NI TestStand Idea Exchange

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Looking at any step result, there's a TS.StartTime property, but it's referenced against the "the number of seconds since the application initialized the TestStand Engine"

What this means is that each step result is referenced against a somewhat arbitrary and changing epoch that isn't recognizable outside any one instance of the TestStand application, let alone by external applications.

I'd like to propose adding TS.StartTimeUnix, which contains the absolute time the step started.

I've added this in our model customization plugins, but to convert the epoch to UNIX I have to perform this calculation:

Seconds(False)-Seconds(True) + Parameters.Result->TS.StartTime

Why I'm asking for this:

In our step result database table, we've added a column for STEP_START_DATE_TIME which is absolute UTC time. To populate this I have to go through the gymnastics above. I revisited this code today and thought, "What silliness. This should be something natively supported." (Other than that I have no strong opinion on the matter)

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TestStand File Diff and Merge Utility is not very useful for code reviews on its own. It seems adequate for notifying the user that a sequence was added, however from the tool itself the user cannot actually review the newly added or removed sequence's contents. Why is there no + on the item tree to go deeper.

Alternatively:

If I have to right-click a sequence and select "Go to location" then why bother with the separate tool to begin with? Why isn't the diff utility integrated into TestStand's sequence editor itself? Seems like a side-by-side comparison within Sequence Editor would allow a reviewer to poke and prod around all the hidden settings that are often missed using the existing utility.

Right now, you really can't reliably use anything other than a basic ASCII character set in TestStand, which means that some SI units (such as ohms) cannot be represented in their preferred way (with an omega). It also means that you can't put non-english characters in your sequence file and reliably have them show up if your sequence file is opened on a different computer with a different language localization (which causes a huge problem if your customer demands support for non-English languages, and has more than one site -- that speaks a different language -- around the world).

Make TestStand support Unicode, so we can use the full greek character set for things like units, and so we can type characters from any language in our sequence files, and not have them change to a different character if we open them on a computer with a different localization.

Hi,
I would like to show the following problem with the Update Custom Data Type from Cluster tool when updating TestStand container type definition based on LabVIEW cluster.

TestStand creates new container type definition according to the LabVIEW cluster items order. The problem apears after you create the TestStand type definition and then reaorder LabVIEW cluster. After this change in LabVIEW, TestStand will not properlly reorder items in its definition. So for example:

We have LabVIEW cluster { 1My String, 2My Numeric, 3My Boolean },
Then we create TestStand type from it and we have { 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean},
Now, we change order in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
TestStand do not see change,
Then we add new item in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
Update in TestStand will be { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

So at the end we have:

in LabVIEW : { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
in TestStand : { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

IMO items order can be sometimes (if not always) important part of good style. That's why I would like to suggest to update also items order if you select Force Exact Match.

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When user opens the Offline Processing Utility and at the same time starts to type on the keyboard the user can accidently rename the profile.

(Attached a screen-recording to visualize)

It would be great if there was no selected row or column when starting/opening ORPU. The renaming of the profile disturbs the production since the database logging will not work as expected.

When we start ORPU we already have the '/tray' enabled but somehow its still possible to accidently rename the Profile.

The built-in Wait step currently causes TestStand to simply stop at that step until the specified period has elapsed. For steps longer than a few seconds, it would be nice to have some sort of indicator to show how much time is left to wait (and to show that the computer hasn't locked up on those waits that are more than 15 seconds).

It would be really nice to have a check box option to show some sort of wait indicator, even if it was simply using the progress indicator in the lower right corner of the screen (something that simple could even just always be enabled).

On a related note, could the progress bar be made wider so that there is more resolution as to how much progress has been made? If there was a ten minute wait for something, the bar would be moving very slowly and hard to tell progression was being made.

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In order to keep file clean, sequence analyzer helps in finding "potentially unused variables". To delete such variables, each warning in sequence analyzer result has to be double clicked and then delete has to be pressed to finally remove that variable.

In many cases with large sequence file, there could be dozens of unused variables and in a single work-space there are dozens of .seq files.

Is it possible to provide a button or some option to remove all unused variables from a sequence file?

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I am currently working on a project using the Teststand software's seq editor. This project has many steps, with nearly 3000 steps. During my seq editing and debugging process, sometimes I need to repeatedly jump in different sections and change some parameters. Oh my God, quickly finding a step between so many steps is driving me crazy, and I feel like my life is getting dark.

So I was thinking, why can't Teststand add a serial number display to the left of the seq edit box? This way, whether I am positioning a certain step or telling my colleagues which line needs to be changed, I simply need to obtain or convey a line number information. I believe that adding this information to an editing form is not particularly difficult.

Why not make it better to use?

Brothers, it's already 2023. Are you willing to continue enduring this pain?

When using the TestStand API, I always find myself switching back and forth between TestStand and the TestStand reference help. While the intellisense function help is usually enough, many times I like seeing the more detailed information in the help. I would really like to have the option of displaying context specific help in a TestStand pane, similar to the context help window in LabVIEW.

This pane could dynamically update to display function information when using expressions, or show general information about the active pane or dialog (for newer users). Much of the linking for the second case is already done, since the F1 key will pull up relevant help for the active pane currently.

TestStand is in dire need of a way to quickly and effectively find broken steps in long sequences.

I'm working on large sequence files which often call and utilize other long sequences. Needless to say, I often need to address steps which have become broken due to code rework. As of now (TS 2017), there are only two ways for me to know if a step will not run.

Text is red within the Step Settings window.
Sequence Analyzer reports an Error.

I would like to suggest a third option, one that would be more readily available than either of the other two options. If the step itself was highlighted, text reddened, or somehow otherwise flagged as an error, then the operator won't have to hunt through each of the step settings windows or the sequence analyzer results. All the operator would have to do is open the sequence file and notice that a step appears out of place.

It would be nice if sequences could also show if they have broken steps.

Included is an example of how this might look.

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Hi! Feature request that I hope is fairly simple to slide into the next rev. It's incredibly frustrating that a Combo Box's values (for a control wired to the connector pane of a VI) aren't selectable like Enums and Rings in the LabVIEW Adapter. Instead of seeing a drop down with selectable options, I have to open the VI, (open the control if it's a typedef), edit its values, then see what the values are, close that dialog out, close the VI, back to TestStand and put in the value. This is all so I can just hard code a value. This is crazy. I tested this out in 2019 64-bit, btw, so maybe it's available in later versions, if so, please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

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We have multiple sequences in a file to perform steps that are common to particular subsystems. It would be nice to have the ability to group sequences within TestStand. I could envision this to look like a treeview or folder/file structure within the Sequence Pane. Currently, we have to use a common naming convention to group the sequences together like below:

GPIO_Inputs_[Seq1]

GPIO_Outputs_[Seq1]

GPIO_Outputs_[Seq2]

Communications_CAN_[Seq1]

Communications_Ethernet_[Seq1]

Communications_Ethernet_[Seq2]

Communications_UART_Port0_[Seq1]

Communications_UART_Port1_[Seq1]

Communications_UART_Port1_[Seq2]

With grouping, it could look similar to below:

Communications

CAN

[Seq1]

Ethernet

[Seq1]

[Seq2]

UART

Port0

[Seq1]

Port1

[Seq1]

[Seq2]

GPIO

Inputs

[Seq1]

Outputs

[Seq1]

[Seq2]

In addition, there could be a toolbar menu item to switch between showing the grouping or all so you could sort to find

I've encountered on several occassions, especially with complex testing, customers who are frustrated by the inherent 'flicker' that happens when stepping into and out of subsequences of logic. This leads to people opting to not use sub sequences, or creating complex replacements for the execution view that has a more persistant way of presenting the executed step data.

I'd like to see an optional setting for execution viewing that allows for sub sequences to be shown as expandable nodes (perhaps defaulted to 'collapsed') so that low level test operators can see the overview results at the sequence-call level, but so advanced users can expand for details if they're interested without added pulldowns or tabs for additional information. this could be one more API property similiar to showing one-stepgroup or showing all, so that developers can chose whether to be more efficient, or display-heavy....

In scenarios with dynamic sequence loading, the display might simply show a 'no pre-loading possible' sort of message until the execution actually gets to that portion of the sequence.

Cheers,

Elaine R.

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The "Report Options" dialog box provides a lot of flexibilty in the way reports are generated for sequences executing under the Batch model. A new report can be generated for each UUT, for each socket, etc. One option that appears to be lacking, is to flat out not generate a Batch Report. Doing a brief search, I found at two other folks who were trying to do the same thing:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/Disable-Batch-Report-TestStand-2014/td-p/3091476

http://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/How-do-I-disable-batch-report-in-the-batch-model/td-p/238387

Suggest adding another check box to the Report File Pathname on the Report Options dialog box to disable batch reports.

The Search Directories.Insert method should only insert the directory if it is not already there.

The Method includes an index argument, if the directory is already there, then it should move the existing directory to the requested index.

While we were working on the shipping examples for DQMH, we discovered that the insert method was creating duplicates every time it was called. We implemented a work around that includes a for loop to check each of the items in the search directories list to see if it is the directory we are trying to insert, if it is, we delete it. Once the for loop ends, then we insert the directory where we want it.

You can see a video of the issue and how we worked around it here: DQMH 3.1 Only inserts the Delacor examples directory into Search Directories once

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NI TestStand Idea Exchange

For each StepResult, add StartTime with UNIX time offset

Add Result Recording Option "Enabled On Step Failure"

Integrate Diff Merge Utility into Sequence Editor

Support Unicode

Update Custom Data Type from Cluster Force Exact Match - update items order

Select enumeration value directly in SequenceCall

No selection of any field inside Offline Processing Utility (ORPU) when application starts

Add progress bar option to Wait step

Remove all unused variable in sequence file with single click

Suggest adding line number display on the left side of seqedit

Create a TestStand context help pane

Highlight Broken Steps and Sequences with Errors

Combo box Names and Values displayed like Enums and Rings for LabVIEW Adapter

Support for multiline comments in Sequence steps

TestStand Sequence Grouping

Expandable Mode for Sequence Execution Display

Quick Preloading Modules when no source for PPL

Provide mechanism to disable batch report through "Report Options" dialog box

Search Directories Insert method should not duplicate a search directory

Remove bold text for Label Description in Step Settings