TestStand Licensing for Development and Deployment

Overview

This document explains the requirements for licensing TestStand applications for development and deployment on test machines.

Contents

Introduction

The licenses for distributing TestStand are different than for distributing LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI code modules. Information for distributing LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI code is at the bottom of this section.

A license is required for each machine that runs a TestStand sequence. TestStand has five types of licenses, which can be separated into two different categories: Development and Deployment.

 

Development License Options


TestStand Development System

The TestStand Development System License is required for any test sequence development and/or editing of existing TestStand sequence files that you perform within the TestStand Sequence Editor (SeqEdit.exe) or programmatically using the TestStand API.  This license is a superset of the Custom Sequence Editor License below.

 

TestStand Custom Sequence Editor License (TestStand 4.0 and higher)

This license allows you to develop and edit test sequences and TestStand sequence files only within a TestStand Custom Sequence Editor or programmatically using the TestStand API. TestStand ships with Full-Featured Custom Sequence Editor User Interfaces. These user interfaces are available in LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, C#, and VB.Net. The default location of these UIs is C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 2013\UserInterfaces\Full-Featured\. They can also be launched through the Windows Start Menu  (Start » All Programs » National Instruments » TestStand » User Interfaces).

Deployment License Options

 

TestStand Debug Deployment Environment License

The TestStand Debug Deployment Environment License gives you maximum flexibility for deploying TestStand and LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio-based systems. This license allows you to install the development versions of TestStand, LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio, along with any corresponding add-on toolkits, so that you can debug your test application on your deployed test station. This license does not allow the ability to perform any development tasks within the TestStand Sequence Editor or programmatically using the TestStand API.  The TestStand Sequence Editor (SeqEdit.exe) can be used for debugging, not for development, when used with this license.

The TestStand Debug Deployment Environment License has debugging capabilities including settings breakpoints, monitoring variable values, and stepping into test code directly from the TestStand sequence.

Note: This license does not provide the software, but rather gives you the right to install previously purchased software on the target machine.

 

TestStand Base Deployment Engine License

The TestStand Base Deployment Engine License is the minimum license required for all deployed TestStand-based applications. This license allows you to deploy the TestStand Engine, a TestStand Operator Interface and TestStand sequence files to the single test station for which the license is applicable.

The Base Deployment Engine License does not allow you to use the sequence editor provided with TestStand (SeqEdit.exe).

There are a couple of ways to execute your sequences:

  • Create your own User Interface to call the TestStand API.
  • Use pre-built User Interfaces provided with TestStand (Start » All Programs » National Instruments » TestStand » User Interfaces). The provided interfaces are created in different programming languages, and their source code is available in the TestStand directory.

LabVIEW does not require you to purchase any run-time licenses for a deployment system. You can even run LabVIEW VIs in VI format (not executables) from TestStand without using the development environment and without an additional license.

In order to run LabWindows/CVI code modules, you will need the LabWindows/CVI Run-Time engine, which is also available free of charge.

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