July 2019
This file contains important information about the Digital Pattern Instrument, the NI-Digital Pattern Driver, and the Digital Pattern Editor including supported hardware, system requirements, and supported application development environments.
Product Security and Critical Updates
LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Use the Digital Pattern Editor with a Digital Pattern Instrument and the NI-Digital Pattern Driver software for digital testing of semiconductors, or devices under test (DUTs).
The NI-Digital Pattern Driver and the Digital Pattern Editor support the following operating systems with all available critical updates and service packs:
1 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1 requires Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
Note: The NI-Digital Pattern Driver and the Digital Pattern Editor support only 64-bit operating systems for development. You can deploy runtime solutions on Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit) and Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit). Refer to your ADE documentation for more information about creating a runtime deployment:
Note: The Digital Pattern Editor does not support Guest user accounts on Windows. The Digital Pattern Editor supports Administrator and Limited accounts on Windows 7.
Note: NI recommends that you install Microsoft Hotfix 2588507 for 64-bit Windows operating systems. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code mshotfix for more information about Microsoft Hotfix 2588507.
Note Refer to NI-Digital Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021 for information about future OS support.
Install Application Development Environments (ADEs), such as LabVIEW or Microsoft Visual Studio, before installing the NI-Digital Pattern Driver. To add support for ADEs installed after installing the NI-Digital Pattern Driver, modify your NI-Digital Pattern Driver installation or launch the NI-Digital Pattern Driver installer again.
NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor 19.0 support the following ADE versions:
| Application Software | Versions Supported by NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor 19.0 |
|---|---|
| LabVIEW | 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 (32-bit and 64-bit) |
| LabVIEW NXG | 3.0 and 3.1 |
| NI TestStand | 2016 and later (64-bit) |
| NI TestStand Semiconductor Module™ | 2016 and later (64-bit) |
| Microsoft Visual Studio | 2010 and later (.NET versions 4.0 and 4.5) |
Note: You must install the NI-DCPower driver to access NI-DCPower-related functionality in the Digital Pattern Editor.
Note: You must install the NI-Sync driver to access NI-Sync-related functionality.
If you are using the NI-Digital .NET Class Library, the .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The NI-Digital .NET Class Library can be used with the Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET programming languages in any Visual Studio version that can target the .NET Framework 4.0 or the .NET Framework 4.5.
To use the .NET API, you must select the .NET Framework 4.0 Languages Support or the .NET Framework 4.5 Languages Support packages in the NI-Digital Pattern Driver installer to install the .NET class libraries for the NI-Digital Pattern Driver software. For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, as well as the download location of the installer files, refer to National Instruments .NET Driver Support.
NI installs the NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, the NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor install NI Package Manager to handle the installation of your NI software. Visit ni.com/r/NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.
Notes
The NI–Digital Pattern Driver palette VIs are available from the following locations:
You can use the NI-Digital Pattern .NET class library by adding a reference to NationalInstruments.ModularInstruments.NIDigital.Fx40 or NationalInstruments.ModularInstruments.NIDigital.Fx45 and any dependent class libraries from within the Solution Explorer in Visual Studio.
You can use the NI-Digital Pattern C dynamically linked library by adding a reference to C:\Program Files (x86)\IVI Foundation\IVI\Bin\niDigital_32.dll for 32-bit development or to C:\Program Files\IVI Foundation\IVI\Bin\niDigital_64.dll for 64-bit development.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
Refer to the What's New topics in the Digital Pattern Help for detailed information about new features and other changes in the NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor. Refer to the What's New topics for previous versions of the NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor in the Digital Pattern Help for information about new features, compatibility and known issues, and bug fixes for those versions.
The following list details the hardware models supported in NI-Digital 19.0:
The NI-Digital Pattern Driver and Digital Pattern Editor introduce the following behavior changes between version 18.0 and version 19.0:
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the NI website for an up-to-date list of known issues.
Documentation for the Digital Pattern Instrument, NI-Digital Pattern Driver, and Digital Pattern Editor is available from the Start menu by navigating to NI Digital Pattern Documentation in the National Instruments folder. The installed documentation set is composed of the following documents:
Digital Pattern Instrument manuals are available as PDFs. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view the PDFs. You can install the viewer from www.adobe.com/acrobat.
For the most recent revisions of documentation and for newly released documentation, visit ni.com/manuals. Digital Pattern Instrument manuals include the following documents:
Use the getting started examples, located by default in the <Public Documents>\National Instruments\NI-Digital\Examples\Getting Started directory, to help you learn key concepts or to serve as a starting point for applications you create. You can also access the getting started examples by selecting the Start menu and navigating to NI Digital Pattern Examples in the National Instruments folder.
In the Welcome window of the Digital Pattern Editor, click Examples or click the Learning tab to launch the Learning window, which includes examples of common usages of digital patterns.
Use the NI-Digital Pattern Driver example programs to learn more about how to use the NI-Digital Pattern Driver software to configure and control digital pattern instruments.
Use the NI Example Finder to locate LabVIEW examples. In LabVIEW, select Help»Find Examples to launch the NI Example Finder.
The Microsoft .NET examples are located in the <Public Documents>\National Instruments\NI-Digital\Examples\DotNET 4.x directory. In the Start menu, navigate to NI Digital Pattern Examples in the National Instruments folder.
The C examples are located in the <Public Documents>\National Instruments\NI-Digital\Examples\C directory. In the Start menu, navigate to NI Digital Pattern Examples in the National Instruments folder.
The following sections detail considerations for using LabVIEW NXG with NI-Digital.
Software support for LabVIEW NXG differs in the following ways:
View context help in LabVIEW by pressing <Ctrl-H> and hovering over an object.
Search for items using the search bar in the upper right corner of the LabVIEW window. You can also view context help for the search results.
Additional documentation is available online at ni.com/manuals.
Launch LabVIEW and click the Learning tab.
LabVIEW lessons are located in the Lessons tab, and LabVIEW Examples are located in the Examples tab. Follow the instructions in the lessons and examples.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
NI-Digital will drop support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit) and all 32-bit Windows operating systems starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, will not install or run on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.
For detailed information about NI application software product life cycles, visit ni.com/info and enter one of the following Info Codes:
| Product | Info Code |
|---|---|
| LabVIEW | lifecycle |
| Measurement Studio | mstudiolifecycle |
| TestStand | tslcp |
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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices
You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:
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Patents
For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.
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