Alternative to Tek VISA

[NumbLock]

Hi Everyone,

I've been using Tek Visa for Tektronix oscilloscopes and having great success.  However it uses the same .DLL name in the windows directory as an in-house application that uses NIVISA.

So my question is two-fold:

1) Is there a way to get both applications running simultaneously?

2) I don't want to purchase/install the full Measurement Studio unless it is REALLY necessary as I want to have a really nice UI using in-house designed glass buttons and backgrounds.  Also, TEKVISA is free.  Is there somethign that is delivered in the default NIVISA installation that is usable to control an oscilloscope and capture the trace using MSChart like I have been doing with Tek VISA?  Once it is all setup correctly, I can load an array from an array that is received with one quick query with the Tek VISA control with one quick command.

[cheggers]

Hi NumbLock,

it is only necessary to have one version of VISA installed at a time. Please see the following links:

http://ae.natinst.com/operations/ae/public.nsf/web/searchinternal/e3b8ca02f49572a386256c1100007424?OpenDocument 

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/202E14463D2D819F86256C39005D7828?OpenDocument 

I hope this will help you, otherwise let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards

Sascha E.

Appications Engineer

National Instruments

[NumbLock]

Hi Cheggers, 

Thanks for the answer. 

Maybe I should have been more clear.  I'm not using LabVIEW, I'm using Visual Studio .NET.

I like the functionality of the TekVISA but I don't have/need the full Measurement Studio.

My question is if there is a similar function using only the NI VISA.

For example, I can load all of the values in an array using TekVISA with the following command:

Tvc1.GetWaveform(TVCLib.CHANNEL.CH1, arrWF, xinc, trigpos, vUnits, hUnits)

I really don't want to use TekVISA as it sometimes conflicts with our in-house applications, but I would like to know  if there is a similar way to capture the screen data using NI VISA without Measurement Studio.

Oh, and for some reason, the first link doesn't work. 

Thank you.

[cheggers]

Hi NumbLock,

Sorry for the bad link, here is the correct one:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/E3B8CA02F49572A386256C1100007424?OpenDocument 

which typ of Tektronix oscilloscopes do you use?

[NumbLock]

Hi Cheggers,

Thanks for the updated link.  I'm still not sure it applies to me because I'm using visual studio.

The oscolloscope I'm trying to replace TekVISA with NIVISA to connect to is a TDS 3012B.

Thanks again. 

[cheggers]

On our Instrument Driver Network you can download the Intrument Driver for your Tektronix TDS 3012B:

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=232&thread.id=8015

(I hope the link works, otherwise please search here https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/instrument-drivers.html for your instrument)

Included in this instrument driver there are several functions to Waveform Aquisition, Instrument Configuration and so on.

I hope this will help you!

Best regards

Sascha

AE National Instruments