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Using Measurement Studio 8.0 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Primary Software: Measurement Studio>>.NET Support
Primary Software Version: N/A
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem:
I have Measurement Studio 8.0 and I would like to use it with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or one of the Microsoft Visual Studio Express Editions. Is this possible?

Solution:
Measurement Studio 8.0 .NET class libraries and user interface controls work with Visual Studio 2005 and the Visual Studio Express Editions. The Measurement Studio 8.0 C++ libraries do NOT work with Visual Studio 2005, nor will the Measurement Studio 8.0 C++ libraries work with the Visual Studio Express Editions.

Measurement Studio 8.0 is designed to work with Visual Studio 2003 and therefore Measurement Studio does not install shipping examples and does not integrate with Visual Studio 2005. This means that if you install Measurement Studio 8.0 with Visual Studio 2005, the Measurement Studio .NET controls are not in the toolbox and you do not have a Measurement Studio menu item in the Visual Studio 2005 toolbar. However, you can add the Measurement Studio .NET controls manually. Refer to the Using Measurement Studio 8.0.0 and Prior in Visual Studio 2005 tutorial for instructions on this process.

There are several known issues that occur when using Measurement Studio 8.0 .NET controls with Visual Studio 2005. These issues have been addressed with a patch. Refer to the
Issues with Measurement Studio 8.0.0 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 KnowledgeBase for information and a link to the patch.

Refer to the sections below for additional topics to consider when using Measurement Studio 8.0 with Visual Studio 2005.

Installation

If you have Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 on your system, Measurement Studio 8.0 installs all the .NET libraries automatically. If you only have Visual Studio 2005 installed, all the features in the installer feature tree are disabled by default. You need to enable the .NET languages support feature in the feature tree dialog for Measurement Studio 8.0 to install the .NET libraries on your machine. Make sure to uncheck the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Integration Tools feature item as well. The .NET 2.0 Framework supports loading and using libraries created using the .NET 1.1 Framework, so you are not required to install the .NET 1.1 Framework on your system.

Using Measurement Studio 8.0 Analysis Libraries in Visual Studio 2005

The Measurement Studio 8.0 Analysis libraries and user interface controls are licensed assemblies which require a license string to be added to the .licx file associated with the project. When you drop a control or a component onto a form, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Express will automatically add a .licx file to the project and add the appropriate license string. However, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Express do NOT add or update the .licx file if you add a reference to an assembly, which is what is required for using the Measurement Studio Analysis libraries. Because of this behavior, you need to add the license string manually to the .licx file associated with the project. For more information about manually adding the license information to use the Measurement Studio .NET class libraries, refer to the Measurement Studio help topic Licensing Measurement Studio .NET Class Libraries without Integrated Tools in the NI Measurement Studio Help.

Measurement Studio Help files

The Measurement Studio 8.0 help files are designed to integrate into the Visual Studio 2003 help system. If you have Visual Studio 2003 installed on your system, you can view the Measurement Studio help by opening up the MSDN Help Viewer for Visual Studio. If you do not have Visual Studio 2003, you can use a free tool, the H2 Viewer, to view the help files. Refer to the H2 Viewer link below to download the help viewer. The help files have a .hxs extension and are installed in the <MeasurementStudioVS2003>\Help directory. You can open the individual .hxs files in the folder, or you can view all of the help content by opening the Measurement Studio namespace. Open the Measurement Studio namespace by selecting File » Open Namespace in the H2 Viewer.

Measurement Studio 8.0.1 and later provide full support for Visual Studio 2005.

Report Date: 11/17/2005
Last Updated: 02/11/2008
Document ID: 3RGGA15B

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