Help 2 isn't included with VS2010

[Rick Cully]

I simply want to develop programs usig c#, do not want measurement studio at this point.  I updated the driver per the recommendation and now simply want to read/search the DAQmx .NET reference.  The link (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\National Instruments\NI-DAQ\Text-Based CodeSupport\NI-DAQmx .NET Framework 4.0 Help.lnk) launches Measurement Studio help, not the .net reference.  I now cannot locate a refernce at all, and without this development is stalled.  At this point I would settle for a PDF of the reference.  Help?

BTW, nothing worked properly until I completely uninstalled the previous driver install and re-installed the latest driver.

Rick

[D_Biel]

The help is called Measurement Studio help, but it is not actually the Measurement Studio Help.

In Visual Studio go to Help>>Manage Help Settings>>Install content from disk, then browse to C:\Program Files\National Instruments\MeasurementStudio2010\Help and select the .msha files. This will integrate the DAQmx Help into Visual Studio Help.

[Rick Cully]

Thank you for the reply.  The help was installed but finding DAQmx reference information was simply not intuitive and quite frankly, not very informative (but better than nothing).  The new MS help system appears to be a step backwards as well.  

I have a very strong suggestion: Develop a concise users guide, programmers reference and API documentation rather than rely on convoluted, complex documentation and isolated examples that assume intimate knowledge of the API.  Any standard web page of PDF with a table of conents, index and clear and organized discussions on concepts with relevent sample code would be a tremendous improvement.

Rick

[D_Biel]

Rick,

I appreciate your feedback. We will certainly take that into consideration in future releases of our products with .NET 4.0 support. In the future we may move our help to a different platform, but for now this setup allows our documentation to be integrated with Microsoft's documentation as it has in the past. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and we will take the feedback you have provided seriously. Thank you.

[TomEgling]

Hi,

Is there any alternate method of accessing the help yet ? I have NI-DAQmx 9.22 but have VS2010. I do not want to upgrade to 9.2.3 and am more than happy to use the .net3.5 API, I just want access to the documentation ? Is this availible in any format that doesnt require a +1000MB download, or a full uninstall or reinstall of some part of my tool chain ? Having to jump through flaming hoops to get access to this documentation borders on negledgent documentation management !

Thanks

[Evan_S]

Hi,

Are you developing using Visual Studio 2010? If so, DAQmx 9.2.2 does not support Visual Studio 2010 and are not a supported combination; only version NI-DAQmx 9.2.3 and newer supports VS 2010. This is outlined in the Version Information for Legacy Environments/Languages for .NET Hardware Drivers. This is why the help does not automatically install. I would suggest upgrading to 9.2.3 in order to ensure that there are no issues with compatibility.

[TomEgling]

Hi Evan,

Is it not possible to provide this documentation as a PDF, or CHM, or any other application independent format ? I cannot think of one reasonable case where this is not the most sensible approach ? The .NET assemblies provided with DAQmx 9.2.2 are version compatible with the framework, not the development environment. I would like to use the .NET 3.5 assemblies as ALL our other applications use them, but would also like to use VS2010 as we have spare licenses. All I need is to be able to OPEN the documentation for your .NET 3.5 assemblies, or be pointed to some application independent version of it.

Is it really that hard ?

Thanks
Tom

[Evan_S]

Hi,

Due to the fact that the .NET 3.5 Help integrates with Microsoft and Visual Studio, there is not a simple method to install when the correct version of Visual Studio is not present. I am currently looking into if there is a method to install the help, however it does not install due to the fact that 9.2.2 does not support VS2010 even though it supports the 3.5 Framework. This is particular to help files with Visual Studio, other help files (general DAQmx etc.) are possible to ge read as the .chm

[TomEgling]

Thanks for feedback Evan,

I have some other issues under seperate thread. http://forums.ni.com/t5/Measurement-Studio-for-NET/How-to-adjust-digital-output-rate-using-internal-...

Maybe you coud help ?

Thanks

Tom