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Modifying names in interface are never good idea, but some times it is must.

No matter is the change made in LabVIEW Front Panel or in TestStand type cluster mapping. Or the cluster type is changed for some other reason. The changes needs to be applied in LabVIEW module call parameters.

When you have multiple sequence files and multiple calls to same VI or with same cluster type in each of them, you would not really want to go trough the steps one by one.

 

Ideas:

- Cluster mapping changes apllied with LabVIEW Protorype reload

- Cluster mapping changes applied to hole sequence file or/and to all same VI calls in the sequence file

- Need of cluster mapping change applying notified with Analyzer

I think it can a be a really good idea to review and give feedback on all Idea exchange.

 

You ask us to give feedback but you don't finish the loop.

 

Some idea are mark as new for many years now...

Obviously it's not a great idea to have loads of nested conditional steps, but for longer sequences even with only a few nested conditions, I find it hard to find the matching END for example when an if-statement. Sure I can count the number of lines, but I think it would be a lot easier if the "scope line" that indicates the scope would stand out more and become bold or blue (like the selected line)

 

Here's are two mockups (bold line)

 

bold-line.png

 

An alternative indication could be to highlight the ending line of the scope like below.

 

end-highlight.png

 

Having a keyboard shortcut for jumping between beginning and the ending within a scope would also be very helpful!

In Microsoft Visual Studio there's a keyboard shortcut (CTRL + [ ) which toggles the cursor position between the and and beginning of a scope, and it works with all things that encapsulates a scope or a string or expression. e.g. curly braces in code sections, quoted strings etc.

It would be nice to have an Auto-populating folder option for TestStand projects much the same way that LabVIEW project do.  

 

Folders added to TestStand projects are snapshots of the folder's contents when added.  Any files added to the folder on disk afterwards are not marked for inclusion with the deployment at analysis time.  This behavior is fine as a default.

 

However, there are times when you do want to automatically include all files in a folder.  Having an auto-populating folder option would mark the folder and all its contents for inclusion automatically with the deployment at analysis time.  After analysis is over the user could still choose to uncheck any files they wish before selecting the build button.

 

From version to version, it's only natural that developers will be adding new files to established folders.  Since the TestStand project doesn't aid in development activities, it's easy for folks to forget to add files while they're developing.  We often have a faulty build or two with each release because necessary files aren't making it into the build.  We ultimately have to delete the folders in the project and re-add them, then go through the hassle of fixing the paths and included files. An auto-populating folder option that integrates with the build utility would save us time and headaches.

 

when manipulating data between different system, JSON string are very usefull to have a standardize, simple and readable exchange format.

 

Python or LabVIEW can dump structure (dictionnaires or Cluster) to JSON and vice versa.

It can be very usefull to allow to dump a TestStand variable or container to JSON and vice versa.

 

It can be good to have also a way to have native function in string functions to read, write or add a specific value in a JSON string.

 

MaximeR

Do you ever write an expression in TestStand with a bunch of parenthesis () and get lost halfway through trying to figure out which pairs are open and which are closed.  Well, I do.  Every Day.  And I spend accumulated hours a week just trying to keep track of which ) goes with which (.  If I'm lucky I can look for a little red item in the expression, or click on the check expression checkbox, but when I have a 'only runtime evaluatable' expression I'm out of luck (which is rather often) ).  Some languages/editors have a parenthesis matching, where the ) your cursor is on causes the matching ( to get bold or flash.  Others start coloring each pair a different color, so it's easy to see them all.  Why can't TestStand do something like this????

TSparenthesis.png

 

TestStand File Diff and Merge Utility is not very useful for code reviews on its own.  It seems adequate for notifying the user that a sequence was added, however from the tool itself the user cannot actually review the newly added or removed sequence's contents.  Why is there no + on the item tree to go deeper.

 

Alternatively:

If I have to right-click a sequence and select "Go to location" then why bother with the separate tool to begin with?  Why isn't the diff utility integrated into TestStand's sequence editor itself?  Seems like a side-by-side comparison within Sequence Editor would allow a reviewer to poke and prod around all the hidden settings that are often missed using the existing utility.

 

In instances of nested expressions, it would be useful to be able to press tab to indent a line. I propose inserting "n" spaces when pressing tab.

 

Coding style of course varies, but for readability, I rather dislike the following

 

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar", Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo") : False

 ...and much prefer this styling:

 

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (
                Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",
                Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar",
                Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo" ) : False

...but at present the latter is tedious because one has to insert a lot of whitespace manually or worse yet, use another text editor and paste it into TestStand. It would be nice if TestStand's expression editor supported this basic feature available in almost every text editor or IDE.

 

Thanks,

 

Mr. Jim

 

 

 

The settings field can easily become too long to see every active option and there's not necesarily any consistency between steps if they have differing options. What I mean by that is if you only set the "Do Not Record Result" (my favorite) option in one step, it will be on the left of the settings field. But if you now set several options on another step, the settings are not lined up so that it becomes hard to see at a quick glance which steps I forgot to not record (because TS still doesn't default to not recording steps). You have to analyze the settings line for each step.

Current settings.PNG

 

I propose something more graphical and ordered. Here's my idea of at least ordered. The text could be replaced with icons representing each setting.

Ordered settings.PNG

 

Then it would be graphical, ordered, and concise. What more can you ask for?

It would be nice to be able to "fold" control flow blocks (like if - else -end, while - end etc.). Despite the vertical lines connecting the control flow steps on the same level, it is sometimes very hard to find where a long control block actually ends or what the condition for the "end" is you are currently looking at.

 

In such cases it would be helpful, if the entire control flow block could be hidden under its first line, tree-view like with a +/- icon to show/hide the interior of the block.

 

Regards

 

Peter

Static enumeration value in a sequence call must be stated as <Enum(String enumType, [String/Number value])>. Please make it possible to select the enumeration directly.

 

 
 

When monitoring values within a loop in TestStand, it is often desired to only record step failure results.  It would be useful to have a "Result Recording Option" of "Enabled On Step Failure":

 

TestStand Idea Exchange - Enable Result Recording On Step Failure.png

 

This is possible through various means (SequenceFilePostResultListEntry callbacks and other custom code).  However, I believe this would simplify TestStand sequence development significantly.

Hi,
I would like to show the following problem with the Update Custom Data Type from Cluster tool when updating TestStand container type definition based on LabVIEW cluster.

 

TestStand creates new container type definition according to the LabVIEW cluster items order. The problem apears after you create the TestStand type definition and then reaorder LabVIEW cluster. After this change in LabVIEW, TestStand will not properlly reorder items in its definition. So for example:

  1. We have LabVIEW cluster { 1My String, 2My Numeric, 3My Boolean },
  2. Then we create TestStand type from it and we have { 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean},
  3. Now, we change order in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
  4. TestStand do not see change,
  5. Then we add new item in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
  6. Update in TestStand will be { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

 

So at the end we have:

  • in LabVIEW : { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
  • in TestStand : { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

 

IMO items order can be sometimes (if not always) important part of good style. That's why I would like to suggest to update also items order if you select Force Exact Match.

Hi!  Feature request that I hope is fairly simple to slide into the next rev.  It's incredibly frustrating that a Combo Box's values (for a control wired to the connector pane of a VI) aren't selectable like Enums and Rings in the LabVIEW Adapter.  Instead of seeing a drop down with selectable options, I have to open the VI, (open the control if it's a typedef), edit its values, then see what the values are, close that dialog out, close the VI, back to TestStand and put in the value.  This is all so I can just hard code a value.  This is crazy.  I tested this out in 2019 64-bit, btw, so maybe it's available in later versions, if so, please let me know.

 

Thanks for your time.

TestStand is in dire need of a way to quickly and effectively find broken steps in long sequences.

 

I'm working on large sequence files which often call and utilize other long sequences. Needless to say, I often need to address steps which have become broken due to code rework. As of now (TS 2017), there are only two ways for me to know if a step will not run.

  1. Text is red within the Step Settings window.
  2. Sequence Analyzer reports an Error.

I would like to suggest a third option, one that would be more readily available than either of the other two options. If the step itself was highlighted, text reddened, or somehow otherwise flagged as an error, then the operator won't have to hunt through each of the step settings windows or the sequence analyzer results. All the operator would have to do is open the sequence file and notice that a step appears out of place.

 

It would be nice if sequences could also show if they have broken steps.

 

Included is an example of how this might look.

 

TS_errors_are_highlighted.png

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The built-in Wait step currently causes TestStand to simply stop at that step until the specified period has elapsed. For steps longer than a few seconds, it would be nice to have some sort of indicator to show how much time is left to wait (and to show that the computer hasn't locked up on those waits that are more than 15 seconds).

 

It would be really nice to have a check box option to show some sort of wait indicator, even if it was simply using the progress indicator in the lower right corner of the screen (something that simple could even just always be enabled).

 

On a related note, could the progress bar be made wider so that there is more resolution as to how much progress has been made? If there was a ten minute wait for something, the bar would be moving very slowly and hard to tell progression was being made.

I think that this simple change to the sequence file callbacks dialog would make it far more simple and intuitive.

 

new:

 newcallbacks.png

 

current:

 

callbacksDialog.png

      I am currently working on a project using the Teststand software's seq editor. This project has many steps, with nearly 3000 steps. During my seq editing and debugging process, sometimes I need to repeatedly jump in different sections and change some parameters. Oh my God, quickly finding a step between so many steps is driving me crazy, and I feel like my life is getting dark.

      So I was thinking, why can't Teststand add a serial number display to the left of the seq edit box? This way, whether I am positioning a certain step or telling my colleagues which line needs to be changed, I simply need to obtain or convey a line number information. I believe that adding this information to an editing form is not particularly difficult.

      Why not make it better to use?

      Brothers, it's already 2023. Are you willing to continue enduring this pain?

I'm taking a bunch of steps and trying to put a "If" flow control step around them. 

Kinda like this:

TS_StartIf.png

 

But what I end up with is just a If/End statement in the middle of the steps that I selected (well, after the first step in the selection)

 

TS_ResultsIf.png

 

What I would have liked to see is this:

 

TS_wantedIf.png

 

Whare the If/End wraps the steps that I selected.

I don't quite know how best to handle the situation where the steps you have selected are not sequential (there's an unselected step in the middle), but that could probably just behave how it is now.

 

When using the TestStand API, I always find myself switching back and forth between TestStand and the TestStand reference help.  While the intellisense function help is usually enough, many times I like seeing the more detailed information in the help.  I would really like to have the option of displaying context specific help in a TestStand pane, similar to the context help window in LabVIEW.

 

This pane could dynamically update to display function information when using expressions, or show general information about the active pane or dialog (for newer users).  Much of the linking for the second case is already done, since the F1 key will pull up relevant help for the active pane currently.

 

TestStand context help pane.png