Controlling external programs via TestStand

[NiNewbee]

Has anyone opened a cmd.exe window and written information to and from it? TestStand will open it and allow one command but then closes it. I need to leave it opened to execute multiple commands and record the results.  I have two applications Spirent API/SmartFlow and Spirent Abacus 5000/100 in my facility and I need to automate it. Any help or suggestions would be great.

[daijoubu]

Can you do it using a batch file with the output redirected to a file?  Using Call Executable to call cmd.exe and passing /c \"c:\\test.bat > c:\\test.txt\" will cause TestStand to execute c:\test.bat and write all the output to c:\test.txt.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You might want to check with Spirent about automation tools. I got a set of LabVIEW VIs from them to automate a SmartBits and another department has some Abacus automation. Information about SmartBits automation can be found at http://www.spirentcom.com/documents/1096.pdf?wt=2&az-c=dc . I haven't used this API directly from TestStand yet nor have I tried the TCL scripts but both would be better options than the DOS interface.

I'm less familiar with the Abacus. The only people I knew in the other department left recently and I don't know who's doing the automation now. I know the Abacus supports DCOM for automation

[Sergei]

Here is one example how to use Abacus API directly from TestStand 4.0