Transcript Electronics II Physics 3620 / 6620

Electronics II
Physics 3620 / 6620
Apr 29, 2009
Part 1
Projects, Formula Nodes, Error Handling
Application Builder…etc.
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Project Explorer
• Instead of editing VI’s
and sub-VI’s separately
and managing them by
hand (one drawback is
platform-independence),
you can package VI’s
and sub-VI’s into
“projects”
– New feature in Labview
8.0
– Project explorer similar
to other “integrated
development
environment”
• Start new “project” from
start menu  Empty
Project
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Make Simple Project
• A “project explorer” window pops up (in the picture shown I
have already saved the project as “exa01.lvproj”
– Either File  Save
– Or Project  Save Project
• Project root—Contains all other items in the Project Explorer window.
This label on the project root includes the filename for the project.
My Computer—Represents the local computer as a target in the project.
– Dependencies—Includes items
that VIs under a target require.
– Build Specifications—
Includes build configurations for
source distributions and other
types of builds available in
LabVIEW toolkits and modules.
If you have the LabVIEW
Professional Development
System or Application Builder
installed, you can use Build
Specifications to configure
stand-alone applications
(EXEs), shared libraries (DLLs)
, installers, and zip files.
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Project Explorer
• A “project explorer” window pops up (in the picture shown I
have already saved the project as “exa01.lvproj”
– Either File  Save
– Or Project  Save Project
• To add a “new” VI to the project:
– Project  Add To Project  New VI
• This will pop up a frontpanel + block diagram pair
• If you make a sub-VI
remember to link the
controls and indicators to
the connector panel
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Example
• subVI that converts Farenheit
input temperature to Celsius and
Kelvin outputs
• We demonstrate the use of a
formula node in this case
• Note that formula nodes can also
have conditionals
• Your cannot declare then input
the variable
• You can but don’t need to declare
the output variables
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Error Handling
• Can add “if (…) { } else { } structure in
formula node
• Can also use this feature to detect error
condition
• Use Error Cluster from Error Code.vi
• Functions 
Programming
 Dialog &
User Interface  Error Cluster
from Error
Code.vi
(also see others)
• Put both err-in
and err-out
onto the
connector
panel
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Make “Main VI”
• Add main VI that checks for error condition (Farenheit temp
below absolute zero…using the “simple error handler”
• Stops the program if error condition met
• Save and close both
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Project File
• We now open exa01.lvproj with “Wordpad” (or “Notepad”)
• It is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file
– See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML for a description
– Can be edited by hand in an emergency
• This is the “GUI” equivalent of the old UNIX “Make” file
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Adding Build Specification
• We can specify a stand-alone application to be built
Notice the
five different
options
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Application Information
• Application Information Window pops up: modify/fill in the top three at least
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•
Source Files
Click on “Source Files in the window on left,
– Put the startup VI and supporting objects into the containers
•
Click OK and then DON’T forget to save the Project.
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Building the Application
• From the project file, a “Test01” target should appear under the Build
specifications
• Right Click on “Test01”  Build will cause Test01.exe to be built
• This file can now be run as a stand-alone application
• According to NI, neither the base nor the student version of Labview has
the standalone applications builder (but projects are supported). Only
the Professional Development Version has this built-in.
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Other Build Options
• Installers Provider -- installs applications, source files, and shared
libraries created with the Application Builder. The providers offers new
features, such as Media Spanning to span the installer file over multiple
disks, setting System Requirements, creating custom Registry Keys,
creating shortcuts to files in the installation, specifying file attributes,
including End-User license agreements and a Readme File.
• Shared Library (DLL) Provider -- creates a Dynamic Linked Library
(DLL) allowing LabVIEW code to be called from text-based programming
languages. Developers must define the function prototypes for each of the
exported VIs.
• Source Distribution Provider -- allows the user to organize source files
for distribution to another machine. It creates a copy of the project files
(including the dependencies) for easy distribution to another computer.
This feature is similar to “Save with Options” from previous versions of
LabVIEW.
• Zip File Provider -- creates a compressed Zip file, containing the
selected sources files. It allows you to distribute a large amount of code
as a single, portable file.
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NI Recommendations and CAVEATS
•
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Create a separate directory of files for each project you create. Include the project
file (.lvproj) and any other files that are only used in the project in the same
directory. Place any files that are shared with other projects outside of the project
directory. Organizing project files into separate directories makes it easier to
identify files related to specific projects on disk.
Directories on disk are not required to match the project structure of folders. After
you add a directory on disk to a project, LabVIEW does not automatically update
the folder in the project if you make changes to the directory on disk.
Try to avoid changing the location on disk of files in a project. If you move a file on
disk, you must update the location of the file in the project.
Windows: If you are building an installer, make sure you save the files that are in a
project on the same drive as the .lvproj file. If some files are on a different drive,
such as a network drive, links can break if you include the project in an installer.
The structure of files in a source distribution does not have to match the structure
in the Project Explorer window. You can specify a different structure when you
build source distribution.
If you plan to edit files that appear under Dependencies, move the files from
Dependencies to under the target. Items that a VI calls dynamically do not appear
under Dependencies. If you plan to distribute files, add any items that a VI calls
dynamically under a target. When you build an application, you can apply settings
to an entire folder, so consider grouping all dynamic items in a folder under the
target.
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Building a ZIP file for distribution
• To build a zip file for distribution, right click build-spec.  New ZIP file
• Window pops up…you should set the title and the path
– Here I put the .zip file in the same folder as the exa01 filder containing the
project itself
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Building a ZIP file (continued)
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Do nothing with “source” files…
Go to “Preview”, click on “Generate Preview” button
You now see a preview of the directory/folder tree that will be generateed
Click OK to exit, and a zip file icon will appear
Right-Click the zip file entry and select build…this will create the zip file
This zip file will be posted along with this representation
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