Use the Compare VI Hierarchies dialog box to compare two hierarchies of VIs. LabVIEW compares any file with the same name in both hierarchies and categorizes them as being the same or different. VIs and subVIs with the same name and path are considered shared VIs. All other VIs are categorized as added or deleted in the second VI hierarchy.

After the comparison completes, the Compare VI Hierarchies dialog box displays a summary of the differences. The VIs in Hierarchies listbox displays the VIs and a symbol that indicates how they are categorized.

You can select a set of VIs that have differences and visually compare them using the Compare VIs dialog box.

Because LabVIEW cannot compare two files with the same name, LabVIEW renames one of the VIs for comparison. The first VI is left as is. The second VI is moved to the temporary directory and prepended with a cmp. prefix. The renamed VI links to the subVIs loaded by the first VI.

  1. Open a project in LabVIEW.
  2. Select Tools»Compare»Compare VI Hierarchies from the front panel or block diagram menu of a VI to display the Compare VI Hierarchies dialog box.
  3. Click Browse Files to select VIs from the file system to compare.
  4. Click Browse Memory to display the Select a VI dialog box and select a VI from the VIs in memory to compare.
  5. In the Compare section of the Compare VI Hierarchies dialog box, enable the comparison options you want to include.
  6. Click Compare Hierarchies to compare VIs in the hierarchies. The results of the comparison appear in the VIs in Hierarchies and Description listboxes.
    Note Press the <Ctrl-.> keys to abort comparisons of large VI hierarchies.
  7. (Optional) Click Create Report to generate a report of the differences between the VI hierarchies.
  8. In the Create Report dialog box, select a report type and specify a filepath to save the report as:
    • A web page .html
    • An XML document .xml
    • A text file .txt
    • A Microsoft Word document .doc (Windows)
    Note The file path for saving the comparison report must be a local directory instead of a network path.
  9. Click a VI in the VIs in Hierarchies listbox to display a description of the hierarchical differences in the Description listbox.
  10. Double-click a VI in the VIs in Hierarchies listbox to open the VIs in the two hierarchies and view the differences.
  11. (Optional) You can also click Show Differences.
  12. Click Done to close the Compare VI Hierarchies dialog box.
  13. (Optional) Click Read Hierarchies to categorize the VIs in the hierarchy. VIs that need to be compared are categorized as not compared. You can selectively compare individual VIs by double-clicking an item or clicking Show Differences.