How to display remote front panels of subvis that are already open

[TurboPhil]

I inherited an RT project that uses remote front panels for nearly all the user interfaces. The host application opens a remote front panel the the top level RT vi, and there are several subvis on the RT system that are opened from that top level vi and thus displayed on the host (i.e. their "Show Front Panel When Called" properties are set TRUE).

If the Host loses its connection to the RT system when any subvi front panels are opened, and the host application is restarted, it can re-open the top level vi remote front panel, but all the RT subvis that are already open will not display their front panels. I am looking for a way to open the front panels to these subvis from the host application.

The kicker is, I need to know which subvis are actually running before I attempt to open remote front panels. Is there any way to determine what subvis are actively running (and not just in memory, such as subvis that won't get executed until the top level vi reaches a certain state)? I am thinking that I could create a list of the subvis that I need access to, check to see if any are actively running on the RT system, and then invoke a remote front panel connection with those that are running.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I might be able to do so? Or any other suggestions? [and yes, I know that RFP communication is probably not the best way to go, but we're too entrenched in this software to start over with a new system!]

[MarkBlack]

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@TurboPhil wrote:

If the Host loses its connection to the RT system when any subvi front panels are opened, and the host application is restarted, it can re-open the top level vi remote front panel, but all the RT subvis that are already open will not display their front panels. I am looking for a way to open the front panels to these subvis from the host application.

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It might be possible to work around this behavior by placing VI invoke nodes in your top level VI that reference each of your subvis and setting the Wait Until Done invoke method to false.  This should cause the subvi to close when the top level VI closes even in the case of an unexpected restart.

You can access this invode node in the functions pallet by selecting Application Control » Invoke Node and also selecting Application Control » Static VI reference.    Wire the Static VI Reference to the vi reference input node and double click the Static VI Reference and select the appropriate subvi in the dialog window.  Left click on the Method section of the invoke node and select Run VI. Finally right click on the Wait Until Done invoke method and select Create Constant and ensure this constant is set to false. 

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@TurboPhil wrote:

The kicker is, I need to know which subvis are actually running before I attempt to open remote front panels. Is there any way to determine what subvis are actively running (and not just in memory, such as subvis that won't get executed until the top level vi reaches a certain state)? I am thinking that I could create a list of the subvis that I need access to, check to see if any are actively running on the RT system, and then invoke a remote front panel connection with those that are running.

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You can access this information by using the Real-Time System Manager (Tools » Real-Time Module » System Manager).  This can be used to show what VIs and subvis are loaded into memory and which are running.

Message Edited by BLAQmx on 02-18-2008 11:40 AM