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CLIPs location - Beware!

I'd like to offer a warning and a suggestion with regards to the default location of the CLIP files.

By default, CLIP files are saved to My Documents\LabVIEW Data\CompactRIO\CLIPs\sbRIO-9651

This is all great, until you copy your SOM development to another computer - only to NOT have the CLIP file!.

I cannot as of yet find a way to redirect the default CLIP location. If I move the CLIPs then revise them in the CLIP generator, it puts the revised CLIP back in the My Documents\LabVIEW Data.....directory. (I do like it automatically revises the CLIP and does not overwrite my existing CLIP - thank you!)

I'd like to see the CLIPs in the project view, as they are part of the project.

Regards

Jack Hamilton

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This is true. We were imagining one CLIP per carrier board and then multiple projects all using the same CLIP, however many customers seem to be using multiple CLIPs per carrier and then one CLIP per project.

Most customers are probably launching the CLIP generator through the LabVIEW project instead of launching it through the start menu shortcut, which is why they are making the association of the CLIP and the project even though the two aren't necessarily one to one.

The good news is that the LabVIEW project stores both the absolute and relative path of the current CLIP so whether you move the project or you move the project and CLIP, it won't break. The other good news is that you can load CLIPs from arbitrary locations both in the CLIP Generator and the socket property page. The bad news, (as you mentioned) is that the CLIP Generator cannot currently write CLIPs to anywhere but the location that you mention.

We are always looking for ways to improve the CLIP Generator and this is one of the things on our list that we would like to improve.

So until that changes, when you want to copy your project across machines or use version control, you'll need to copy your CLIPs from the CLIP folder manually.

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I agree with the point about making CLIP dependencies visible in projects.

This has caught out Ni engineers who have provided "broken" projects due to missing/incorrect CLIPs.

I was asked to raise this on the NI idea exchange.

Vote for this idea if you want this functionality.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Automatically-Save-FPGA-Socket-CLIP-with-LabVIEW-Proje...

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Using sbRIO-9651 with LV2014 and 2015. I find the current CLIP file management system difficult to use, particularly when updating the CLIP file and propagating the new code to various development machines. As currently implemented, unless I am missing something, the CLIP file does not seem designed to work well with source control systems.

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Kevin,

I'm wondering if the Idea Exchange is the best place to document design oversights and faults. Good Standards and Practices should apply; i.e: of course the required tightly integrated files for a project should be included in a project.

So I'm not sure one would need to have the customer community vote on correcting a poor implementation strategy.

I don't need a majority vote to exit a burning buidling. It's an oversight [not a bug] but one that NI should address from there own GDP guidelines.

Regards

Jack Hamilton

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Agreed! And, souce code control of the CLIP file needs to be addressed along with the project dependency...

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Compiling the feedback from this thread, it seems like there are 3 things we could work on that would make this process a little more aligned with how LabVIEW handles similar project items:

  • The sbRIO CLIP Generator should allow the user to browse when saving the CLIP, instead of saving in My Documents.
  • The LabVIEW project should not populate a list of CLIPs from My Documents, and instead direct the user to browse for their CLIP.
  • The LabVIEW project should automatically make the selected socketed CLIP part of a project's dependencies.

It's worth noting that you can move CLIP from My Documents to your project folder, and manually add the files to a project's dependencies without experiencing any issues, but I can understand how the current functionality has caused some frustration.

I'd like to know everyone's thoughts on the 3 possible changes above -- if you think there's something missing from these, or if these changes may negatively affect your current development process.

Thanks,
Bryan

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