Measurement Studio 8.6 for Visual Studio 2005 Readme

Measurement Studio is an integrated suite of tools and class libraries that is designed for developers using .NET, ASP.NET, and MFC to develop measurement and automation applications.

Measurement Studio 8.6 includes support for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft Visual C#, and Microsoft Visual C++ in Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008. Measurement Studio 8.6 also includes support for Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ in Visual Studio 6.0. Measurement Studio support for Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008 is on one CD. Measurement Studio support for Visual Studio 6.0 is on another CD.

Measurement Studio 8.6 includes separate, parallel sets of class libraries, integration features, and support documentation for developing with Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008. Installing Measurement Studio support for Visual Studio 2005 does not directly impact installations of Measurement Studio support for other versions of Visual Studio or projects or programs that use Measurement Studio class libraries that support other versions of Visual Studio. This does not apply to underlying drivers or other software components, such as NI-DAQmx, that allow only one version to be installed on the system at a time.

This readme documents only Measurement Studio support for Visual Studio 2005. Measurement Studio support for other versions of Visual Studio includes separate readme files.

This file contains the following sections:

What's New in Measurement Studio 8.6

This section describes new features that have been introduced in Measurement Studio since version 8.5.

Technical Data Management Streaming (TDMS) .NET Support

Technical Data Management Streaming (TDMS) is a file format based on the National Instruments TDM data model used to stream data to disk. You can use the TDMS .NET class library to describe, store, and read measurement data that is optimized for high-speed data streaming and post processing. Additionally, you can use the TDMS .NET class library to create files you can use in LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, DIAdem, and third-party industry tools, and files created by these applications can be used by the TDMS .NET class library.

For more information, refer to Key Measurement Studio TDMS .NET Library Features in the NI Measurement Studio Help.

TDM Excel Add-In

You can use the TDM Excel Add-In to load NI .tdm and .tdms files into Microsoft Excel. Use the toolbar from within Excel to choose which properties are loaded into Excel at the file, group, and channel levels, including custom properties.

Refer to NI Developer Zone for more information about the TDM Excel Add-In.

Mouse Cursor Customizability

Different cursor images represent different interactive operations that an end user can perform on a control. For example, when editing or selecting text, you typically display a System.Windows.Input.Cursors.IBeam cursor, and for zooming on a graph, you typically display a magnifying lens. With Measurement Studio 8.6, you can customize mouse cursors, at design time or programmatically, for different interactions with the Measurement Studio Windows Forms and Web Forms controls.

For more information, refer to Mouse Cursor Customizability with Measurement Studio Windows Forms .NET Controls and Mouse Cursor Customizability with Measurement Studio Web Forms .NET Controls in the NI Measurement Studio Help.

Additional New Features

Measurement Studio 8.6 also introduces the following new features:

Installing Measurement Studio 8.6

The following sections list the system requirements for Measurement Studio 8.6 and instructions on how to install Measurement Studio 8.6.

Note    Review the installer known issues before you install Measurement Studio 8.6. Refer to the Measurement Studio 8.6 Known Issues Web page for a complete, up-to-date listing of known issues in Measurement Studio 8.6.

Installation Requirements

To use Measurement Studio, your computer must have the following:

Optional Installation—In order for links from Measurement Studio help topics to .NET Framework help topics to work, you must install the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK 2.0.

Driver Support

To use .NET or Visual C++ class libraries that interface to National Instruments device drivers, NI-DAQmx, NI-VISA, NI-488.2, NI-SCOPE, and the MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer) configuration utility, you must install the underlying device drivers in addition to the .NET or Visual C++ class libraries. You can run the underlying device driver installers from the NI Device Drivers DVD included with Measurement Studio. Alternatively, refer to NI Drivers and Updates on ni.com and enter Device Drivers into the search field to download the latest version of the NI Device Drivers DVD. If you require a Device Drivers CD instead of a DVD, refer to the National Instruments CD Request Form (Windows Only) Web page on ni.com.

Note    NI-SCOPE does not include Visual C++ libraries. To download NI-SCOPE .NET class libraries, refer to NI-SCOPE .NET Driver Support.

Deployment Requirements

To deploy an application built with Measurement Studio .NET class libraries, the target computer must have a Windows Vista/XP/2000 operating system and .NET Framework 2.0.

To deploy an application built with Measurement Studio Visual C++ class libraries, the target computer must have a Windows Vista/XP/2000 operating system.

Installation Instructions

Complete the following steps to install Measurement Studio. These steps describe a typical installation. Please carefully review all additional licensing and warning dialog boxes.

Note    If prompted, insert the Device Drivers DVD and select Rescan Drive to install device drivers. If you require a Device Drivers CD instead of a DVD, refer to the National Instruments CD Request Form (Windows Only) Web page on ni.com.

National Instruments recommends that you exit all programs before running the Measurement Studio installer. Applications that run in the background, such as virus scanning utilities, might cause the installer to take longer than average to complete.

Complete the following steps to install Measurement Studio:

  1. Log on as an administrator or as a user with administrator privileges.
  2. Launch Autorun.exe, either from the installation CD or from the location to which you extracted the downloaded CD image.
  3. Click on Visual Studio 2005 to install Measurement Studio support for Visual Studio 2005.
  4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
Note   The Measurement Studio installation process includes devenv.com and HelpMerge.exe command windows that open and close on your desktop. These commands can take a long time to complete; the progress bar continuing to move within the installer dialog box is an indication that the installer is functioning properly while these command windows are open. Closing these windows prematurely causes the installation to fail.
Note   If you want to upgrade a Windows XP machine to Windows Vista, National Instruments recommends first uninstalling all National Instruments software, including both application software and drivers.

Installing the Current Version of Measurement Studio over Previous Versions of Measurement Studio

Note    You can have only one version of Measurement Studio installed on a system for each version of Visual Studio or the .NET Framework installed on the system. For example, you can have Measurement Studio 8.1.2 for Visual Studio 2005 installed on the same system as Measurement Studio 8.6 for Visual Studio 2008, but you cannot have Measurement Studio 8.1.2 for Visual Studio 2005 installed on the same system as Measurement Studio 8.6 for Visual Studio 2005.

If you install a newer version of Measurement Studio on a machine that has a prior version of Measurement Studio installed, the newer version installer replaces the prior version functionality, including class libraries. However, the prior version assemblies remain in the global assembly cache (GAC); therefore, applications that reference the prior version continue to use the prior version .NET assemblies.

Note    This does not apply to NationalInstruments.Common.dll. NationalInstruments.Common.dll uses a publisher policy file to redirect applications to always use the newest version of NationalInstruments.Common.dll installed on the system, for each version of the .NET Framework. NationalInstruments.Common.dll is backward-compatible.

Getting Started with Measurement Studio 8.6

For assistance in getting started with Measurement Studio 8.6, refer to the Measurement Studio Overview and the Getting Started with the Measurement Studio Class Libraries topics in the NI Measurement Studio Help or refer to the Measurement Studio User Manual and the Measurement Studio Release Notes. You can launch the NI Measurement Studio Help in the following ways:

To view the Measurement Studio User Manual and the Measurement Studio Release Notes, select Start»All Programs»National Instruments»<Measurement Studio>»User Manual or Start»All Programs»National Instruments»<Measurement Studio>»Release Notes. To view these documents, you need the free Adobe Reader. Refer to the Adobe Systems Incorporated Web site at www.adobe.com to download Adobe Reader.

To create a Measurement Studio project using class library and application templates, open Visual Studio and select File»New»Project to launch the New Project dialog box. In the Project Types pane, select the folder for the language you want to create the program in, and then select Measurement Studio. In the Templates pane, you can then select which type of project you want to create.

For step-by-step guides in learning how to develop applications with Measurement Studio, refer to the Measurement Studio Walkthroughs section of the NI Measurement Studio Help.

Deploying Applications Built with Measurement Studio 8.6

For information about deploying applications built with Measurement Studio 8.6, refer to Deploying Measurement Studio Applications in the NI Measurement Studio Help.

Note    To deploy an application built with Measurement Studio .NET class libraries, the target computer must have a Windows Vista/XP/2000 operating system and .NET Framework 2.0.

Bug Fixes in Measurement Studio 8.6

The following items are bugs fixed in Measurement Studio 8.6.

Bug ID Fixed Issue
96837 Fixed an issue where examples that reference .NET hardware class libraries cause Measurement Studio to prompt you to upgrade assembly references.
99334 Fixed an issue where the .NET controls do not persist changes to their Cursor properties.
101538 Fixed an issue where silently installing Measurement Studio to a custom directory fails.
105609 Fixed an issue where the font size of annotation text in the ActiveX graph control decreases after rendering to a device context other than the screen context, such as a printer context.
107630 Fixed an issue with the printed image quality when printing .NET controls that do not use 3D styles.
107860 Fixed an issue where the PreferredSize property of the .NET legend control does not update when new items are inserted.
108205 Fixed an issue where the ActiveX 3D graph sometimes draws too few edges around points on a surface plot. This causes the shapes of the areas surrounding some points to be unnecessarily different than shapes of the areas surrounding other points.
113612 Fixed an issue where non-visible plots in .NET graph controls incorrectly continue to affect axis ranges when using AutoScaleVisible options.
114942 Fixed an issue where Measurement Studio .NET ControlArray-derived controls do not show focus when you select or tab to them.
118146 Fixed an issue where Visual Studio generates an unhandled exception when you close the Designer window for a user control that contains a Measurement Studio control.
118411 Fixed an issue where panning the scatter graph results in the plot looking distorted.
Note    Refer to the What's New in Measurement Studio topic in the NI Measurement Studio Help for information about bug fixes in previous versions of Measurement Studio.

Known Issues in Measurement Studio

You can access the known issues in Measurement Studio 8.6 online. Refer to the Measurement Studio 8.6 Known Issues Web page for a complete, up-to-date listing of known issues in Measurement Studio 8.6.

Measurement Studio 8.6 Incompatibilities with Previous Versions of Measurement Studio

For a complete list of incompatibilities in Measurement Studio with previous versions of Measurement Studio and otherwise supported features, including a list of obsoleted members and members that have been changed to sealed override or non-virtual, refer to the Measurement Studio Incompatibilities topic in the NI Measurement Studio Help.

Copyright

© 2003–2008 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.

Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.

Trademarks

National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and LabVIEW are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Terms of Use section on ni.com/legal for more information about National Instruments trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Patents

For patents covering the National Instruments products, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your CD, or ni.com/patents.



To comment on National Instruments documentation, refer to the National Instruments Web site.