Controlling TestStand from LabVIEW

[Bryan]

I'm running LV7.1 and TS3.1.

What I want to do is somewhat the opposite of how TestStand and LabVIEW were intended to interact I believe, since TestStand is intended to be the top level application calling LabVIEW.

What I want to do is control the TestStand application from LabVIEW. More specifiaclly, open the application, display the window, open a teststand sequence file and start it.

That's basically it, sounds simple enough doesn't it? I looked through the ActiveX APIs and couldn't find any clear-cut way of doing it. For example, when controlling MS Office, you can open the application, make it visible, open files, etc. I'm having a hard time finding a way to do it through creatable objects.

I'm probably missing something that's really easy. Could someone who knows point me in the right direction? I should be able to take it from there. So far, the only path I've been down is with the Engine API.

For now, I've been calling the sequence file through the command prompt subVI. It works, but doesn't allow me the level of control I'd like.

Thanks,

Bryan

[Kurt Friday]

Hi Brian

Take a look at the example LabVIEW user interfaces included with TestStand, just go to

TestStand\Operator Interfaces\NI\Simple\LabVIEW

The Simple user interface will help you get started and its easy to modify to suit your needs.

Hope this helps

[Bryan]

Thanks for the pointer, I learned a few things, but unfortunately, this isn't what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking to make my application THE executive. I would like to know the best way to launch TestStand and start the execution of a sequence file (possibly even login as well) FROM labview, not within labview. It's simpler than that even.

The program I've created in LabVIEW is a test sequence browser. It allows a user to view revisions of sequence files stored in Visual Source Safe and select one to run.

At startup, the LabVIEW program downloads the latest revisions of the support VIs and other files used in the sequences. When a user selects a sequence to run, it downloads that sequence from VSS to a specific directory and (currently through a command prompt VI) opens the sequence in TestStand.

When the operator is done running sequences and closes the program, the program removes all of the support files and *.seq files leaving behind the file structure and collected test data.

I know there's probably a MUCH better way of doing what I'm doing, but since I'm still learning TestStand and don't have a whole lot of time to become a TestStand guru, I've been working with what I know.

TestStand's source control stuff seems limited to workspaces and such. What we're doing is running individual sequences, more specifically on average of 15 sequences for different tests per UUT. Because of the uniqueness of each unit (and our lack of available development time) we've had to develop these sequences as we get each unit.

Back to my problem though, so far it seems like the command prompt route I'm using currently best fits my needs whereas the TestStand API is intended to create a test executive out of a LabVIEW VI, which is much further in depth than I need to get.

Thanks for your help though! :beer: I'll keep messing with the example to see if I stumble across something that fits my needs.