11-04-2009 11:48 AM
I've always used the LabVIEW "Professional" package, as far back as there were such distinctions made.
I have a new client that, unbeknownst to me, bought the "Base" package, and then contracted me to develop some software.
I would like to deliver software that he could open in his base package, but I don't have a good handle on the differences.
He probably doesn't need any of the advanced math tools that are in the "pro" version.
But how do I manage this? Is there a switch I could (temporarily) turn on to warn me that this VI I just placed is not in the base package?
I have other projects that need the pro features, so it would have to be easily switchable.
Do I have to go thru every VI I place and check it for base-ness?
Do I install a separate copy of LabVIEW and make that a BASE copy?
Anybody face this before?
Blog for (mostly LabVIEW) programmers: Tips And Tricks
11-04-2009 11:58 AM
you can go here and see the differences:
http://www.ni.com/labview/how_to_buy.htm
11-04-2009 12:02 PM
Yeah but that's from a which-one-do-I-buy point of view.
I have the "Full" system (my mistake - it's not the "Professional" version as stated).
So how do I use it to work on a Base-level program?
Blog for (mostly LabVIEW) programmers: Tips And Tricks
11-04-2009 12:04 PM - edited 11-04-2009 12:06 PM
Hi Steve,
the most terrible thing is that the base package dosn't have the event structure (at least until 8.6). You need to do any GUI programming in pre 6.1 style.
Since switching things on or off is just a thing of activation and the license files. Maybe you will be able to deactivate the full package and use the same serial number to activate just the base package in the license manager.
Before trying this make a copy of all the files in National Instruments\Shared\License Manager\Licenses to be able to restore your licenses.
11-04-2009 12:11 PM
11-04-2009 12:21 PM
you will not be able to place the event structure in LV base. But you will be able to load a program containing event structures into LV base.
I believe you are correct.
However, that's not good customer relations.
If I was on the other end, and I received some software that I could not edit, I would not be happy.
Maybe I can talk him into upgrading, but I'd like to know how to use my FULL version to develop a BASE-compatible program, if possible.
Blog for (mostly LabVIEW) programmers: Tips And Tricks
11-04-2009 01:16 PM
11-04-2009 01:21 PM
In my opinion the event structure should be available in all versions of LabVIEW.
Well, so do I, but that's not going to change anything.
Blog for (mostly LabVIEW) programmers: Tips And Tricks
11-04-2009 01:45 PM
This is a challenge I have to manage as well and I really don't have any really good suggestions aside from watching the dependancies as you code.
It may have changed since I noticed it but the Mean function is/was part of the advanced analysis package at one time, so I ended up having to write my own VI to compute an average.
You may also want to explore using the Source Distribution under the project to save-off copies of the parts of Vi.lib that are used. I'm not saying that wil do the trick. I'm saying that is one of the ideas on my check-list the next time I run into that issue.
Just sharing note,
Ben
11-04-2009 02:35 PM
I think it will be just cheaper to have him upgrade (even if it would be your expenses) than check everything if it works for him in the base version.
On the other side, there would be a very cheap 'debug' version available. And if your customer does not need to modify your code (but only use it as a library), you should be able to deliver the same vi's as an module where there is no need to change it (a library or API), so they would not need the FDS to change anything in your code (but code around the vi's if necessary).
As mentioned, not having the event structure available is for me the reason to not think about the base package as any kind of 'programming language and I wish NI would stop selling it at all (because then people say that LV is inferior to other languages because of a missing asycronouse handling).
Felix