8.1 distribution kit

[menchar]

Is the state of the various distribution kits that might be configured wih CVI 8.x retained in the .prj file?

If I move the project to another system and want to retain any existing distribution configurations defined for that project, do I need to move any "metafiles" other than the .prj file?

I'm also curious if CVI 8.x will import / convert a distribution defined in a 7.x project?

Thanks.

Menchar

[Mert_A.]

As of CVI 8.0, distributions are not restricted to a particular project, but are instead workspace oriented.  Each distribution's settings are saved in a separate .cds (CVI distribution specification) file which is in the same directory as your .cws file by default.  Because the distributions are workspace oriented, if you migrate only your project without the workspace, you will have to explicitly add your distribution(s) to the new workspace by using the "Add" button of the Manage Distributions dialog.

CVI 8.x will convert earlier distributions into the new format.  The first time you load an older project containing distribution information into CVI 8.x, when you select Build>>Distributions>>Manage Distributions..., you will be asked if you want to convert the older distribution to the new format.  Note that this is a one time action, and any changes you make to the distribution settings after conversion will not be reflected if you open the project in 7.x again.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Mert A.
National Instruments

[menchar]

Mert -

Thanks for the quick answer.

Menchar

[menchar]

Mert -

Another question on dist kits.

It looks to us as if the distribution kit .cds file uses absolute paths for the files involved.  So even if we configure the cds file, if we take the file set to a different machine (or even a different folder on the same machine) and try to create a new dist kit, we wind up having to create a new distribution.

I.e., even though the cds file can be added after I move the file set (including the .cws, prj, and cds files) to a different machine, the old cds file won't work - I get an error message that CVI won't build a kit that produces no output files.

Can you shed any light on this for us?

Menchar

[Mert_A.]

I'm looking into this, and it seems like a bug.  I'll let you know when I have more information.

Mert A.
National Instruments

[Mert_A.]

I'm finding that files that are added to the project (i.e. in the project tree) are properly handled, as are files that are included by a symbolic file group (i.e. "<Project name> Output" or "<Project name> DLL Dependencies").  Any other files that are added to your distribution kit are, as you say, not tracked by relative path.  The rationale is that if your files are relative to anything, they are probably relative to a .prj file.  Because a distribution can contain files from multiple projects, we only assume a relative relationship if we find the file in the project's file list.  This may be something for us to reconsider.

I'd suggest you try adding all the files you wish to distribute to the project they belong to, then try relocating the directory again.  If you still have problems, let me know.  I am actually not sure how you are getting into the state where your distribution contains no files (as your error message suggests).  Even if the files are not found at the expected paths, they should not be removed from your distribution, so you should be allowed to build.  The build would fail, since the files can't be found, but it should at least get started.  If my explaination does not seem to cover what you are seeing, please attach a small project that exhibits the behavior, and I'll take a look.

Also, just to confirm, are you having these problems in version 8.1?

Thanks.

Mert A.
National Instruments

[menchar]

Mert -

Thanks for the quick answer, as always.

Yes, I'm seeing this when I try to rebuild at new destination with CVI 8.1.

Let me get a test case set up that concisely shows the problem.  This may well be just confusion on our part.  But it has had us befuddled for weeks now.

Menchar