Version 12.0.1
December 2012
This file contains important information about LabVIEW 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows, including system requirements, installation instructions, a partial list of bugs fixed for LabVIEW 2012 SP1, and known issues for LabVIEW.
Refer to the National Instruments website for the latest information about LabVIEW 2012 SP1.
Refer to the labview\readme directory for readme files about LabVIEW add-ons, such as modules and toolkits.
System Requirements
Installation Instructions
How to Use NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8
Known Issues
LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit)
Additions to the LabVIEW Help
Bug Fixes
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Important Information
| Windows | Run-Time Engine | Development Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Pentium III/Celeron 866 MHz or equivalent | Pentium 4M or equivalent |
| RAM | 256 MB | 1 GB |
| Screen Resolution | 1024 x 768 Pixels | 1024 x 768 Pixels |
| Operating System | Windows 8/7/Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) | Windows 8/7/Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) |
| Disk Space | 353 MB | 3.67 GB (includes default drivers from the NI Device Drivers DVD) |
| Color Palette | N/A | LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Help contain 16-bit color graphics. LabVIEW requires a minimum color palette setting of 16-bit color. |
| Temporary Files Directory | N/A | LabVIEW uses a directory for storing temporary files. National Instruments recommends that you have several megabytes of disk space available for this temporary directory. |
| Adobe Reader | N/A | You must have Adobe Reader installed to search PDF versions of all LabVIEW manuals. |
Note The following list describes restrictions for using LabVIEW on Windows:
| ||
Note The previous table provides the most current system requirements. The LabVIEW Installation Guide does not provide updated system requirements for LabVIEW 2012 SP1.
Depending on whether you are installing LabVIEW for the first time or upgrading from a previous version, refer to one of the following documents for information about installing LabVIEW:
You can access the LabVIEW Installation Guide and the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes at ni.com as well as on the installation media.
Note If you purchased this product with an NI Software Suite or NI Product Bundle, use the installation media that shipped with your purchase to install this product.
When you install National Instruments software on Microsoft Windows 8, you will notice a few additional tiles on the Start screen, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX), and the new NI Launcher.
NI Launcher helps you find and launch installed NI products. It provides you with a method of finding NI products similar to the Start menu in previous versions of Microsoft Windows. To use NI Launcher, click the NI Launcher tile on the Start screen. NI Launcher launches the desktop and opens a menu containing a list of NI products. Click any NI product to launch it.
| Note Unlike previous versions of Microsoft Windows, MAX does not appear as a desktop shortcut. You can launch MAX either from the Start screen or from within NI Launcher. |
For convenience, you can pin your most-used NI applications, such as MAX, to either the Start screen or the Taskbar on the desktop, as necessary:
| Current Application | Icon Location | Pin to Action |
| Windows 8 Desktop | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to Taskbar |
| Windows 8 Desktop | Start screen | Right-click application and select Pin to Start |
| Windows 8 Start screen | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to taskbar from the menu bar on the bottom of the screen |
If you want to find a particular application or related files, such as documentation files, from the Start screen, you can access all installed files by right-clicking anywhere on the Start screen and selecting All apps. A list of all installed software and related files appears, in alphabetical order by creator or type.
For more information about NI support for Windows 8, visit ni.com/windows8.
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the National Instruments website for an up-to-date list of known issues in LabVIEW 2012 and LabVIEW 2012 SP1.
When run on Windows (64-bit), LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit) provides access to more memory than a 32-bit operating system or a 32-bit application can provide. LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit) includes nearly all of the development environment features of LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (32-bit).
Refer to the National Instruments website for information about obtaining a copy of LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit).
LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit) supports many hardware devices. Refer to the National Instruments website for information about drivers compatible with LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit). For GPIB devices, you must use at least NI-488.2 2.6 for Windows. Refer to the specific hardware documentation for more information about compatibility with LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit).
LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit) supports only the NI Vision Development Module. Refer to the Vision Development Module documentation for more information. No additional modules support LabVIEW 2012 SP1 (64-bit).
The following list contains additional changes to LabVIEW that are not included in the LabVIEW Help, the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes, or both:
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in LabVIEW 2012 SP1. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of LabVIEW. If you have a CAR ID, you can search this list to validate the issue has been fixed.
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 375494 | Improved update rate of front panel control value references |
| 373305 | Property: Mouse for 2D Picture controls returns incorrect values after using Invoke Method: Reinitialize to Default on the 2D Picture control |
| 373150 | Error code 3 when running LabVIEW 64-bit applications using NI_AALBase.lvlib, that were installed with installers built in 64-bit LabVIEW Application Builder |
| 371714 | Slow load time when adding a VI to the Exported VIs List for a DLL |
| 371651 | LabVIEW Source Control prompts to add vi.lib or instr.lib to source control even if they are to be excluded |
| 370957 | Specific type of cluster sent over the network may produce incorrect results |
| 370578 | LabVIEW User Interface responsiveness decreases on Mac OS when many VIs are loaded into memory |
| 370259 | Custom Waveform Graphs display NaN values incorrectly |
| 368875 | Slow load and close time for large Application Build specifications |
| 368466 | Plot visibility check box cannot be toggled for plot 0 on an XY Graph |
| 368396 | Certain applications built with Application Builder fail to launch |
| 368000 | Using Property: Owner to get an owning cluster's reference on the cluster's sub-controls returns incorrect value if the sub-control reference came from Property: Controls[] of the owning cluster |
| 367463 | References returned by Property: Controls[] of a pane containing type definitions are incorrect |
| 367428 | Private inlined VIs in a library cannot be built into packed project libraries |
| 366331 | Dynamic event registration of an array of controls fails with Error 1 |
| 365679 | LabVIEW 3D Picture control does not work with certain AMD video card drivers |
| 364799 | Selecting the Configure Web Application Server button immediately after preference page load results in 404 error |
| 364462 | Crash when changing value of typedef constant |
| 363945 | LabVIEW crashes if changing properties for multiple selected nodes by right-clicking the label |
| 362925 | Crash when dragging instance of Polymorphic VI from dialog to block diagram |
| 362576 | Invoke Method: Add File crashes LabVIEW if Path parameter contains too many characters |
| 362366 | Packed Project Library deployment fails on Real-Time targets |
| 362018 | Crash when loading some VIs, saved in a previous version of LabVIEW, into LabVIEW 2012 |
| 361857 | Certain network configurations cause slow loading of NationalInstruments.LabVIEW120.dll |
| 361839 | Boolean constant & string constants grow to length of label when cluster is type defined |
| 361666 | Tools»Actor Framework Message Maker... is missing in Linux |
| 357092 | Cannot use right-click shortcut menu to create items for the reference out terminal of Property Node (XML) or Invoke Node (XML) |
| 323332 | Control reference returned from CtlRef of an Event Structure is incorrect for Type Definitions |
| 312538 | Link between .NET Constructor Node and Assembly is sometimes lost even when .NET Assembly exists |
| 237213 | Event registration refnum of typedef does not update when typedef updates |
| 212136 | "The VI is not executable. The full development version of LabVIEW is required to fix the errors" dialog on a built app |
| 184689 | LabVIEW UI is less responsive when displaying NaN values on 3D Surface Graph |
The following fixes require you to manually recompile VIs to correct the problem:
To force a recompile of a VI without recompiling its subVIs, press the <Ctrl> key while you click the Run button. To force a recompile of all VIs in memory, press the <Ctrl-Shift> keys while you click the Run button. To force a recompile of the entire current VI hierarchy, close all VIs currently opened, open the top-level VI, and press the <Ctrl-Shift> keys while you click the Run button. This method does not recompile any of the VIs called dynamically in the hierarchy.
You also can recompile VIs in a specified directory using the following steps.
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. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.
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, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
Copyright
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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:
Trademarks
LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, the National Instruments corporate logo, and the Eagle logo are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Trademark Information at ni.com/trademarks for other National Instruments trademarks.
Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Patents
For patents covering the National Instruments products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the National Instruments Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.