National Instruments VXI-USB Developing Your Application

Developing Your Application

This chapter discusses the software utilities you can use to start developing

applications that use NI-VXI.

After installing the NI-VXI software, you can begin developing your

VXI/VME application. Be sure to check the release notes for the latest

application development notes and changes.

Before you develop your application, it is important to understand the

difference between NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and similar terms.

•NI-VXI is the software package that ships with National Instruments

VXI and VME controllers. NI-VXI includes Measurement &

Automation Explorer (MAX), NI-VISA, NI Spy, Resource Manager

(Resman), VXI device drivers, and other utilities for configuring and

controlling your VXI or VME system.

•NI-VISA is the native API for communicating with VXI/VME devices.

NI-VISA is the National Instruments implementation of the VISA I/O

standard, which is a common interface to many types of instruments

(such as VXI, GPIB, PXI, Serial, TCP/IP, and so on). NI-VXI is

optimized for use through NI-VISA, and NI recommends using

NI-VISA to develop all new VXI/VME applications.

• The NI-VXI API is an optional development environment that is not

part of the default NI-VXI installation. The NI-VXI API was

developed before NI-VISA; although NI-VXI still supports the

NI-VXI API, NI recommends using NI-VISA for all new VXI/VME

applications. If you must develop an application using the older

NI-VXI API, run the NI-VXI installer and perform a Complete install,

or select the appropriate option in the custom installation screen. Be

sure to review the NI-VXI API Notes section.

• The NI-VXI compatibility layer allows older programs that use the

NI-VXI API to communicate with VXI devices through VISA. Using

this compatibility layer, older programs can run in NI-VXI 3.0 or later

without being rewritten to use the VISA interface. This layer installs

with NI-VXI by default. It should be completely transparent and