LabVIEW gives me alot of spare time for LAVA

[Minh Pham]

Is LabVIEW getting slower and slower or my Quad-cores PC?

I have time spare now for LAVA while waitting for my LabVIEW to load, Project to load and creating Executable...

Some people getting coffee while wait, some getting

If i have to do some development on the slow production PC P4 1G RAM sometimes i just want to or

[jgcode]

Is LabVIEW getting slower and slower or my Quad-cores PC?

I have time spare now for LAVA while waitting for my LabVIEW to load, Project to load and creating Executable...

Some people getting coffee while wait, some getting

If i have to do some development on the slow production PC P4 1G RAM sometimes i just want to or

Really?

For me - I have found LabVIEW 2009 to be more faster.

Load time (without palettes) is so quick it blew my socks off.

(I tend load the palettes tho, for Quick Drop etc... so I am happy to wait)

Only thing I have noticed is Dialogs take a little time to open.

But e.g. once the IE has been opened once, it is quick after.

Class Templates Dialog seem a little slower, but I like the new features, plus you can do multiple methods - so it is cool for me.

BTW - Does anyone know if there is a way to load the IE at start up?

How are others finding the speed?

[JustinThomas]

I absolutely love LV 7.1 for this very reason. It was so good.

But now I can't live without the LV Project, Quick Drop and all the new goodies so have to work with LV 8.6

Speed wise LV 8.6 is pretty good compared to LV 8.5 and LV 8.2. Haven't started working with LV 2009 though.

Edited August 27, 2009 by JustinThomas

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

I absolutely love LV 7.1 for this very reason. It was so good.

But now I can't live without the LV Project, Quick Drop and all the new goodies so have to work with LV 8.6

Speed wise LV 8.6 is pretty good compared to LV 8.5 and LV 8.2. Haven't started working with LV 2009 though.

Aaaaa! LabVIEW 7.1.1 can get very slow too to start up. Especially on machines that had all sorts of other NI software loaded such as the newest DAQ drivers, newer LabVIEW versions, etc.

But go back to 6.1, (just to try out ) and that is a quick start on nowadays Dual core machines!

Rolf Kalbermatter

[gleichman]

I found starting AND exiting to be much slower in 2009. Then I enabled "Disable ni.com updates in Getting Started window" and my start and exit times decreased 10x.

Edited August 27, 2009 by gleichman

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

I found starting AND exiting to be much slower in 2009. Then I enabled "Disable ni.com updates in Getting Started window" and my start and exit times decreased 10x.

You happen to have a slow internet connection or maybe a slow DNS server?

Rolf Kalbermatter

[ShaunR]

Is LabVIEW getting slower and slower or my Quad-cores PC?

I have time spare now for LAVA while waitting for my LabVIEW to load, Project to load and creating Executable...

Some people getting coffee while wait, some getting

If i have to do some development on the slow production PC P4 1G RAM sometimes i just want to or

I use quad cores and yes 8.6 was a dog (nearly 1 minute to load). I commented on another thread that LV2009 was far quicker (4-5 seconds).

[Yair]

I found starting AND exiting to be much slower in 2009. Then I enabled "Disable ni.com updates in Getting Started window" and my start and exit times decreased 10x.

I specifically asked about this issue during the beta and was told that the updates are done asynchronously, so they shouldn't slow down the load time. That said, I don't find them useful, so I disabled them as well.

One thing which does slow me down quite a bit is the JKI RCF, which is set to auto-start with LabVIEW. If memory serves, it takes 100+ MBs of RAM and takes a while to load.

[hooovahh]

I did a very un-scientific test and timed how long it took to startup LabVIEW in the different versions. I did not reboot after every start of a version, so I don't know that if opening 8.0 then closing it, would have any effect on how long it may take for 8.2 to startup. But I did restart several times and here's what I got.

With my installed versions of 6.0, 6.1, 7.1, 8.0, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6, and 2009, the longest taking 18 seconds was version 8.5. On average it took 10 seconds to start a version of LabVIEW on the first start of that version. The shortest time was 6.1 with 2 seconds

If I opened 8.0, closed it, waited then opened 8.0 again the times were significantly less with the longest being 5 seconds with 8.6, the shortest 6.1 with 1 second, and the average being 3 seconds.

It should be noted that 8.6 had DSC and FPGA toolkits installed, all other versions don't have any. Also no options on the startup procedure was changed on any of these versions. And my PC is a laptop with 2 GB of ram, a Core2Duo at 2.2 GHz and a SSD. I assume the SSD is what makes the startup time relativly quick.

For the heck of it I also decided to run all versions of LabVIEW at once, and it took 12 seconds to load all of them, after starting them once already I'll reboot and try a fresh start of all of them at once later today.

[crelf]

...my PC is a laptop with 2 GB of ram, a Core2Duo at 2.2 GHz and a SSD. I assume the SSD is what makes the startup time relativly quick.

I gotta get me one of those SSDs...

[hooovahh]

I gotta get me one of those SSDs...

Get use to constantly needing to clean up the hard drive. My drive is only 64GB, my National Instruments folder alone is over 10GB. Then there's Windows, other Program Files, several SVN repositories, and several gigs of music. I tend carry around a a 2.5'' external drive that I keep larger files on (like virtual machines)

[crelf]

I tend carry around a a 2.5'' external drive that I keep larger files on (like virtual machines)

...and Miley Cyrus albums.

[ShaunR]

Get use to constantly needing to clean up the hard drive. My drive is only 64GB, my National Instruments folder alone is over 10GB. Then there's Windows, other Program Files, several SVN repositories, and several gigs of music. I tend carry around a a 2.5'' external drive that I keep larger files on (like virtual machines)

I've got a usb stick that big...lol.

In fact it (now) has windows 7, Codegear and VC++. I pretty much carry my PC in my pocket and just pick a vacant machine if I'm not at my desk or on-site or forget my laptop.

I'm still chained to a chair with Labview though.

[Matthew Zaleski]

Get use to constantly needing to clean up the hard drive. My drive is only 64GB, my National Instruments folder alone is over 10GB. Then there's Windows, other Program Files, several SVN repositories, and several gigs of music. I tend carry around a a 2.5'' external drive that I keep larger files on (like virtual machines)

I just put a OCZ Vertex 250 SSD in my home machine. Holy Cow! LabVIEW starts up fast and even a big project loads faster than I can get a cup of coffee.

Now I just need to get my work machine upgraded (spending freeze with the economy, go figure, hehe).

[hooovahh]

I'm still chained to a chair with Labview though.

Well you don't have to be technically. A while ago (just to see if I could) I made a single EXE that was LabVIEW 7.1, and 8.5. 7.1 because it is my favorite and does just about every thing you could want for most applications, and 8.5 because that was the newest version at the time.

So imagine carrying around a 600MB EXE (for 8.5 or 300MB for 7.1) on your drive that you run and you have a full LabVIEW development environment available on any Windows computer. I was going to post how I made it, so others could too but it's been a while and I'm not sure I remember the steps needed, but I do still have the EXEs floating around maybe if I get time I'll try to make it again.

The main issue with this is most people don't have just LabVIEW installed, they have several toolkits for projects they are working on. Adding toolkits to this EXE after it is built isn't impossible it just would take alot of work. And installing new packages via VIPM wouldn't be impossible it would just be manual. There could be a directory structure next to the EXE, which the EXE then uses as relative files. So lets say LabVIEW85.EXE and in the same folder is $user.lib$ and what you put in there will be used as extra files in the user.lib.

So basically this EXE would only be useful for making quick VIs, or opening small ones and seeing what's going on, but if the VI needs any toolkits it will be broken.

[ShaunR]

Well you don't have to be technically. A while ago (just to see if I could) I made a single EXE that was LabVIEW 7.1, and 8.5. 7.1 because it is my favorite and does just about every thing you could want for most applications, and 8.5 because that was the newest version at the time.

So imagine carrying around a 600MB EXE (for 8.5 or 300MB for 7.1) on your drive that you run and you have a full LabVIEW development environment available on any Windows computer. I was going to post how I made it, so others could too but it's been a while and I'm not sure I remember the steps needed, but I do still have the EXEs floating around maybe if I get time I'll try to make it again.

The main issue with this is most people don't have just LabVIEW installed, they have several toolkits for projects they are working on. Adding toolkits to this EXE after it is built isn't impossible it just would take alot of work. And installing new packages via VIPM wouldn't be impossible it would just be manual. There could be a directory structure next to the EXE, which the EXE then uses as relative files. So lets say LabVIEW85.EXE and in the same folder is $user.lib$ and what you put in there will be used as extra files in the user.lib.

So basically this EXE would only be useful for making quick VIs, or opening small ones and seeing what's going on, but if the VI needs any toolkits it will be broken.

Not sure how you can compile the Labview Development environment into an exe (unless you mean you re-install it all on the target machine). The only problem with installing LV on a thumb stick is that when you go to a new machine it has different mac addresses so LV licensing crowbars you (I did try, he, he). The good thing aboout booting from a thumb stick is not only do you have a full development system with all those indispensable tools you've aquired over the years, but it leaves the target machine clean.

Edited August 28, 2009 by ShaunR

[Cat]

I found starting AND exiting to be much slower in 2009. Then I enabled "Disable ni.com updates in Getting Started window" and my start and exit times decreased 10x.

That's good to know. I run on an internal network with no access to the outside world and that doesn't make LabVIEW happy.

Staring with 8.0 I've experienced hangs during initial loading of vis. At one point I was having to physically disconnect the ethernet cable from my computer to get LabVIEW to start up with anything other than glacial speed.

[Gary Rubin]

I gotta get me one of those SSDs...

Doesn't he work for you? Can't you just go take it?

[Clio75]

Doesn't he work for you? Can't you just go take it?

[Phillip Brooks]

Doesn't he work for you? Can't you just go take it?

Maybe he already 'borrowed' it...

How else do you explain that crelf knew about the Miley Cyrus music ?!

[hooovahh]

Not sure how you can compile the Labview Development environment into an exe (unless you mean you re-install it all on the target machine). The only problem with installing LV on a thumb stick is that when you go to a new machine it has different mac addresses so LV licensing crowbars you (I did try, he, he).

I didn't say I compiled LabVIEW into an EXE, I used ThinApp, it's owned by VMWare. Basically you install XP in a virtual machine, then in your host machine scan the virtual machine's hard drive image, then in the virtual machine install any program you want, then in the host machine scan the hard drive again. It will create an EXE that is a virtual environment for the new files to live in, kind of like a sandbox. So then you have a single EXE with LabVIEW that can be taken to any computer and ran, which will be idential on any machine.

ThinApp is very expensive, but it does have a 30 day trial, I doubt it is unlimited use in that 30 days, but if it is we get alot done in 30 days.

I don't work directly for Crelf, but he probably has enough persuasion around here, that if he wanted my SSD he could get it, but he would never use his powers for evil. And as for the Miley Cyrus, well he borrowed my external drive and started snooping around, I'm just glad that's all he found on there.

[crelf]

Doesn't he work for you? Can't you just go take it?

You can probably tell by the lack of speed to this response that he doesn't work for me Actually, I've maneuvered myself into a position where people work for me, but no-one directly reports to me - filling out performance reviews is for managers, not engineers Anyway, we're all one big happy family, errr, I mean, team here at V I Engineering

...crelf... probably has enough persuasion around here, that if he wanted my SSD he could get it, but he would never use his powers for evil.

That's what you think.

...crelf... borrowed my external drive and started snooping around, I'm just glad that's all he found on there.

That's what you think.

[Gary Rubin]

...but no-one directly reports to me - filling out performance reviews is for managers, not engineers

Did you just refer to yourself as an engineer? Won't they take away your physics degree for that?

[crelf]

Did you just refer to yourself as an engineer? Won't they take away your physics degree for that?

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!