Cannot Open VI on target with LV2009

[knicewar]

I have a PXI chassis and a PC host.  We have an application that was working fine as an app exe from the app builder using LV 8.5.1.  The host VI calls the VI server on the PXI and gets it to run the target's VI.  We recently upgraded to LV 2009 and everything works except the Open VI Reference call on the host VI.  I get error 7 (file not found):

"VI Path: c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe\Main - TARGET.vi

LabVIEW Real-Time: VIs built into executables cannot be accessed through VI Server calls. Use Source Distributions to dynamically call VIs on Real-Time targets."

I've looked at the 2009 notes where it said that the open VI ref file format has changed.  But I saw that the "Use LabVIEW 8.x file layout" option was checked for the target builder (both host and target) so I'm not sure why it doesn't work any more.  FWIW, I tried unchecking the box but that didn't fix it.  I can see on the target that the file c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe exists.  What am I doing wrong?  Or is the error message telling me that I can no longer do what we were doing before?

[Ben]

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knicewar wrote:

I have a PXI chassis and a PC host.  We have an application that was working fine as an app exe from the app builder using LV 8.5.1.  The host VI calls the VI server on the PXI and gets it to run the target's VI.  We recently upgraded to LV 2009 and everything works except the Open VI Reference call on the host VI.  I get error 7 (file not found):

"VI Path: c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe\Main - TARGET.vi

LabVIEW Real-Time: VIs built into executables cannot be accessed through VI Server calls. Use Source Distributions to dynamically call VIs on Real-Time targets."

I've looked at the 2009 notes where it said that the open VI ref file format has changed.  But I saw that the "Use LabVIEW 8.x file layout" option was checked for the target builder (both host and target) so I'm not sure why it doesn't work any more.  FWIW, I tried unchecking the box but that didn't fix it.  I can see on the target that the file c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe exists.  What am I doing wrong?  Or is the error message telling me that I can no longer do what we were doing before?

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Where did you find that?

I searched through my LV 2009 docs and did not see that. i use that method often and I need to know how my apps will change with that change.

Thank you,

Ben

[knicewar]

I found the reference to the file layout change here: http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=435498&requireLogin=False

[Ben]

When you wrote

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"VI Path: c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe\Main - TARGET.vi

LabVIEW Real-Time: VIs built into executables cannot be accessed through VI Server calls. Use Source Distributions to dynamically call VIs on Real-Time targets."

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Was that an exact cut and paste from an error message?

Ben

[knicewar]

yes.

[Ben]

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knicewar wrote:

yes.

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Thank you!

I made a phone call to try and get a real world interprestation of what that error message really means. like i said, I use VI Server on the lions share of my RT apps (as well as the other 6 CLA's I work with) and i want to know the answer to this question now rather than when I have a semi-circle of management types surounding me.

Ben

[knicewar]

Cool -- let me know if you find anything out.  I'll be pretty bummed if I can't continue using the VI server like before ...

[knicewar]

FWIW, the app builder has nothing to do with the problem.  I can reproduce the problem with the project configured to run as the app exec runs (i.e. running the target VI via the VI server and not allowing debugging it).

[knicewar]

Argh.  Never mind what I just said.  Of course it has something to do with the app builder.  The RT target has a startup.rtexe file that contains the VI I want, and this was created from the app builder.  All I did was make the host-side run as a project VI instead of an app exe, which of course didn't change anything.

[Ben]

please review these two KB articles.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EEE8A5650DAC28558625762F0070A384?OpenDocument

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/A7DBA869C000B5AE862570B2007C4170?OpenDocument

They talk about two changes.

1) Files structure has changed inside a exe.

2) The way files are stored have changed (now a zip) so FTP required to transfer the exe.

Those article look like the cover my use case, not sure about yours.

Ben