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VeriStand Steps for TestStand Feedback

Welcome to the VeriStand Steps for TestStand feedback forum. Please use this discussion to ask questions, get support, or provide feedback.

The current version of the add-on is available here: VeriStand Steps for TestStand

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Message 1 of 292
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HandyAndy,

I just installed the steps for Teststand 2014(64Bit) and I dont see the steps in the pallete. Is TS 64Bit supported??


Ash

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Message 2 of 292
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Ash

I was going to post to you today.  The steps posted so far support VeriStand 2014 in TestStand 2013.  I began work on TestStand 2014 support this morning, and hope to have something by the end of the week.

Perhaps I could be more clear on those download filenames - I'll change those.

Thanks,

Andrew

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Message 3 of 292
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Ash,

The short version is there were road blocks to getting TestStand 2014 64 bit support.  But I have TestStand 2014 32 bit support for VeriStand 2014 now, and will post it.

The long version of why 64 bit isn't working yet is that, as an operating system limitation, 64 bit code cannot directly call 32 bit code.  Modern 64 bit operating systems do a good job of hiding this since they run 32 bit code so well.  Since the VeriStand dlls are all 32 bit (and are not likely to change soon, at least on the time scale of weeks or a few months) then they are incompatible with 64 bit TestStand directly calling them, or calling code that calls them.

The workaround for this is to run a 32 bit process and communicate between the two of them, with the 32 bit exe running the 32 bit dependencies and passing the necessary data back to the 64 bit process.  One advantage we have is that LabVIEW's VI Server is just such an abstraction layer.  TestStand can call the 32 bit development environment through VI server to execute code modules that way.

What that means for this project is the .NET code we have (all of the dialogs and that supporting code) would need to be ported to LabVIEW.  In addition, the LV development environment would need to be present on the machine, to function as the 32 bit process.  That is the theoretical path at this point.  It would require a significant rewrite to port all of that functionality, so for the time being it remains unsupported. 

In addition if anyone else would like TestStand 64 bit support, please let us know.  At this point, we can't commit to delivering 64 bit support, but your feedback will help us.

Thanks,

Andrew

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Message 4 of 292
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This is a bit of an odd problem, but I'm pretty much at a dead end.

I'm still using the 2012 versions of TestStand, LabVIEW, and Veristand. I'm still not able to migrate anything forward at the moment, too much stuff to prove out first. That said, what I'm stuck on is the following:

I'm trying to programmatically create a TestStand sequence that contains the Veristand Custom Steps. I think I can make some headway with some of the step types, those that are just abstracted .NET calls, anyways, but the one that has me stopped dead is the Start Veristand Custom Step.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to programmatically create this step. When I look into the Step Type Properties, I see a .NET Assembly that doesn't seem to be accessible from a Constructor node in LV, namely the NationalInstruments.Veristand.VeristandSteps(1.0.0.1) assembly. I don't want to simply create a bunch of .NET calls in LV that just duplicate what the Custom Steps do, I want to populate a programmatically created sequence with the Custom Steps themselves.

Any help?

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Message 5 of 292
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Have a look at the Sequence File Translator example that ships with TestStand, located here:

<TestStand Public>\Examples\SequenceFileTranslators\LabVIEW\XMLTranslator

Your starting point should probably be in the file titled "XMLTranslateToSequenceFile.vi" (located in the above directory). There is a SubVI titled "ParseXML.vi" called in XMLTranslateToSequenceFile.vi (the SubVI is saved into "HelperVIsforXMLTranslator.llb"). That VI implements some of the components needed to get you to your desired outcome.

I understand that the example (a XML Sequence File Translator) is written for a different purpose. However, minus the XML parsing, the code necessary to programatically create a Sequence File, Sequence, and populate these with Steps (based on Insertion Palette Step Type Definitions) is roughly the same for your use case as in this example.

Please let us know if this gets you in the right direction.

Regards,

Jeff Langston

AE Specialist | Automated Test

National Instruments

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Message 6 of 292
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I took a look and it might prove helpful after I figure a few more things out, but I don't think it's quite what I'm looking for. I have a lot of code written already, and none of it's based on dealing with anything in XML format.

If I had something that could turn an existing sequence (one I have that contains the Veristand Custom Steps) into XML so I could perhaps make some more sense out of what's going on under the hood, so to speak, that would be a lot more helpful.

I'm not even close to being a .NET programming guru, everything I know I've learned in the last few months dealing with Veristand. So, the underpinnings of these Custom Steps aren't exactly intuitive for me. Thanks for the info and whatever other help you might be able to provide.

Edit: Guess who just discovered the Sequence File Converter? Well, at least I learned something...

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Message 7 of 292
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OK, I spent some time last night looking through a sequence file I converted to XML (haven't tried the .ini format yet, but it will likely prove easier to read), and I'm still not really sure how to programmatically add the Start Veristand Custom Step to a sequence file.

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Message 8 of 292
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ElectricWraith,

If it helps, I can tell you what the Start VeriStand Step is doing.  First it launches the NI VeriStand.exe.  Then it waits until it can successfully contruct a member of the Factory class from the NationalInstruments.VeriStand.ClientAPI(<version#here>) assembly.  Once it can, it returns the workspace manager reference with the GetIWorkspace2 call.  Here is equivalent LabVIEW code:

Start VeriStand Code.png

Andrew

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Message 9 of 292
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Yes, I'm using the 2012 versions of everything. I had posted a few times in the other feedback thread about the difficulties I was having, but I've made some progress since then. I'm about to use one of my workstations as a guinea pig and migreate everything (LV, TS, VS, and DIAdem) forward to 2014 versions, but at the moment I'm trying to get the 2012 versions to work.

Yes, the LV code snippet is helpful, that's pretty much what I had determined was happening when the step executed, but that still doesn't address the question of how to programmaticall add the Start Veristand Custom Step to a TS sequence. That's my goal at the moment.

To sum up what I'm doing, I have a top-level application that programmatically generates a TS sequence from a script file. The working version of the application I have right now uses all .NET calls in building the sequence, I'm trying to change that to use the VS Custom Steps.

If you need any further details, just email me, I don't really want to go any deeper on here. I might be able to clear some things up via email.

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Message 10 of 292
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