Struggling with creating an installer with files in large numbers and of large sizes

[TaurusTiger]

LabVIEW 2009 architects, gods, and goddesses:

I am using LabVIEW 2009.  Through project I can successfully create installers for small projects and even an empty project.  There is no application specification or executable in the files for distribution via the setup.exe or installer file built by LabVIEW.

In the project there are 31,203 files in 9,081 folders for distribution.  The combined size is 1.84 GB.  It takes a horrendously long time around 15-20 minutes to setup the installer properties in LabVIEW project.  I have used other authoring tools, and I can complete the process in 5 five minutes or less.  The time it takes is a very serious annoyance, but is not the issue.

Once I complete the properties for the installer. I close the properties window and then select build from the drop down menu for the installer.  The build process initializes, and I get the following error report:

CDK_Build_Invoke.vi.ProxyCaller >> CDK_Build_Invoke.vi >> CDK_Engine_Main.vi >> CDK_Engine_BuildDevPart.vi >> NI_MDF.lvlib:MDFBuildDevPart_SetOtherProperties.vi

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Adding files to installer

Done adding files

Preparing to build deployment

Copying products from distributions

Building deployment

Copying setup files

Setting merged database information

Setting product information

Setting developer part information

Starting final build

Validating...

Copying files...

Updating files...

Creating merged database...

Creating installer files...

Build complete successfully.

Copying additional setup files

Adding launch conditions

Compressing installer files

Done building deployment

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Loading product deployment information

Adding files to installer

**************

*** Error: An internal tool or library returned an error. (Error code -21)

*** End Error Report

**************

**************

*** Error: Windows SDK function returned an error. (Error code -12)

*** End Error Report

**************

Please tell me what have I done wrong to invoke the wrath of the LabVIEW development system by getting this uninformative error report....

!!!Help lpease!!!

Very Respectfully,

Bill Mummert

[tst]

I can't comment on the actual error, but I suggest you try having the build target as "c:\1". LV 2009 EXEs have an internal hierarchy which makes it relatively easy to go over the 260 chars Windows allows for a path. I don't remember it generating an error before, but it might under some circumstances.

Also, consider what you have in your project. If there are files which you don't need, don't have them in the project. LabVIEW takes care of the dependencies automatically. I don't know if this will help either.

I would also consider changing the architecture of the program to load some stuff dynamically, although I can certainly understand if you don't want to.

One last option is upgrading. LV 2010 is now available for download and it has a feature called packed project libraries which might help you. I haven't used it enough to be able to tell, though. If you have an SSP subscription, you can simply download and activate it from NI's site.

[The_Chancenator]

In the past, with other customers, this error has occurred because the installer could not find the files.  Are you including drivers with your installer?  If so, go ahead and reinstall the drivers, only from the hard drive--that is, copy the installation CD for the particular driver to your hard drive, and then run the installation from there.  When building installers, LabVIEW will look for the original source of the installation, which may be the CD that you installed from.  By copying to the hard drive, you should be able to get rid of that error 12.

Other sources of the error include not enough hard drive space.  Under the Additional Exclusions tab of your build specifications for the executable, make sure to check "Exclude members of unused libraries".  This should cut down on the size of your exe/files needed and could alleviate the error.

Finally, are you able to locate this particular file on the hard drive?  In your project, right click on the VI in question and choose "show in files view".  Does LabVIEW properly find it?  Is it in red?  If so, try readding this particular VI.

I hope these suggestions work for you.

Cheers,