Where do you put instrument drivers and DLLs?

[amaglio]

Recently I have been using instrument drivers to communicate with the test equipment. I have just been putting these drivers into the isntr.lib folder on the C drive. However, in the lab we have multiple PC's, so every time I start using a new driver I need to go around to each PC and install the same driver. This is a tedious process, and was wondering what everyone else does in this situation...

Is there any reason not to just store these drivers on the network? Since we are on this topic, I have also wondered the same thing about DLLs that some of my applications need to run, is there any good reason not to put these on the network too? 

Is it okay to store LabVIEW native drivers on the network, such as DAQmx? And how about OpenG libraries?

Thanks so much for all your help 

-Anthony

[smercurio_fc]

I can only tell you what I do. I do not store instrument drivers that I write in the instr.lib folder. Why? Because a re-install of LabVIEW would wipe them out. Think you'll never need to reinstall LabVIEW? Think again. Do I install these on the network. NO. Why? Because I still want my code to work if the network and/or server goes down. Think the server will never go down? Think you'll never have network problems? Think again. I keep the code I write in source code control (I use Subversion with TortoiseSVN). I export the checked out version to the server just to keep it up-to-date. But I don't link to VIs or any other code (including OpenG stuff) from the server.

Drivers such as DAQmx can't be installed on a network, so I don't understand what you're asking there. Are you referring to keeping the distribution there for installation? If so, that's a different matter. I don't see anything wrong with keeping the DVDs on the server for easy access for installation. Keeps the wear and tear on the DVDs to a minimum.

[RGreg]

I've also been using Subversion for years and MS Visual Source Safe before that).  Here's what I would recommend:

1. Install Subversion (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) on all the computers.
2. Create an identically-named root directory to check out files to on all the computers (I use Source Code).
3. Create a subdirectory within Source Code called Drivers.
4. Whenever you need to update/add driver files, check them all IN to Subversion from your desktop computer.
5. Check out the entire Driver subdirectory onto the target computers.  That will update any changed files.
6. While you're at it, you could create other subdirectories as well: DLLs, Utility VIs, OpenG, etc.

[amaglio]

Great, thanks alot RGreg. I have been meaning to move over to some type of subversion for a while, but just haven't had the time to do the overhaul. I think I might have to bite the bullet and go for it though. Thanks for your input guys.

-Anthony