Preview Feature in LabVIEW 2024 Q1: Developing a LabVIEW Project in an Older Save Version File Format

[Craig_S.]

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@jyoung8711 wrote:

The first thing that jumped out at me, was my expectation would be that if a project is loaded from an older version, that the auto-selected option in the Project Properties would be THAT version rather than the "Editor Version" that's currently selected.

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This is a good idea and seems feasible.  No promises, but we will consider adding it as an option (and possibly making it the default) for 24Q3. 

(We didn't consider making it the default for the preview feature, however, as we want the selection to be very intentional for beta users in case there are any issues/unexpected behavior.)

[wiebe@CARYA]

Not sure why I don't get notifications of posts on this forum...

@Christina_R wrote:

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't understand. If you're opening a VI that's not in a Project with a specified save version, there's no change from the behavior in prior versions of LabVIEW.

Can you please clarify if you're working in such a project, and what kind of conversion you're expecting to happen?

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This might be an other or even an older problem.

It doesn't depend on FeatureToggle.Editor.ProjectSaveVersion's value, but I haven't seen it before LV24Q1.

Here's 'explain changes' when a LV18 VI is opened and changed in LV23Q3:

Here's 'explain changes' when a LV23 VI is opened and changed in LV24Q1:

There's no mention of the conversion!

Without the change, it can close without saving, which is great.

But if there is a change, I do want to see that the VI got converted!

[JimB.]

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@Darren wrote:

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@crossrulz wrote:

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My expectation is to have the ability to set the save version at the VI level.  

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In my opinion this feature is better implemented at the project-level. I equate it to 'auto error handling' and 'separate compiled code', which are VI-level settings, but I don't think they should be. As someone who uses the Project Explorer to organize my code (primarily in libraries), I would be just as frustrated to encounter random VIs in my project with different save versions as I am present-day at VIs with random auto error handling and separate compiled code settings.

One of the things that NXG got right was putting auto error handling enable/disable at the project level.

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I agree completely, but I wonder if it would be possible to also include a preference at the application level to make the workflow crossrulz is describing smoother? (Because I also agree with him that it's slightly annoying.)

When opening individual VIs:

  Convert to latest version (current behavior)

  Retain existing version

Would there be negative impacts to such an option that I'm not thinking of?

[jyoung8711]

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@Craig_S. wrote:

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This is a good idea and seems feasible.  No promises, but we will consider adding it as an option (and possibly making it the default) for 24Q3. 

(We didn't consider making it the default for the preview feature, however, as we want the selection to be very intentional for beta users in case there are any issues/unexpected behavior.)

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I understand that my suggestion would be a change to "existing" behavior, so that makes sense.  The number of times I've accidentally opened a project in the wrong version of labVIEW and unintentionally saved something is definitely non-zero (SCC for the win), and I think this would be very helpful 🙂

Thanks for the feedback & consideration.

[crossrulz]

As the main helper on the Version Conversion board, I am loving this feature.  I have a special VI for converting a bunch of VIs.  It does not currently work well for projects.  Now for projects, I just invoke this new feature and I am done.  I have used it at least twice now with success, including one that was throwing an error when I tried the File->Save For Previous.

[Craig_S.]

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@crossrulz wrote:

As the main helper on the Version Conversion board, I am loving this feature.  I have a special VI for converting a bunch of VIs.  It does not currently work well for projects.  Now for projects, I just invoke this new feature and I am done.  I have used it at least twice now with success, including one that was throwing an error when I tried the File->Save For Previous.

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That's wonderful to hear.  Thanks for the feedback!

[Christina_R]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

But if there is a change, I do want to see that the VI got converted!

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I've learned that opening a VI that uses "Separate compiled code from source file" doesn't report that it's been converted into the newer version. I agree with you that this is confusing, and we'll look into changing it.

[Jim_Kring]

I have a LabVIEW 2020 project and I wanted to test using LabVIEW 2024's Save Version feature.

First, I created a `.lvversion` file in my project's root folder:

<myproj>/.lvversion

The contents of the file are "20.0"

Then (using LabVIEW 2024Q1) opened a VI located in a subdirectory of the project.

<myproj>/source/library/My.vi

I edited and saved the VI.  I expected it to save in 2020 format.

So, I tried to open the VI in LabVIEW 2020 but I got an error message that My.vi was saved in 2024.

Notes:

- My.vi is in a library (LVLIB). I opened the library's properties and it shows a Save version of "Default"
- I tried opening a different VI that is NOT in an LVLIB and the Save Version feature respected the `.lvversion` file.

[jyoung8711]

I've been using this for a couple of weeks now.

In addition to Jim's reported issue (which I also experienced), I've found an additional (I think) unintended behavior.

Open a project that you have in 2024, and change the "Save Version" tag to the other editor version.

If that class has a Class in it, and you add a control to the class.ctl.  Then add a "VI for data member access", when LabVIEW generates the new files, it also generates two "template" vi's that land in the dependencies/Items in Memory.

If you then try and do a "Save All" for the project, LabVIEW gives you additional pop-ups to save these template files that you really don't care about or need (at least as far as I know).

I've never seen these VIs show up anywhere else, and you don't see this behavior if you're are just working in a LV2024 project.

Here's a screenshot of a project that was created in LV 2020, and then went through the steps above:

Here's a screenshot of a project that was created in 2024 and saved there:

[wiebe@CARYA]

If I try this with LV24 64 bit on a LV21 32 bit project. LV just hangs. 0% CPU, no change in memory. Simply nothing happens.

I first though it was taking quite long and that it required some process indicator. But it actually loops forever.

Now I didn't expect it to work since there are (LV21 32 bit) ppls. Also, lots of VIs don't have separate compiled code on.

But it shouldn't hang...?