LabVIEW
File Dialog Box often takes a long time to execute
@helder wrote:
The Labview File Dialog Box Express VI sometimes takes 5 to 10 seconds to execute. On other occasions, it executes in a blink of an eye. Why is that so?
...
What worries me now is that intermittent lag in the execution of the File Dialog (such a basic basic function of a program...). Anyone have any idea about this?
The file dialog is provided by the OS, so if it is slow it is not LabVIEW's fault.
What kind of computer do you have? Is this a laptop that spins down the HD to save power? In this case it needs to wait for the HD to spin up. (You can change the windows power profile or you can spend more money and get an SSD).
Are you very low on memory?
Does your LabVIEW program waste 100% CPU in parallel doing nothing due to bad coding?
Are you pointing to a location that has millions of files?
Are you pointing to a network location?
@helder wrote:
Another problem is the trimming of the filename, which has also been reported and has NOT YET been solved.
What problem is that? Can you elaborate? There is a known bug in the windows dialog box that sometimes the pre-filled file names are shifted and not fully visible. This is a windows bug documented by Microsoft and LabVIEW has no control over it. It is not NIs job to fix OS problems.
@helder wrote:
Hi all
(By the way...Recently, I updated to LV 2012 SP2 by suggestion of the NI Update Manager, only to find out that I was not entitled to this SP (which apparently only includes bug fixes) and I will have to roll back to LV 2012. Still, in the evaluation version I can see that the bug is not fixed.
Patches are included, service packs are not included. I think this is well documented. Most users are on SSP, this way you are always entitled to the newest version.
As with anything else, software has bugs. It is impossible to test a huge, complex system like LabVIEW under all scenarios. The possible number of combinations of hardware and other installed software on any particular computer probably exceeds the number of atoms in the universe. It is actually amazing how few bugs there are and how well it works. What "bug" are you talking about? Bugs are prioritized according to rules. Critical bugs are typically fixed very quickly. A cosmetic issue that only affects you and nobody else will take longer or might not even get fixed. Are you talking about a confirmed bug that could be reproduced by NI? Do you have a CAR#?
@helder wrote:
Labview must have a lot of serious bugs for NI to ask for a paid bug fix, in which some bugs remain after having been reported a long time ago..well...)
That sentence makes no sense! Why would the number of serious bugs depend on the cost of upgrading?? You are just rambling here....
In an ideal world, NI would have an unlimited number of programmers that can work 24/7 to immediately fix any discovered bug. This would only be possible if all users are willing to pay an unlimited amount of money for the software. As I mentioned, bug fixes are free in the form of patches, and they come out regularly. Service packs include new features and are not free.
As the other poster mentioned, you most likely have issue with network connection (setting of your ethernet or wifi) and nothing to do with LabVIEW (in fact I'm thinking that it has nothing to do with the operating system either, but with setting of your ethernet connection or with things like SAMBA/etc server settings). In case of such network issues, EVEN IF you're simply trying to use the file dialog box to access some local file, the file-system on your operating system will try to first establish connections with your network drives even if you don't need them).
Easiest way to debug this would be to see if you can remove all network drives mappings and then use files dialog manager (also make sure that your computer hard-drives are not put to sleep all the time as even that would cause delay since hard-drives would have to spin up first.) If the above fixes your lag issue then your fix is not in LabVIEW but in your network settings. Alternately you could run the same vi on a different computer and see how it behaves. LabVIEW has some bugs but not the types you're mentioning, and I haven't heard of current users getting charged for fixing LabVIEW bugs. If you are told that you'd have to pay to have your issues fixed (also judging by what you've mentioned so far), I'm quite certain that they know that your problem is outside LabVIEW.
-DP
BatchTest Corp.
NI Alliance Partner
I see what you mean - have you tried your VI on a different computer? (It works fine on my windows laptop as well as on a MacPro computer here.)
It almost looks like your computer needs more time to find some files (maybe not cached) versus some other files (which seem to be cached) - more of a hard-drive thing. Have you had lag issue with any other software on your computer (one thing you could do is try to opening those same excel files with Microsoft Excel repeatedly and see if it causes any lag. This still does not look like something that requires patch or a new version of LabVIEW as it looks outside LabVIEW (otherwise it wouldn't work fine in all other computers such as two of mine and I believe other posters also tried it out on their computer.)
You could also try this without using file dialog express vi to see if it makes any difference... (if it works fine without using that express VI then things might be because of some LabVIEW bug, but it really doesn't look that way).
-DP
