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Dynamic names with property loader

Info:

In multiple locations in my .seq I have the name of a test being performed, changing the actual name of the test. For example "Measure output voltage" will be renamed "Measure output voltage at 5Amps." To accomplish this goal I use the following: Step.Name = Step.Name + " at" + str(locals.current) + "Amps." This works great as the measured current automatically gets populated into the name of the test. 

 

The Problem: 

When I use the property loader to call "Measure output voltage" it works fine the first time. The first time it calls this value, the name is still "Measure output voltage" but if i attempt to call this same test later on, the name is now different and the property loader does not find the test.

 

The catch:

I dont know what the new name of the test will be. In my example the measured current could be 5Amps 6Amps or any other value.

 

Please help me come up with a solution to this problem. 

 

One possible solutoin would be to only modify the name of the test in the reporting section and not actually change the name during the test but i dont like that as a solution.  There is also something about using unique IDs instead of test names, maybe that is my solution? But i dont know how to do that. 

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Hi TTEng,

 

Using the Step IDs is the correct solution it sounds like.

 

You will need to edit the file you are importing properties from and replace the value for the Step Name property with the value of Step.TS.ID. This will need to be done for each step you are loading properties for.

Steven Gloor
Staff Customer Engineer - CTA, CLD
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Thanks S_Gloor,

So for the formatting? Will my file look like this:

 

START_MainSequence
<Step Name>    Limits.High    Limits.Low
ID#:UBSLpUMXhUu0edoCFxxuOB    11    8

 

Or is the "ID#" not required?

Is there an easy way to use the import/export tool to export ID number instead of Test name?

I'd really prefer to not have to go through my entire test program and find the test ID for each test name.

 

 

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Yes, that is the correct formatting, with "ID#:" included.

 

I am not aware of way to make the Import/Export Tool reference the ID number in place of the Step Name. You can use a mix of Step Names and Step IDs, the Step ID is only needed if you dynamically change the step name.

 

It might help to include the Step Id as a property to export, this way you don't have to switch between the sequence file and the text file. Unfortunately you will still need to modify the <Step Name> value manually, but this might help speed the process and prevent errors.

Steven Gloor
Staff Customer Engineer - CTA, CLD
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TTEng,

  I have done something similar in the past but our situation might be different. The reason I needed to change the name was to reflect the name change on the report for the operators/technicians. Are you doing this for the same reason? What and when determines the value "5 amps"? In our situation we pulled this information from the property loaded at run time which means we can change the value at will prior to run time. Our property loader references a Excel file.

 

basically created2 ActiveX/COM steps prior to the step we wanted to change the name of. In the 1st ActiveX step I get the original name of the step via step ID and stored it in a local variable. In the  2nd ActiveX step I changed the name of the step by appending the value (which we had loaded to a local variable via property loader from Excel) to the local variable holding the original name. 

 

Hope this helps. 

Now Using LabVIEW 2019SP1 and TestStand 2019
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