Chapter 3 Developing Your Application
VXI-1394 User Manual for Windows 3-2 ni.com
provide a high level of performance; however, there may be some
slight changes in behavior for certain applications.
Your software features several system development utilities including
MAX, Resman, NI Spy, VISA Interactive Control (VISAIC), and VXI
Interactive Control (VIC, optional). You can also access online help and
avariety of examples to learn how to use NI-VXI for certain tasks.
Each component assists you with one of four development steps:
configuration, device interaction, programming, and debugging.
You can access the utilities, help files, and release notes through the
Windows Start menu by opening the National Instruments»VXI
or National Instruments»VISA program groups.
Configuration
The configuration utilities in your software kit are Resman and MAX.
Resman performs VXI Resource Manager functions as described in the
VXIbus specification. Resman configures all devices on the VXI backplane
for operation and allocates memory for devices that request it. Resman does
not require you to specify any settings; it automatically performs the VXI
resource management whenever you run it.
Note Power cycling resets all devices, so you must run Resman to reconfigure your
system every time you cycle the power on the chassis.
MAX presents a graphical display of your entire test and measurement
system to help you configure various components. Wh en you launch MAX,
you see all your devices (including VXI) on the screen. You can view the
properties (such as logical address, address space, and so on) of each device
by clicking the device in the configuration tree. To see additional
configuration options for a given device, right-click the device in the
configuration tree. When you access the properties of most National
Instruments devices by right-clicking, you can configure the hardware
settings by selecting Hardware Configuration.
MAX and Resman are designed to work together. You can run Resman
through MAX by either clicking the Run VXI Resource Manager button
in the toolbar or right-clicking a specific VXI system on which to run
Resman, as shown in Figure3-1. You can also select Tools»NI-VXI»VXI
Resource Manager to run Resman on all VXI systems. From the VXI