Hello -
LabVIEW is a graphical development environment for signal acquisition, measurement analysis, and data presentation that gives you the flexibility of a programming language without the complexity of traditional development tools.
LabWindows/CVI is a programming environment that features code generation tools and prototyping utilities for fast and easy C code development.
So, to answer your question, the difference between LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI is that LabVIEW is a graphical environment while LabWindows/CVI is text based programming.
You might want to visit the following links to learn more about the products:
What is LabWindows/CVI?
>What is LabVIEW?
Which one is more powerful? It all depends on the application you want to build and your level of programming expertise. If you are a senior C programmer you might want to choose LabWindows/CVI over LabVIEW (because it will be easier for you to learn) but if you are new to programming, it will be easier to learn how to program in LabVIEW than learn how to program in C (and therefore LabWindows/CVI).
Hope this helps!
S Vences
National Instruments
