![Nye features i LabVIEW 2019 [NIWeek 2019 – 1:3]](https://gpower.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/niweek-2019-labview-1700x956.webp)
As mentioned earlier, GPower attended NIWeek 2019 in Austin, Texas – and there is lots of news from there! News that hopefully can help to inspire your department in terms of new and exciting solutions. Based on our field, I have summarized some technical highlights of the week in a mini-series of three blog posts, where the first one deals with new features in LabVIEW 2019.
LabVIEW 2019 – New Features
A new version of LabVIEW was, true to form, released at this year’s NIWeek. A new version with lots of new features, including:
- Two new data structures
- Sets: Contains only unique values
- Maps: Stores data in a key-based structure for fast retrieval
- Installation by using NI Package Manager (NIPM)
- Feeds are available as part of a package
- Package Installer
- New 64-bit version of the LabVIEW FPGA module
New Data Structures [Set and Map]
The new data structures complement the existing structures in terms of specific features that do not exist in the existing ones such as arrays, variants, clusters, etc.
- A Set can only contain unique values and filter out all duplicates during the creation of the set. As a result, you will avoid iterating over all data in an array and determining whether each value is unique or a duplicate by simply converting the array to a set. Hence, the result contains only the unique values of the array.
- A Map stores data in a key-based structure that is used to retrieve data. This can, among other things, be used for configuration data or handling of multiple languages in applications.
Distribution of Applications
The installation of LabVIEW 2019 has also changed significantly. LabVIEW 2019 and the majority of the underlying tools such as Realtime and FPGA are now handled as packages in the NI Package Manager (NIPM). This means, among other things, that they can be installed and updated directly from the package manager, which simplifies the installation process when installing several of National Instruments’ products at the same time.
In LabVIEW 2019, the possibilities of making packages for NIPM itself are also expanded. The package manager works by subscribing to feeds in order to find the latest version of LabVIEW among others. Here, the new thing about LabVIEW 2019 is that you can create and update a feed as part of the build process. In addition, the update from the end-user’s point of view becomes available when the build is finished.
LabVIEW 2019 also improves the installation process for your application on a PC that does not have NIPM installed. A new build target, called Package Installer, has been released. A build target that first installs NIPM and afterwards the dependencies for the package installer and necessary files.
What Does the New Features Mean More Specifically?
Based on the new features in LabVIEW 2019, it has become much easier to make an application to share between for example the development department and the production – without questioning which version is the latest. A huge step in the right direction in terms of completing development projects in a faster way!
From New Features in LabVIEW to New Features in TestStand [2:3]
As described in the introduction, this post is the first of a total of three posts. In the next post [2:3], I will be highlighting new features in TestStand, which is a framework for test management.
If you have any questions about the post, you are always welcome to write or call us.
