Consider the following recommendations and requirements for editing VIs when you decide whether to use LabVIEW packed project libraries in a TestStand system:

  • NI recommends creating an architecture with multiple packed project libraries that group similar sets of VIs together so that you can update code more easily.
  • You cannot edit VIs inside packed project libraries. You must have the source VIs and the project that contains the build specification for the packed project library to make a change to the packed project library. To modify a VI stored in a packed project library, you must modify the source VI and rebuild the packed project library, and replace the older packed project library with the newer version.
  • NI recommends enabling the Callers adapt at run time to Exported VI connector pane state option on the Connector Pane State page of the Packed Library Properties dialog box in the packed project library build specification in LabVIEW when using other LabVIEW VIs to call exported VIs stored in the LabVIEW packed project library. When you enable this option, VI callers of a packed project library can adapt to inplaceness changes in an exported VI without having to recompile.
  • NI recommends that you wait until you have finished making major changes to VIs before building the packed project library. If VIs that use the packed project library are in the same project, you can replace all instances of VIs in the project library with a call to a built packed project library in the LabVIEW Project Explorer window.
  • You cannot load a VI stored in a packed project library independently of other items in the same packed project library. LabVIEW loads every VI in the packed project library when you call the first VI, resulting in a longer initial load time and higher memory usage. LabVIEW loads subsequent VIs immediately.
  • When you call the first VI in a packed project library, LabVIEW consolidates types in all VIs in the packed project library to reduce the time required to load every VI inside the packed project library. This behavior is faster than loading the same VIs if they were stored outside of the packed project library. Packed project libraries are also faster to load because they consist of a single file, so the test system does not have to search the disk for additional files.
  • Packed project libraries support debugging when built with debugging information. However, including the debugging information makes the packed project library larger and slightly slower to execute. Consider benchmarking the differences in size and execution speed to determine the impact of including the debugging information in the packed project library.