Buying my own LabVIEW 2018 License Pros and Cons

[david.ball]

Background : I have an older version of labview professional development system I purchased relatively cheap and have transferred ownership correctly. I am also looking to start up on my own as a Certified LabVIEW Developer within the next couple of months. CLAD already achieved and pending the CLD exam in December.

I have now got the opportunity to upgrade the license for a reasonable price to get LabVIEW 2018 Professional Development system.

I was wondering if we could discuss the pros and cons of if it is a good idea to have a personal copy? I was thinking it would be good to have the application builder as I would want to sell custom built executables myself. Is there a market for this?

I know ordinarily most contractors would not have their own version of labview, especially the pro dev system, as the customer would usually supply the licenses. 

[Bob_Schor]

If your "older version" is before LabVIEW 2016, then you are missing Channel Wires, VIMs, and the pain/pleasure of the NI Package Manager.  If you can get the license for a "reasonable price", what is the down-side?  You'll probably want to noodle around with LabVIEW "between jobs", so will need something licensed to you, right?  Plus you can itemize the license cost as a Business Expense and potentially get a small break at Tax Time ...

Bob Schor

[david.ball]

You make a good point about the VIPM. I love using the JKI state machine as it makes life so easy. 

Also yes I would like to be using it between jobs. I didn't think about that one.

Do you happen to know when LV2019 will be released if at all? I will only be purchasing a 1 year SSP as the cost goes up considerably for 2 and 3 year options.

[RavensFan]

The new version of LabVIEW generally comes out around NI Week.  Which is late May.

There is generally an SP1 of the current version that comes out late in the calendar year.

[crossrulz]

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@david.ball wrote:

I was wondering if we could discuss the pros and cons of if it is a good idea to have a personal copy? I was thinking it would be good to have the application builder as I would want to sell custom built executables myself. Is there a market for this?

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You might want to talk to NI about becoming an Alliance Partner if you are going off on your own.  Then you have a "Software Reference Library" which is pretty much all NI software on a really cheap lease.

[Bob_Schor]

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@david.ball wrote:

You make a good point about the VIPM. I love using the JKI state machine as it makes life so easy. 

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Except that I didn't!  I agree that the VI Package Manager, a.k.a. VIPM, is wonderful.  Unfortunately, NI repackaged their Software Installer/Manager/Uninstaller and called it the National Instruments Package Installer (NIPM), which (as far as I can tell) seems to be "something completely different", and (thus far) not, shall we say, 100% reliable ...  The Good News is that it only made its appearance with LabVIEW 2017.  The Bad News is once it's "in", it takes over ...

Bob Schor

[billko]

I'm in a bit of bind right now so I can't afford a pro license ATM, but my plan of action is to obtain and maintain one.

[david.ball]

Yes I misread. Can I assume all the packages in the 2013 version of VIPM are still in the NI version? I guess as a workaround it would be easy to install the stuff I need independently.

[david.ball]

I was not aware of this. I will have a chat with my contact at NI about this option. Thanks.

[Bob_Schor]

None of the packages in VIPM are in NIPM.  They are totally different routines, designed for different purposes.  VIPM remains "VIPM", and contains third-party (and NI) "packages" that have their own set of extensions that are registered to VIPM.  NIPM is NI's "LabVIEW Installer" routine, which is more similar to Control Panel's "Program and Features" (and, if installed, actually handles "uninstalls", "repairs", etc.).

Note that the above description of VIPM and NIPM are my "descriptions" -- I'm sure there are "official" descriptions that are more accurate.  Personally, I regret that NI choose the name they did for their Installer, as it causes confusion with the product developed by JKI to assist Developers in providing a "portable Installer" for VIs in the LabVIEW Development system.

Bob Schor