Can you have Custom Step Properties without a Custom Step Type?

[Bob Rafuse]

Is there a way (that I'm missing) to have custom step properties without
creating a new Custom Step Type for each variation?

For example, say I have 10 Pass/Fail tests, each with different input
conditions. For example, Test 1 may have input parameters of VDD level and
VSS level, Test 2 may have input parameters of IIH and IIL, Test 3 may have
VDD, VOH and VOL, and so on with each test having unique input parameters.

I'm looking for a way to avoid have to define a Custom Step Type for each
test AND would like to avoid populating each test with 'generic' properties
(such as an array of int values, an array of double values, etc which get
stuffed with the various input parameters - I'd rather the
exact property
names were available in the TestStand GUI to avoid confusion).

Is this at all possible? Any help or suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.

--
Bob Rafuse
ETEC Inc.

[Anand_Jain]

You can consider using the "Insert If Missing option" when you set values to step properties.
If you look at the function SetValNumber, it is a method of the PropertyObject class.
PropertyObject.SetValNumber( lookupString, options, newValue)

One of the options you can use is "InsertIfMissing"

The help text is given below:

PropOption_InsertIfMissing -- Use this option with the SetVal methods of the PropertyObject class to create a new property if the property specified by the lookupString does not exist.

So you can use "InsertIfMissing" option to insert new properties as and when you want properties for your steps.

One drawback to this approach is that you can only see those properties during runtime as they are created during runtime.

If you would like to use this
option you will need to pass "1" (number 1) for the value of options when you use this function.

Anand Jain
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/ask