Print panel.vi using versions 6.1 and 8.6

[hounddog]

I have a large version 6.1 program that uses print panel.vi to print out an extensive text report to the default printer, which is where print panel.vi prints to; however, I need to change the default printer so that I can use this vi to print to several different printers distributed throughout our intranet.  Any feedback on this subject is welcome.  Also, I am thinking about moving to LabVIEW 8.6 which is what I have been using on other projects, and I noticed that there is a print panel.vi in this version which seems to allow specifying various printers via a new input parameter that did not exist in version 6.1.  Is this true?  And I cannot use the reports library for this, else that would have been my first choice.

[Ipshita_C · Accepted solution]

Hi Hounddog,

In 8.6, there is a printer name input where you can specify your printer name provided it is on the same network as your PC. Hope this helps!

Ipshita C.

[hounddog]

That's OK for version 8.6 but I don't have that yet, and in this economy it might be a while, so how do I get around this for version 6.1?

[Anna_K.]

Hello,

I am not seeing a lot of documentation on this function, but I believe it will send it to whatever is the default printer on your PC. Try changing the default printer to another on your network and run the VI. Please let me know the results.

Regards,

Anna K.

[hounddog]

I need to change default printer programmatically as I need to send reports to several different printers each possibly different for each call to Print panel.vi.  We use Windows NT and XP, so if anyone has done this by using dll calls just let me know which dll I am looking for and I'll get the rest.