difference between simple and full featured user interface

[Iamthedudeman00]

Hi I'm about to develop an user interface for a Teststand project I'm working on, I'm currently thinking of using the Labview user interface as a starting point. I found the simple user interface is actually simple to start with, especially given that someone on teststand website provided a step by step instruction on how to modify it. But one of my work mates questioned whether simple user interface supports parallel process model, which is important to my project. Does the simple user interface support all features of teststand (process models, etc) but just missing a lot of developer visible controls that full featured interface has? I only need the interface for operatiors to use, I don't think I would need features like debugging or sequence editing, etc.

The other question is, when developing user interface, if I want to make the interface display the property of a UUT (station number, temperature of a sensor, time since test began, etc) should I use the teststand UI controls or the Labview controls? Is there any difference between using the two? Are Teststand UIs designed for displaying Teststand functions only?

Also could you please provide some guidance on how to modify the full featured user interface? It's so different from the simple user interface I can't figure out how to modify it based on the simpe user interface example. Thanks a lot.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Have you actually used the parallel model? After launching a sequence from any UI, you should see the interface for the parallel model with separate entries for serial number, status, etc. This interface is written in CVI. This can be modified and you can UI messages to update it.

[Iamthedudeman00]

Yes I have tried to use the UI to run a small teststand application(parallel model) i wrote, and the UUT dialogue showing multiple UUTs has some what answered that question, i mainly wonder about what limitation there may be if i developed the interface based on the simple version other than not able to use developer's features. Also wondered if there were instructions or guidance on how to use the teststand user interface full featured and difference between labview control and teststand UI controls (for accessing UUT informations, like sensor reading though UI message)

[Dennis_Knutson]

The built-in indicators, in general, require less programming than trying to create the same sort of indicators with LabVIEW. Look at how simple it is to show UUT results. I started with TestStand version 1, before NI created the ActiveX indicators that exist now and the block diagram was extremely more complicated. If there exists a TestStand control/indicator, I would use that.

[Iamthedudeman00]

Yes that makes sense, sorry I was a little unclear on what I tried to do. I'm sure the Teststand UI objects (most of which by name, are clearly particularly designed for teststand applications) are most prefered choice for designing teststand user interfaces. However for example, if want to display a numerical value from a variable that's generated though a Teststand application, is it better to use just Labview numeric indicator(And then use UI messaging to pass data) or Teststand UI label control? Or is using the Teststand UI label control offering any advantage?