Project Build > Installer Properties > Slow to load, (Maximum vi size)

[BBullard]

I have a LabVIEW Project with 450Mbytes of source code, and drivers.  The Project was originality in LabVIEW 2009.  I upgraded to LabVIEW 2011. 

Now the Project Build > Installer Properties Menu is about 10x slower than was in LV 2009.

I've done a mass compile, resolved all error messages in the Project, yet 2011 is still 10x slower than 2009.

The 2011 Project will build an functional exe, and a functional installer given enough time (like 15 minutes).  During that time the computer is locked up, no other applications are functional.

The Computer is XP, dual Core, 2.5GHz, 4Gbytes Ram, 4Gbyte Page File.

The NI Support Desk is saying (quote)   >>>>   seem that the requirements for LabVIEW 2011 are different than the requirements for LabVIEW 2009    <<<<<

Suggestions ???

[PedroMunoz]

It sounds like a normal time for such a big project (450Mbytes). What was the time in previous version?

[BBullard]

With LabVIEW 2009 to update the exe, and installer, then build both took 5 minutes.  With LabVIEW 2011 the same process takes 30 minutes.  There are three steps here, edit exe, edit installer, then build both.

[Bob_Preis]

Does the procedure take 30 minutes or 15 minutes (first post)? Also, what is it about the installer build spec that requires further modification after you modify your exe build spec? If the exe is included in the installer, the installer build will automatically re-preview the included exe to get an updated list of files to include next time the installer is built. So unless you need to modify something about the installer spec and not the included source files, no edits would normally be required after changing your exe (or other included source files).

Keep in mind, the previewing of the exe will take about as long as it takes to build the exe -- it's computing a list of the files that would be built without actually creating the files. A data point of interest is how much longer it takes your exe to build, comparing 2009 to 2011. Does your exe take 10 times longer to build in 2011? Longer exe build times mean longer preview operations in Installer Builder.

Another thing to check is which distributions you're including on the Additional Installers page. Are more distributions being included in the 2011 build? Did the distributions change significantly in size since 2009?

[BBullard]

I figured someone would ask why it takes 15 minutes to build the exe and installer, and 30 minutes to edit the exe, edit the installer, and build both.  More steps, that's all.

I have revision control that requires changing the installation directories and the version numbers.  This requires edit of both the exe, and the installer.

[Bob_Preis]

In 2011 about how long does it take to generate a preview of your EXE if you load the editor and hit the preview button on the Preview page? If this is taking about 15 minutes, that's about how long it's going to take to load the Installer Builder editor (because the editor previews included build specs). It's also going to take at least that long to build the installer (if you're not building from the editor) because the Installer Builder previews included build specs during a build, too.

But the preview cost should only occur once as long as nothing signficant in the build specs or in the project is changing because in 2011 a preview cache was added to Installer Builder. Something to try would be to open the installer twice consecutively and see if the second load is faster, and same for building.

[BBullard]

The suggestion to build the Installer from within the Installer Properties Menu was good, it definitly reduces the total time required for building the whole package.

I've checked the Installer add-in's and they are at a minimum. 

One difference between the Project Built in LV2009 and LV2011 is the Several OEM Vendor instrument drivers were moved from the development folder (where the source code is located) to the LV2011 Instr.Lib folder.  Mass Compile completed, no errors, no Project Warnings.

The process of edit the exe, edit the installer, and building both is still significantly slower in 2011 then compared to 2009.