Consider the following recommendations and requirements for deploying VIs when you decide whether to use stand-alone VIs in a TestStand system:

  • NI does not recommend distributing two VIs with the same name to different locations on a target computer. When a VI with the same name from a different location is in memory, LabVIEW uses the VI in memory when attempting to load a subVI. However, LabVIEW reports an error when you attempt to load a top-level VI with the same name as a VI in memory even when the similarly named VI in memory is an exact copy of the one you want to load.
  • TestStand does not support including two VIs with the same name in a deployment unless the VIs are in different project libraries.
  • When you build a TestStand deployment that calls VIs that use shared variables, you must complete the following tasks:
    • Add project library files that contain shared variables to the workspace you use to create the deployment or deploy the files using a LabVIEW Utility Deploy Library step in the test sequences. The TestStand Deployment Utility automatically includes project library files it finds in the workspace or from LabVIEW Utility Deploy Library step references when you configure the step to deploy the project library.
    • Add an aliases file to the deployment and configure the deployment to install the aliases file to the proper location on the destination system so LabVIEW can resolve network paths.
    • Include the NI Variable Engine component in the installer to ensure that the destination system can use the shared variables.
  • You must execute a LabVIEW Utility Deploy Library step in a TestStand sequence to deploy shared variables to the local computer. You can also manually deploy shared variables to the local computer using a project in the LabVIEW development system.