Stimulus Profile Editor Crash

[h_yong]

I've engaged NI support and R&D and provided a few additional logs to them already. I'll post here again once I have a fix from them that works.

[NestorG]

Hi YBilgin,

Do you get a crash while SPE is loading? Assuming the issue is similar to the previous customer, I may be able to provide a solution. Essentially, this could be related to a sequence file recursively calling itself leading to the exception you see while loading SPE.

- Let's try the following to confirm this is indeed the cause:

1. Move everything in the folders to the Desktop.

•  <PublicDocuments>\National Instruments\NI VeriStand 2011\Stimulus Profiles
•  If you believe you also modified the NIVS sequence libraries, then also move these.
• <ProgramFiles>\National Instruments\NI VeriStand 2011\nivs.lib\Sequence Library

2. Relaunch SPE. Does it continue to crash?

If the crash no longer occurs, then the recursive call is in one of the sequences files saved in these folders. Unfortunately, the only way to fix this issue is to open each nivseq file in a text editor modiy the file such that there is no sequence calling itself. The section of interest in the XML files is <References>. In the <References> section you will find zero or more <Reference> sections. Confirm that no <Reference> is calling itself. You must also consider the scenario where the reference indirectly links to itself; for example, SeqA calls SeqB and SeqB calls SeqC, but SeqC calls SeqA - this will lead to a recursive call to SeqA.

This issue has been addressed in NIVS 2012.

[YBilgin]

Hi Nestor, Thank you soooo much for your help! 🙂
I am so happy 🙂
My SPE works...

Regards,
YesB

[h_yong]

I just received the same suggestion from NI support. This fixed it for me too. The strange thing is that we run the same profiles on all computers, so I'm not sure how one of them got corrupted only on one computer to cause this recursive call problem.
Also, why does the editor try to run or load sequences when the application opens?

[NestorG]

Many thanks for your patience and cooperation in helping us narrow down the cause Harris. The editor does indeed validate sequences in know paths during the launch; those paths include <NI VeriStand Program Files>\nivs.lib\Sequence Library and <NIVS PublicDocs>\Stimulus Profiles. If the sequence is invalid we show a corresponding icon in the Sequences palette. In NIVS 2012, we manage items differently and therefore this issue doesn't appear there.

[h_yong]

Glad we got to the bottom of this. Was it the process dumper files that helped in the end? Can you tell me about any other significant changes or improvements for 2012's Stimulus Profile Editor? Thanks.

P.S. Would this issue get posted to the known issues for 2011?

[timtamslam]

There are a number of changes,

Usability changes(pulled from What's New in VeriStand 2012 help doc):

• Shortcut menus accessible by right-clicking most objects in stimulus profile or real-time sequence code.
• Cut, copy, and paste for steps, primitives, and blocks of code in stimulus profiles and real-time sequences.
• Line numbers for easier code navigation.

New Profile steps (pulled from What's New in VeriStand 2012 help doc):

FTP Download Step

FTP Upload Step

Command Shell Step

Bug Fixes (VeriStand 2012 Help: Bug Fixes😞 

There are a few bug fixes in 2012 relating to the workspace as well. I would look through the Bug Fixes list for detail and their Issue ID numbers.

[NestorG]

Yes, the crash dump was the item that lead me to finding the issue - very helpful. Tim posted a great list of SPE 2012 improvements. The issue is actually documented in the 2011/2011 SP1 known issues list as "Recursive call of nivsseq can cause Stimulus Prifle Editor to crash". Unfortunately, the crash dialog doesn't necessarily imply the issue is related to a recursive call; however, statistically this appears to be the issue in most cases.

[Hreidmar]

I want to thank to comunity and Nestor.
Finally (after deleting sequence library and simulus profiles folders) SPE GUI poped up. It was really happy moments for me.

But when I try to open previosly created stimulus profile, it crashes again. I guessed the reason of crash is missing libraries. I have copied libraries (Seqence Library and Stimulus Profiles Folders) from a working PC to my PC.

But nothing changed. SPE started to crash again.

Is there any solution or walk aroud trick for that issue.

[NestorG]

Hi Hreidmar,

- Is the crash occuring when opening the stimulus profile file or when SPE is loading?

- If you are able to load SPE, can you create, save and reopen a new stimulus profile in a different folder to the crashing stimulus profile file? Or does this new file also cause SPE to crash?

- Is this is a crash or does an error dialog (with Exception information) appear? If you get an error dialog with exception information - what is that exception information?

- Your nivsstimprof file may be located in the same folder with a nivsseq which resucrsively calls itself. SPE has a third tree in the Sequences palette named, <Current Document Folder>. Items here are dynamically populate with sequences relative to the currently opened file. Therefore, when you load your nivsstimprof file, SPE will locate all nivsseq files in this folder (and subfolders). I suggest confirming that no sequence files are recursively calling themselves in this folder.