NI TestStand Idea Exchange

Community Browser
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Post an idea

The Step Type Messaga Popup .

 

Usually I use the same text in the Step Name for the Title Expression

 

default MessagePopup.PNG

 

and for a long time now I have used NameOf(Step) in the Title Expression so as not to have to duplicate the Step Name.

 

new Default MessagePopup.PNG

 

Now that Templates are available I can save a copy this version to use instead of the default step type. But thats only true for my development PC.

This may not be saved on other development PC.

 

What would be nice if the default value for Title Expression was NameOf(Step) instead of "untitled".

 

regards

Ray Farmer

 

 

 

TestStand now works incredibly well with LabVIEW Classes, but there is a slight annoyance with the fact that you cannot call a Dynamic Dispatch VI with an empty Object Reference. The implication of this is that when you want to use a .lvclass, for every class instance you have to call a VI that does nothing more than return a wrapped class constant which then populates an Object Reference. Technically this is not a problem, but it means that your Sequence becomes very quickly littered with these VI's and it would be nice if there was a way within the LabVIEW module adapter settings for a class member call if when you first call a Dynamic Dispatch VI that, as within LabVIEW you can just pass in a class constant rather than a previously populated Object Reference.

 

The Problem - All the LabVIEW calls prefixed with 'NEW' are simply returning a class constant.

 

Setup.png

 

A Potentially more integrated way of doing this

 


The Dynamic Dispatch input has the option of either passing in an Object Reference, or a class constant.

 

Adapter Settings Modified.png

 

 

All compatiable classes are listed in the value box now - either as .ctls, or alternatively as .lvclasses. This could also possibly be more akin to what happens in labVIEW when you call a Class which has available overrides that it gives you a tree view of the class hierachy to choose from.

 

Another way you could do this is to have a checkbox adjacent to the 'Class Path:' or 'Member Name:' named 'First Call' or 'New' or 'Construct' that then changes the 'Derived Class

 

Adapter Settings Modified2.png

 

 

Hi,

 

I think this Thread should be placed here.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/How-to-create-a-build-in-User-StepType/m-p/1134151

 

The aim of this is that users can create the same powerful steps like that once which comes from NI.

Biggest enhancement of this would be that i can get rid of the "edit" - button and there is no floating panel

somewhere else.

The second enhancement is that i may use drag and drop between the edit and variable panel (if this is neccessary).

 

Like Manooch_H I am interrested in comments, too

 

Regards

 

Juergen

Please support triple-clicking like in LabVIEW or Firefox...

 

A double-click selects the word at the click position (OLD behavior),

a triple-click selects the whole text (like <CTRL>+<A>, NEW behavior)

 

Thanks!

NI has gone through a lot work to get the IVI Components integrated within TestStand as step types. I was wondering why NI has not incorporated the NI-DAQmx technology into TestStand as step types. I realize most TestStand developers would just create TestStand Adapters in the sequence step written in CVI or LV to interface to NI-DAQmx functions. Even the more advanced TestStand Developers would create their own custom step types to interface to NIDAQmx. I have just done that to where I have created a framework of custom DAQmx step types that I use as a small subset from all the NIDAQmx functions used from the NI-DAQmx library. 

It would be nice to beable to define a variable as constant.This could apply to Locals, FileGlobals, StationGlobals.

 

Once set mark it so as to be easily identifible as a Const.

 

The API would also need to include either a Property or Method so that one could determine if a variable is a Constant.

 

17017i0EE4006F51D2E91C

It would be nice to be able to drag a sequence from the sequences pane over into the steps pane and have it automatically insert a Sequence Call Step with the dragged sequence selected. 

Wouldn't be nice to beable to define one's own set of Expression Functions. This seems to be the one area of TestStand that cannot be customised. eg. Locals.name = NameOf(Step), Locals.IsValid = DoSomethingNotDefinedByDefaultFunction(Locals.name),.....(carry on with expression) Regards Ray Farmer

HI

 

It would be nice to make Sequences public or private within a SequnenceFile.

With this you where able to make powerful SequenceFiles librarys.  The biggest advantage of this

is you can show the consumer of the library only the "important" public sequences. The

private ones where invisible. This will help to avoid errors.

 

 

Regards

 

juergen

A nice feature of reporting is the ability to form the report file pathname using an expression.  However, since the path is resolved before the client Sequence file is executed, you cannot use properties populated in the client sequence file as part of the report pathname. Currently the only way to accomplish this without modifying the model or reportOptions callback is by including the <UUTStatus> macro in the path expression, which enables a portion of the process model which copies the report to a new path based on the result of the UUT:

 1.png

 

I propose that we add an option to force the report path to be re-evaluated after the client sequence to allow users to include properties evaluated in the client sequence file in the report file path without needing to include the <UUTStatus> macro.  (basically exposing the ReportOptions.NewFileNameForEachUUTStatus property in the dialog)

 

2.png

when manipulating data between different system, JSON string are very usefull to have a standardize, simple and readable exchange format.

 

Python or LabVIEW can dump structure (dictionnaires or Cluster) to JSON and vice versa.

It can be very usefull to allow to dump a TestStand variable or container to JSON and vice versa.

 

It can be good to have also a way to have native function in string functions to read, write or add a specific value in a JSON string.

 

MaximeR

When you set the Post Action On Pass | On Fail in a step to use Call sequence, the only ways to pass data to this sequence is either use some sort of Global (StationGlobals / FileGlobals) or use Locals with the setting "Propagate to SubSequence".

 

There should be a cleaner way and that is to beable to pass parameters as you do with SequenceCall step type.

 

new Post Action.PNG

 

 

regards

Ray Farmer

When working with multiple long sequences it would be nice to bookmark locations making it easy to find where you were previously working.  The bookmark could be line highlighting or an icon on the left gutter.  Bookmarks would be saved with sequence.  Multiple colors or icon would be available.

 

 

SequenceEditorStepHighliting.jpg

Right-clicking on an element of an array variable provides options to "Insert Element Before" and "Delete Element" as can be done with LabVIEW array controls and constants.

 

 Insert Delete Array Element - Final.JPG

 You can copy the value of a selected variable to another element.

CopyValue.png

 

But you cannot paste the value into the selected element in an easy manner.

No_Paste_Value.png

 

What you have to do is click into the selected variable’s value field and then Paste, but this doesn’t produce the correct result (for strings anyway)......

 

PasteValue.png

 

You end up with is double quotes!!!

 

Resultant Paste.png

 

Also if you had ‘Copy Value’ on multiple selected elements and pasted them then you get

 

multiple selection.png

 

So it cannot handle multiple selections.

 

It would have been better if you could have selected the place where you wanted to paste the value(s) and a new menu item became available ie ‘Paste Value’.

 

New_PasteValue.png

 

This way should also be able to handle multiple selections.

 

The problem with double quotes shouldn’t occur and should be corrected with the current pasting of values.

 

It would be nice to have some kind of Custom Step which gets triggered when a step is deleted from a sequence. Something very much similar to "OnNewStep" which is triggered when a Step is dropped into the sequence.


We may have an option, say, "OnStepDeletion" to detect the deletion of a step. This will be very helpful in many of the step usages.

 

The TestStand Flow Control Steps like "IF" and "FOR" use the "OnNewStep" to create an "END" step along with them when they are dropped. But there is no means to automatically remove the created "End" when the "FOR" or "IF" Steps are deleted from the sequence. The proposed "OnStepDeletion" can be handy in such cases.

I hope you all will support this idea as it will make many of the functionalities more efficient. 

 

Regards,
Nitz 

(PS : Forgive me if anyone has posted this idea already. I couldn't find any such posts)

It would be helpful to be able to change the font colors that are displayed for steps in the sequence editor.  This would allow users to identify steps quicker for more efficient editing and debugging.

 

StepColors.PNG

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

 

FindAllSequenceCalls.png

 

 

In some cases it could be handy, if you were able to convert a container you've constructed in the variable pane into a type directly from the variables pane.

type_from_variable.png

One case could be, if you chose to store some settings in the sequence file, but the settings are dependent upon fx equipment or the product variant. It can be handy to have a variable with the settings, and an array of settings specific to various configurations from which you can choose. But the 'settings' container and the type in the array of settings containers, of course have to align. And this is best achieved by a custom data type.

Often sequences start out for one configuration only, and later on the need for multiple configurations occurs - and that's why I think it could be handy - if you were able to convert a container, already in the variable pane, into a custom data type.

Please make the mouse navigation buttons work with the teststand navigation buttons Teststand navigation.JPG (Go Back & Go Foreward) 

Just like it would work in Internet Explorer.

Mouse.jpg