LabVIEW App Builder Should Determine and Minimize Distribution Size.

[NIquist]

My forum question asked here: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Determine-and-Minimize-LabVIEW-Build-Dependencies/m-p/1441734 has prompted me to post a New Idea on this exchange.

    To summarize:  LabVIEW executables tend to be on the LARGE side especially when driver packages like DAQmx, VISA amd IMAQ are required.  I'm asking if NI could add some enhanced functionality to the Application/Executable Builder that assist the user in determining and minimizing the size of the final distribution package.  Ideally this would be a completely automatic function that would simply minimize the build parameters to the smallest possible set after analyzing the active project.  Additionally, it would be great if this would be smart enough to pare down the driver package itself to the bare minimum.  (I.E. It shouldn't require a 150MB DAQmx package size to read a few thermocouples with a 9211 module.)

    At the very least, the Additional Installers tab should show the size of the packages you're checking off and the resulting installer's total size.

An example of the size increases of required installer packages for a simple DAQmx application:

Build	Size (MB)
Program Itself	8
Run-time Engine Added	104
DAQmx Core Drivers Added	258
DAQmx Core Drivers + MAX Added	712

[Bob_Preis]

I'll defer to another engineer to comment on minimizing the size of LabVIEW executables by automatically analyzing the project and selecting optimal build parameters.

With regards to minimizing the size of distribution packages (ie LabVIEW-built installers) LabVIEW 2010 made some progress towards this end. The "Additional Installers" page of Installer Builder allows users to pare down their distribution size as the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine installer part is now subdivided into optional "soft dependencies" whose install size is listed in the UI. Many of these can be deselected for simple applications like the one you mentioned.

There have been several requests for automatically selecting/deselecting additional installers in Installer Builder, but we have not allocated the resources to solve this problem yet.

[David_L]

As much as I like the idea and wish this was the case, from what I understand it's not an easy task and probably wouldn't be done any time soon.  But we can hope!

[Broken_Arrow]

There's nothing about this Idea that I don't like, but even if the blue people think it's "too hard", Kodus to the Idea's sub-Idea "At the very least, the Additional Installers tab should show the size of the packages you're checking off and the resulting installer's total size."

[josborne]

I have to just comment that saying "it's not an easy task" is a poor excuse for not implementing this!

Why is it so hard?

I think NI hires smart engineers, and I have faith they can solve this challenge.

I don't mean any offense.  It might take a lot of effort, and I understand that translates into added costs which needs to be weighed against the functions potential benefits.  But that may also translate into happier customers ... which translates into increased revenue!

[NIquist]

It looks as though NI has come through with some requested enhancements to the Additional Installer functionality in LV2013.  You can now have any needed additional installers automatically added.  See here for details:  http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361K-01/lvupgrade/labview_features/#New_and_Changed_Event...

I'm going to upgrade and try it out.  Thanks for listening NI!