Projects vs libraries

[CoreyNE]

This should be a relatively easy question to answer:

How do libraries and projects compare to each other (advantages and disadvantages of each)? I have several related VIs that are used together with one of the VIs making calls to the others.  I'd like to have them organized together in the most efficient way. 

A couple of times years ago in an older version of LabView, I had built libraries to do this.  I don't remember projects being an option then.

Thanks.

[smercurio_fc]

Easy question, easy answer: they're not related, thus it's kind of pointless to compare them. A library is just a collection of VIs packaged into a single file. Sort of like a zip file. A project is something completely different. It has organization. It has build specifications. It's hierarchical. It can hold XControls. It can hold classes. Etc. Projects were introduced in LabVIEW 8.

[Dennis_Knutson]

And an llb should not really be used as an organizational tool - as least during debug. They were originally created so that LabVIEW users on win 3.x could create VIs with long files names like Mac users could. The only real valid use they have today is a way to distribute a VI and it's hierarchy. A single corrupt VI in an llb will make the entire llb unreadable and that is a major reason they should not be used in development.

[MJBrehm]

Yikes... thats good to know Dennis...  I knew the libs were sort of pointless in an organization sort of sense but didn't know that one file could corrupt the bunch.

[CoreyNE]

So it sounds like my best option is to create a project or create an application if I want the most efficient organization.

Thanks for everyone's input.