04-29-2010 06:28 AM
Does anyone know of an easy way to integrate Vision Builder 2009 (VBAI), into Test Stand 4.2.1?
earlier versions of Vision Builder seem to accomidate this very easily. But i have not found the same ease to make this work in the newest version. any ideas?
Thanks
02-02-2011 08:03 AM
Hi,
I am currently struggling with the same problem.
I am actually in the process of evaluating the VBAI product.
As your post is more than 9 months ago, have you received an anser to this problem?
Thx for your reply
C.D.
02-02-2011 12:31 PM
We have recently release Vision Builder AI 2010, which includes a LabVIEW API. This makes it much easier to interface VBAI in Test Stand and there is even a shipping Test Stand sequence to illustrate how to call the LabVIEW VIs to control Vision Builder AI from Test Stand.
Hope this helps,
Brad
02-03-2011 04:07 AM
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your post.
I have started to evaluate VBAI 2010 with TestStand 4.2.1.
After the installation was completed, I found a TestStand example in the VBAI installation folder ("C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Vision Builder AI 2010\Examples\TestStand Examples\Vision Builder AI TestStand Example.seq") but unfortunately this sequence generates a crash of TestStand.
In the beginning it did not find the "VBAI Interface Run Inspection once.vi" for the first TestStand test step, so I added the Search Directory for the API.llb file which is located in "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabView 2010\vi.lib\vision\Vision Builder AI\"
Then it started crashing TestStand.
I do not know how to fix this yet.
C.D.
02-03-2011 09:01 AM
I will work on reproducing this. Did you follow all of the instructions in the Readme from here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\Vision Builder AI 2010\Examples\TestStand Examples\readme.html
i.e. copy the vbai.xsl stylesheet to the Test Stand folder? I have noticed some problems with test stand using the right version of the LabVIEW RTE. If you select each of the API calls in test stand, does it correctly locate the VIs and provide the detailed help in test stand (if not, this means Test Stand didn't load the VI correctly). There were a few times I had to go through and reconfigure each VI to use the right LabVIEW. Maybe I was doing it wrong and there's a beter way to associate VIs to Test Stand (I'm not a Test Stand expert). Anyway, let me try it here and see what happens.
Thanks,
Brad
02-03-2011 12:31 PM
Alright, I just finished installing the software on a clean machine. After I copied the vbai.xsl file and set the style sheet of Test Stand (as per the README). When I loaded test stand, it could not find the VIs, so I had to point it to the LV 2010 vi.lib\vision folder. After doing that, I ran the sequence, and it worked fine. Does your local Vision Builder AI Engine launch? Can you tell where it is crashing?
Thanks,
Brad
02-04-2011 01:37 AM
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your support.
Well...yes I followed the instructions in the ReadMe.html file.
I have loaded the sequence "Vision Builder AI TestStand Examples.seq" into TestStand.
TestStand crashes after some delay when trying to select the first test step "Run Inspection once".
TestStand obviously has problems loading the Vision Builder API functions and the engine (whatever is necessary).
As I could not succeed testing VBAI 2010 from TestStand, I then tried the LabVIEW example which is also located
in the \examples folder.
I had no problems loading the "LabVIEW API Examples (Local).vi" into LabVIEW 2010 and execute it.
This example works without any problems with a simple USB Webcam.
I can test different "Inspections" and studied the API functions in this VI.
So the problem is only related to TestStand.
I am wondering whether TestStand has problems with the evaluation version of VBAI 2010.
When executing the LabVIEW example the VBAI engine asks me first if I want to evaluate the software (as it is not activated yet).
I never reach this point from TestStand. It crashes before.
Another point is that I am asking myself why the test step "Run Inspection Once" is the first test step the TestStand sequence.
Comparing the sequence of steps with the LabVIEW VI, you can see that there is a differnce in the initialisation sequence.
The LabVIEW VI launches "VBAI Interface - Launch VBAI Engine.vi" first before all other API VIs.
I could try to change the TestStand sequence and introduce additional initialisation steps before "Run Inspection Once".
I simply fear that TestStand crahses again before I have been able to change the sequence.
Ok...another thought...on your system it is working fine using the example TestStand sequence?
This means that the initialisation of the VBAI engine is automatically executed.
Which process is responsible to initialise the VBAI engine in TestStand?
Perhaps I have to configure something ...somewhere in TestStand.
Ok... that's it for now... i will try out a couple of things....
Thanks again for your support
Best regards,
Carsten
02-04-2011 10:22 AM
It is weird that the first thing test stand tries to execute is the Run Once function. If you click on the right portion of Test Stand and go to the Process Setup, you should see all the functions that need to be called once (launching the engine, connecting to it, etc.) I attached a screenshot of this. Not sure why this isn't being called...maybe we should get a test stand expert involved. Are you pressing the Green arrow at the top to run the inspection? Are there any non default settings you may have configured to not run the ProcessSetup?
02-04-2011 01:40 PM
Hi,
Please take a look at these two links, they detail everything that is needed to accomplish what you are attempting to do.
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4007
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/2241
If things are still not performing as expected, there may be a problem with your installation of TestStand. So go ahead and follow the steps outlined in the link above, and hopefully that gets things working for you.
02-04-2011 01:45 PM
We are moving away from ActiveX support for VBAI and both of these links refer to ActiveX support. I'd like to make sure it's clear the option I suggested uses the new LabVIEW API, and doesn't have the same instructions. In the 2010 release of VBAI we recommended not using the ActiveX control for new development of LabVIEW/Test Stand application and instead use the LabVIEW API.
Just wanted to make sure we don't confuse things.
Thanks,
Brad