NI-IMAQ version compatibility between development and deployment

[tstanley]

Hi,

Where can I find information about what versions of NI-IMAQ are compatible with each other?  Or in other words, if I build an application on my development machine against a certain version of the NI-IMAQ drivers and libraries, how can I determine the "minimum" version that the target machine must have for the application to work?  Thanks.

[Daniel_H1]

HI tstanley,

You will need to have the same version of NI-IMAQ on your target computer that you have on the computer that you used to develop the application. The executables are designed to work with a specific version of drivers and cannot update their code to work with other versions. The best way to avoid problems is to build an installer with the Application Builder and include the NI-IMAQ drivers in the installer so you know the correct versions will be included. You can find some good information about deploying Vision applications here, and if you need more information about building an installer, go here.

If you need to download specific driver versions, you can go to ni.com/drivers to find old and new versions of the drivers.

Regards,

Daniel H.

[tstanley]

Thanks for the reply.  Given an application with no changes to how it uses the NI-IMAQ functionality, it's pretty annoying to have the application stop working on the target computer just because the development machine had it's NI-IMAQ drivers updated.  And it's not exactly feasible to tell people that they have to periodically update their NI-IMAQ drivers when the installation package is over 1 GB , especially when there is no new functionality to be had for the trouble.  I had been getting away with this for a while, but it appears sometime around NI-IMAQ 4.5-4.6 on the development PC my application will no longer work on a target PC with NI-IMAQ 3.5.  This is an application where the NI-IMAQ functionality has not changed in any significant manner since it was developed against NI-IMAQ 3.0.  Is there any way to have an application build against an older version of the driver (without an uninstall-reinstall cycle)?  I would like to have newer versions on the development PC for some projects that need the newer versions, but on the other hand for applications that are in a maintaince mode I would prefer to keep building against an old version.

[Daniel_H1]

Hi tstanley,

I misspoke with my last post. Your target computer will need to have the LabVIEW Run-time Engine and the Vision Run-time Engine (if you use any Vision Development Module VIs) of the same version that the application was built in. For drivers, however, the target computer should have versions that are the same as or newer than the version used on the build computer. So if you build an application on a computer that has IMAQ 3.1, your target computer will need to have IMAQ 3.1 or later. There is a chance that some functions could work with earlier driver versions, but it would be unpredictable and not by design. 

Sorry about the mix-up. Please let me know if you need any clarification.

Regards,

Daniel H. 

[sufian]

Hi,I am facing problem in importing niimaqdx.dll in visual basic 2008 .all those function which comes under "niimaqdx.functions" are not being refleced.please help.

[Daniel_H1]

Hi sufian,

I notice you have posted this question on a couple of different forum posts. Your question seems very different than the question in this forum post. You will get the best response by creating a New Message in the Machine Vision or LabWindows/CVI boards.

When you post your New Message on one of those forum boards, please include the following information:

Problem: a description of your problem

Operating System: Which operating system are you using?

Driver version: Which version of NI-IMAQdx are you using?

Here are a couple suggestions for you, but please post a new message on one of the forum boards I linked above: 

1) Do you have NI-IMAQdx installed? You can check this in Measurement & Automation Explorer

2) Are you including <NIIMAQdx.h> in your project? This should be located at C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C\include

Please post a new message on the forums I linked, and include all the information requested above. We will be glad to help.

Regards,

Daniel H.