Module.LoadPrototype reloads same vi every time

[JonP]

I have written a .NET C# application that generates a TestStand Sequence file automatically using the API. FWIW I am using TestStand 2013 and LabVIEW 2013.

When I generate a new Step that calls a LabVIEW module am using code like this, sorry if you don't understand C# but it's pretty much the same in any language, the cyan strings are testStand API classes:

Step step = engine.NewStep(AdapterKeyNames.FlexLVAdapterKeyName,

StepTypes.StepType_S500NumericMeasurement);

// The Module is really a LabVIEWModule.

LabVIEWModule lvModule = step.Module as LabVIEWModule;

// Specify the VI to use.

lvModule.VIPath = viPath;

// Load the prototype for the module so that TestStand can map the IO terminals.

try

{

   module.LoadPrototype(); // this opens the VI into the LabVIEW Runtime Engine

}

catch (COMException ex)

{

  <snip>: handle the error

}

// Get the IO terminals:

LabVIEWParameters parameters = lvModule.Parameters;

I then go on to set the module parameters which are now available in 'parameters'. This all works fine except it is very slow because every time I call module.LoadPrototype() the TestStand engine painfully reloads all the dependent VIs even when I am using exactly the same VI as specified in 'viPath'. So the question is, does anyone know a way to make it cache the VI prototype?

[JonP]

I guess if I could tell LoadPrototype to ignore VI dependencies that would be a way around it, but I can't find a way to do that either - any other ideas anyone?