Installing Toolkits for Use with Multiple Versions of LabVIEW
Primary Software: LabVIEW Development Systems>>Full Development System
Primary Software Version: 8.6
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A
Problem: I have multiple versions of LabVIEW installed on my computer, none of which have toolkits installed to them. When I try to install a LabVIEW toolkit, I can only tell it to install to one version of LabVIEW. How can I install a toolkit and have it available in multiple versions of LabVIEW?
Solution: Toolkits are often just revved and mass compiled to work in the LabVIEW development system. In the past it was not possible to have multiple instances of a single toolkit for various LabVIEW versions on the same machine. With the addition of activation, toolkits can now be used in every version of LabVIEW beginning with LabVIEW 8.6 and continuing forward. This also means that customers will need to upgrade to the newest version of the toolkit for each new version of LabVIEW. To accommodate this change, there will be no charge to upgrade most toolkits to LabVIEW 8.6. This can change in future releases depending on additional functionality being added or if a particular product decides to charge for upgrades. For LabVIEW 8.6, all toolkits will provide a free upgrade with the exception of the Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite (S&V Toolkit, Order Analysis Toolkit), the Modulation Toolkit and the Spectral Measurements Toolkit.
If the customer has LabVIEW 8.5.1 or earlier, there is a general method that should allow all toolkit installers to install to multiple versions. To accomplish this task, follow the steps below,
beginning with the oldest version of LabVIEW installed on your machine:
- Install the toolkit to a temporary directory with the same top-level directory name as the version of LabVIEW for which you are installing. Note that if you are using the general toolkit installation CD, install only the particular toolkit that you want supported in multiple versions of LabView. To do so, open the CD folder and select the setup.exe file for that toolkit.
- Example: if you are installing the toolkit for LabVIEW 8.5, which is located in
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 8.5, install the toolkit to C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TEMP\LabVIEW 8.5.
- Once the installation is complete, make a backup copy of the temporary directory.
- Example: copy
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TEMP\LabVIEW 8.5 directory to your desktop.
- Uninstall the toolkit from the temporary directory. To do so go to Settings»Control Panel»Add/Remove Programs and click on National Instruments Software. The wizard that opens up gives a list of the National Instruments software that is installed. Select the toolkit that you had just installed, click Change/Remove and follow through the rest of the wizard to complete the uninstallation. Note that the backup copy that you made of the toolkit will remain.
- Copy the backup directory to your LabVIEW installation directory.
- Example: copy the LabVIEW 8.5 backup directory (on your desktop) to the
C:\Program Files\National Instruments directory.
- Windows will inform you that there are files of the same name in the directory and will ask you if you want to add or replace the files from the backup LabVIEW 8.5 directory to the existing LabVIEW 8.5 directory. Select yes. Note that this will not delete any files but will merely add the toolkit files to the existing directory.
- Repeat steps 1 through 5 for all versions of LabVIEW installed on your machine except for the most recent.
- Example: if you have LabVIEW 8.0, 8.2, and 8.5 installed, follow steps 1 through 5 for LabVIEW 8.0 and 8.2.
- Finally, install the toolkit to your most recent version of LabVIEW. It is important to leave the toolkit properly installed for your most recent version of LabVIEW to maintain any shared components that are installed to locations other than the LabVIEW directories.
- Example: install the toolkits to the LabVIEW 8.5 version.
Note: for older versions of LabVIEW, you may have to select a
custom install type to choose the directory to which the installer will install.
Related Links:
Attachments:
Report Date: 04/09/2001
Last Updated: 09/23/2008
Document ID: 288G6JB5
