?

Thanks as always,

Mr. Jim

When choosing a VI for a step, if you browse into a PPL, the view shows the directory structure inside of the PPL.  A better view would match what LabVIEW shows: the Virtual Folder layout.

I tend to keep my library VIs in a flat directory structure, but organize them in my project with Virtual Folders.  But the PPL view in TestStand just shows the single directory instead of the nice organization that I set up in the project.

Forgive me for the cavalcade of suggestions this week...

One of my favorite options in the LabVIEW development environment is the "Find all Instances" context menu option, whereby one is able to locate all calls to the particular SubVI.

I have long wished that something similar were available in the TestStand Sequence Editor. I'd like to propose a "Find All Sequence Calls" context menu selection when right-clicking on a sequence in the Sequence pane. This could leverage the Find tool, but save the user from copying and pasting the name of the sequence. (And save the user from configuring the search options to narrow down the results) It'd be nice to be able to define the scope of the "find" operation to either the selected sequence or all sequences in memory, but I'd settle for a simple search of the open sequence.

Cheers,

Mr. Jim

Hi all,

There are times, for instance, when I am paused at a breakpoint and I want to copy the full name expression of some deeply nested variable that only appears at runtime.

I wish there was an option on the context menu that would allow me to copy the full path of some variable.

For instance, in the following illustration I want to be able to copy the string

"Parameters.ModelPluginConfiguration.Plugins[0].PluginSpecific.RuntimeVariables.PerSocket[0]"

I've added a context menu option called "Copy Path", but maybe that's the wrong nomenclature.

Am I ignorant of some functionality that already does this? (Besides typing it in the watch window?)

Thanks as usual,

Mr. Jim

In instances of nested expressions, it would be useful to be able to press tab to indent a line. I propose inserting "n" spaces when pressing tab.

Coding style of course varies, but for readability, I rather dislike the following

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar", Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo") : False

 ...and much prefer this styling:

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (
                Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",
                Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar",
                Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo" ) : False

...but at present the latter is tedious because one has to insert a lot of whitespace manually or worse yet, use another text editor and paste it into TestStand. It would be nice if TestStand's expression editor supported this basic feature available in almost every text editor or IDE.

Thanks,

Mr. Jim

right now with TestStand Sequence Analyzer utility, it is limited to analyzing a whole sequence file at once (or as much of it as you analyze before you hit the stop button).

However, if I have a long sequence file this can take quite a while, and I don't really want to wait.

Add a feature where I can select areas to analyze and have sequence analyzer just analyze those areas (for example -- select a few (sub)sequences in my sequence file, or a few steps within a sequence).  This way I can limit the area of my analysis to where I know I made changes (or where I know my biggest problems are) and focus on those and not waste time analyzing everything else. 

The Database Options dialog in TestStand 2013 and 2016SP1 (the versions I have tried) have the key focus set to the 'OK' button. Pressing the 'Enter' key at any point while navigating that dialog will close it and not save the changes.

This becomes very frustrating when editing the 'Command Text' of a database statement as you might want to insert line breaks to make editing/reading the statement easier.

I have had this happen at least 10 times already today and is very frustrating and is only a very minor change to the Database Options dialog.

Hopefully we could get it as a patch?