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Programmatically opening and closing Calibration Executive

Greetings all. We have just completed a rather large Labview Application. The program includes a substantial user interface in a tabbed style. One of the tabs has to do with Calibration of the system. Part of the Cal is for the two (2) E Series 6281 DAQS. We are using Calibration Executive to calibrate and verify the 2 cards. Cal Exec works fine (except for not being able to select a counter). Our problem is that we would like to embed the Cal Exec in the Calibration portion of our program. We could then start the Cal by pushing a button and, hopefully, stop it. That is our problem... stopping it. I wrote a VI that dynamically loads and executes the Cal Exec, but the only way to return to the main VI is to close the Cal Exec on its own screen. I know it sounds trivial, but all of our work is for Gov. Military Systems. Anyone who works in this field understand the problems with having to control multiple applications and Revs.... the audits and controls... etc. It woulkd be much more efficient and less problematic to embed the Cal Exec in the Main VI. Is it possible to do what we want? Can I dynamically load Cal Exec.... do my Cal... then close Cal Exec from my main VI, the same way I started it??? I have tried to do it using ActiveX, but I am "ActiveX Challenged".... in other words, I really don't know what I am doing with it. Thanks for your help.
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Message 1 of 4
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Absolutely.  You can integrate any external application with LabVIEW VIs.
To lunch & close external applications, try External Application Lib
 
Use SetParent to make any window as a child window of your VI.  Just search child window in this forum.
 
You can click any button on external application window; paste a string, etc., you can even create buttons on a third party application window.
 
 
George Zou
George Zou
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Hi. Thanks for your response. I guess I am just not experienced enough with Labview to understand this. I tried to get a program to work using Child Windows but was unable to do it. If you have the time, could you possible provide an example of just such a VI? Maybe using something common like Excel? Again, I need to open the executable from a main VI, then close the executable from the main VI. I can open it ok, but can't figure out how to close it except by closing the executable itself. Help please??
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If the exteranl application is Execl, you should use ActiveX.
Otherwise, search this forum you will find a lot thread about child window:
 
Download External Application libaray, which will help you lunch and close external applications.
When you lunch an application, you will get the window handle as a return, which is needed for set child window.
 
George Zou
George Zou
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