How much modification can be made to VIs without changing the test sequence?

[WiMAX_Eng]

Hi,

Stupid question (likely). 

If I have a TestStand (4.1) test sequence and within I am calling various Labview VIs (8.6), can I modify the VI in a small way without affecting the teststand sequence?

I realise if I change the connectors in anyway this will definitely require modification (or reloading) of the VI in teststand but what if I change something more internal, say change a for loop to while loop or add cases etc.??

Basically I want to add some features to a VI but I don't want to have to go through over 100 sequence files, reload the VIs (although this can be done programmatically), save the files as new versions and then test them to make sure nothing has broken.

Cheers.

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

If you leave the interface to the top level VI alone ie the VI name, it's connector pane, it's path if you are using an absloute path then you can change the whole thing.

[WiMAX_Eng]

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for!  I've had a go on by developers license but I guess there's no reason why it wouldn't work on a deployment license?

[WiMAX_Eng]

Seems that in a deployment the linkage is broken between VIs if one is modified out of the scope of the deployment, this is in regard to the support VIs as well which may or may not be in the same folder on the target machine as it is on the development machine.  However, if you create a minimum deployment with only the libraries, support VIs and other dependancies then this works (you don't need to include teststand or Labview installers).  You can then copy from the development machine to the target the new library (or libraries) you modified, in the case you have a patch of sorts.

[RER]

Hey WiMAX_Eng, thanks for posting your workaround. In a previous post you mentioned programatically relinking VIs. I assume that you followed the method discribed in the following articles. I wanted to post them here, so other members of the community can refer to them.

Update VI Calls Dialog Box

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/teststand-api-reference/page/tsref/update-vi-lv-nxg-vi-calls-di...

How Can I Update All The VI Calls In A TestStand Sequence?

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000YGeKCAW&l=en-US

Thanks for your time,

Best wishes,

[WiMAX_Eng]

Hi RER,

The link below includes a test sequence which I use constantly in TestStand to reload all my VIs in a sequence and its sub-sequences.  I include it for easy access to my Tools menu in TestStand.

Reload Module Prototypes Programmatically with a TestStand Sequence

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Example-Code/Reloading-Module-Prototypes-For-All-Steps-In-a-TestStand/ta-p/...

Best Regards,

[RER]

Thanks! That is an interesting find!

Correct me if I am wrong, but are you using TS 4.1? According to the link I previously posted, this functionality has been implimented "straight out of the box" with TestStand 4.0 and higher!

How Can I Update All The VI Calls In A TestStand Sequence?

Thanks,

[WiMAX_Eng]

Yes you are correct and I am quite blind it seems!  I've always used the 'programmatic reload' sequence so I've never bothered to check that this is included.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks,