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How to properly transfer this .lvproj to another computer?

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Hello everyone. I'm an engineering student on an internship. LabVIEW is not part of my curriculum, I just enjoy it. I believe similar questions to mine have come up before, but I haven't been able to find an answer on the forums yet. How do I go about moving this project in it's entirely to another computer? I do not need an executable/installer, as the other computer has LabVIEW. Someone before me attempted to do this, but the program does not have any of the dependencies listed in the instr.lib (the image is of the host computer, where it was created). The dependencies under the vi.lib folder all seem to be there, but there are a ton. Many in directories not expanded. 

 

I have also included the .vi if anyone wants to take a look at it. I did not develop this program. It is used to gather data from multimeters and switch other devices such as precision voltage/current supplies. It's all GPIB and calculates values related to precison resistance components.  

 

Feel free to give advice. The first thing I noticed was no wait functions and a whole lot of global variables that I'm not sure are necessary. 

Thank you. 

acdc.png

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Message 1 of 25
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A LabVIEW Project file (.lvproj) is basically an XML document that points to all (or most of) the software components of your Project.  If you create it with the "Create New Project" button that appears when you start LabVIEW, it will create a folder for your Project where you should be saving all of the VIs, Type Definitions, and other user-generated files you need for your Project.  It will also have pointers to the other files that it uses in the various LabVIEW Libraries your Project uses.

issin

When you are moving the Project from one computer to another with a similar LabVIEW installation (same version of LabVIEW, same device drivers, same modules and toolkits), you should be able to start the other PC's LabVIEW, find the Project file, and simply double-click it to open the Project.   If the other PC is "missing stuff", you will see LabVIEW "go looking" for the missing component, then pop up a message telling you what is missing.  Use that as a clue.

 

Bob Schor

 

P.S. -- I just noticed your attachment.  It is a VI, not a Project File (with the extension .lvproj).  Your VI calls other VIs, and if it can't find them (because the Project File that contains the location of "all the files in the Project" is missing, for example), you will get lots of "I can't find the file XXXX" and lots of blank VIs on the block Diagram with gray question marks inside them.

 

Why don't you attach your Project file?  My colleagues or I might be able to tell you what you need to find ...

 

Bob Schor

Message 2 of 25
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When I try to attach the .lvproj, I recieve this error. "The attachment's ac-dc test start.lvproj content type (application/octet-stream) does not match its file extension and has been removed."

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@Kastun27 wrote:

Hello everyone. I'm an engineering student on an internship. LabVIEW is not part of my curriculum, I just enjoy it. I believe similar questions to mine have come up before, but I haven't been able to find an answer on the forums yet. How do I go about moving this project in it's entirely to another computer? I do not need an executable/installer, as the other computer has LabVIEW. Someone before me attempted to do this, but the program does not have any of the dependencies listed in the instr.lib (the image is of the host computer, where it was created). The dependencies under the vi.lib folder all seem to be there, but there are a ton. Many in directories not expanded. 

acdc.png


First you need to move most of the dependencies that are incorrectly located at the application directory. /<LabVIEW >/  use the project explorer files view to move them on disc.

 

Then, I would have every other developer here correcting me if I did not say.  To move your project between development machines simply check the project out of your Source Code Control repository. 

 

Oh, you don't have a SCC repo?  Make one!  Don't even think about just flailing on your own.  Get a repository and get the source code into it.


"Should be" isn't "Is" -Jay
Message 4 of 25
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Make a folder (don't call it "New Folder").  Put a copy of the Project (.lvproj) file inside it.  Right-click the folder and choose "Compress".  Attach the resulting .zip file.

 

Bob Schor

 

P.S. -- read Jay's Reply!

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Better yet, rename the copy of the lvproj as Name.lvproj.xml.

 

But, between the dependencies list in the items view and the files view we could reverse edit a .XML file. Really, try opening a project file with a browser or text editor. 

 

HINT: You should be showing paths on the right side of the project view.  Menu >>View>>show paths in items view.


"Should be" isn't "Is" -Jay
Message 6 of 25
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Ok I did both, I think. Thank you, I appreciate it. 

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Message 7 of 25
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I think I see your problem.  Am I correct that when you open your Project (by opening the Project file ac-dc test start.lvproj) that the only file that shows up inside the Project is the Top Level VI, ac-dc test start.vi?  I think that, inside the same folder, you have the following files:

   182 ntest.vi
   182uut-test.vi
   ac-dc global.vi
   ac-dc-run.vi

and a few others, and right outside this folder are the following files:

   34401quick test.vi

   dangerous.vi
   DAT 0out.vi

and a few others.

 

OK, it might not be intuitive (and might not be explained very well, or possibly not taught very well), but a Project File serves to locate files in a Project, either relative to the Project File, itself, or by locating it in an otherwise-specified "known location" (such as in vi.lib, where "Write Delimited Spreadsheet" routines can be found, or in instr.lib, where Agilent 3458.lvlib, Agilent 34401.lvlib, and some Keithley 182 routines can be found).  If you include all of your VIs that you use in the Project inside the Project file, then when you move the folder containing the Project and the VIs that you are using in it, their relative path with respect to the Project File is not changed, and when you open the Project (having moved the Project Folder to, say, another PC), all of the files that you wrote are in the same location relative to the Project file as before, and can be found.  Furthermore, if you've installed the drivers (for Agilent and Keithley) on the other PC, they should also be found.

 

See if that helps.

 

Bob Schor


<Item Name="lvanlys.dll" Type="Document" URL="/&lt;resource&gt;/lvanlys.dll"/>
<Item Name="nist datron ac.vi" Type="VI" URL="../nist datron ac.vi"/>
<Item Name="nist datron dc.vi" Type="VI" URL="../nist datron dc.vi"/>
<Item Name="nist-ohm freq datron.vi" Type="VI" URL="../nist-ohm freq datron.vi"/>
<Item Name="ntest temp.vi" Type="VI" URL="../../ntest temp.vi"/>
<Item Name="paralel front panel.vi" Type="VI" URL="../paralel front panel.vi"/>
<Item Name="series front panel.vi" Type="VI" URL="../series front panel.vi"/>
  182 ntest.vi

  182uut-test.vi

   ac-dc global.vi

Message 8 of 25
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This is what I usually do:

 

  1. To begin with make sure you are storing everything in and under your project directory. (Except for files in user.lib and inst.lib)
  2. Copy the entire project directory to the new computer
  3. Copy both user.lib and inst.lib directories to the new computer

So far (10+ years) this has never failed me

 

Or if you don't want to copy the whole project including insr.lib and user.lib make a new "source distribution" of the top level vi and copy that over.

 

BTW: When you open the project on the new computer it might have to "find" a few things and warn you about stuff moving... Don't worry it will work.

 

I forgot to say that some LabVIEW drivers need to be "installed". You can't just copy them over because they use a DLL that has to be registered on the new computer. So you have to run the manufacturers installer program to properly install them. (NH Research AC loads are an example of this)  

========================
=== Engineer Ambiguously ===
========================
Message 9 of 25
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I was today's years old when I discovered SCC for LabVIEW. I've barely used repositories for anything actually. Just grabbed a few things from Github here and there. I'm watching some videos now and reading what I can. I see that they seem to be primarily used for pushing changes with multiple developers. I watched this video as it seems to come up in every search.

 

http://delacor.com/configuring-hg-or-git-to-use-labview-compare-and-labview-merge/

 

The business I am at is small and there are no other developers. There are only 2 or 3 computers that LabVIEW is being used. I love the idea of having a respository for LabVIEW...and this may be a silly question...but am I able to use this method to clone an entire .lvproj to another computer? Or is it just to push changes on .lvproj's that have already been cloned to another computer via some other method? 

Message 10 of 25
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