How do I install instrument drivers in folders other than inst.lib?

[JoeWork]

I am trying to use an instrument driver I found from NI.com and I am having some issues with it.  I want to put it into a source controlled location (that isn't checked in yet) but it appears that it wasn't built to allow it to be put anywhere other than the inst.lib folder.  Are all instrument drivers written like this?

I got the LV2012 version below.

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=0203928FCCB74C96E0440003BA7CCD...

When I move it to our source controlled location I get "Warning: has been deleted, renamed or moved on disk" error messages.  All I did was unzip the files from the zip file I downloaded to the source control folder.  Is there a way to "install" these files to the source control folder instead of the inst.lib folder and have it work without an error message?

I just wanted to check this before I spend a lot of time making the library and project find the files.

Thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The default location is instr.lib which you can add to source control. That's easier than editing each driver though you can certainly do that as well. The instr.lib has been the default location as far as I can remember.

[crossrulz]

For the few times I actually used those, I just put the zip files into a special folder in my project and made that source controlled.  So people could still play with the project by installing those drivers in that special folder of the project.

[JÞB]

First off- There is nothing wrong with putting instr.lib under SCC

I have <LabVIEW> in SCC!  Not all of it! Resources, Project Templates, User.lib, errors...  you know those nice places!

Secondly (and probably more to your use case) There is nothing wrong with putting a "MyDrivers" Folder in SCC!  But, you should add that folder to your search directories!  Tools>>Options>>  Paths.Search Paths

BUT, lets say your driver contains an absolute path (It has an lvlib in the lvproj)  *.lvlib's have "Absloute Paths"  *.lvproj's have relative paths.

This would be good reading

Summary: Put instr.lib in SCC.  or, edit all drivers with *.lvlibs and force your coworkers to adapt their LabVIEW.ini settings.

[JoeWork]

The idea behind putting the instrument drivers under source control was so that:

1. We have a consistent copy of them to use for all projects not just mine.

2. They can reside in one location.

3. Our development workspace is our local source control workspace.

     - I have experienced the problems that can arise when projects are moved from local folders on a disk to source control.  So I think it is better to just develop from the local source control workspace.  Doing that will allow an easier source control check in.

I would prefer to have all of our instrument drivers in source control.  But definitely if an instrument is going to be used more than once it should reside in there.

Would putting an "inst.lib" folder under source control help if it isn't part of the absolute path that the library is looking for?

[crossrulz]

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JoeWork wrote:

Would putting an "inst.lib" folder under source control help if it isn't part of the absolute path that the library is looking for?

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Nope.  They are looking in the special instr.lib folder inside of the LabVIEW folder.

[JoeWork]

crossrulz,

Although this will work, I'm not sure it is the best plan for us.  I don't think the source control administrators want us adding extra things to our projects.  They are always complaining about extra stuff and wanting us to "clean" the network drives.

It shouldn't take too long to open each of the files in the driver and re-reference them to the right location.  I was just hoping that there would be a faster process to it.

[Dennis_Knutson]

So you won't have the instrument drivers in source code control at all? Including instr.lib or your custom folder requires the same amount of storage. What do you do when NI releases an update? The source code control admins should be meeting your needs.

[JoeWork]

We will have one instrument driver folder in source control.  We won't be adding instrument drivers to projects or relying on the instrument drivers to be put into local inst.lib folders.

[Dennis_Knutson]

So, you don't think you will make any changes to drivers? That would be a first.