Can VISA and NI-VXI coexist in a MXI-3 environment

[Steve_Altaffer]

In the Article regarding MXI-2 to VXI-8340 in a Multi-chassis System, the comment "As an aside, you can configure in MAX which VXI system number the NI-VXI API will use." implies that the NI-VXI API can be used but can the VISA also be used or was this only for a pure NI-VXI application? We have one instrument with code which talks NI-VXI so if MAX can resolve which VXI System it is in, can the other instruments use VISA sessions?

[Dan_Mondrik]

Steve:

Absolutely yes, NI-VISA and NI-VXI can coexist, and in general, you can use both of them in your same application.

Note that there is a difference between multiple VXI systems and multiple VXI chassis. A single VXI system is made of 1 or more chassis. NI-VXI can access only one VXI system number due to its legacy API. NI-VISA, on the other hand, can access multiple systems because the system number is part of the resource name.

So if you have multiple VXI systems, you can use the VISA API to access devices in all systems. You can optionally use NI-VXI to access devices in only one of the systems. But you can still use VISA to access other devices in the same system as the one that NI-VXI is using.

Dan Mondrik
National Instruments