Ni-Vxi, Ni-Visa, And Related Terms - National Instruments VXI-MXI-Express Series User Manual

Chapter 3 Developing Your Application

NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and Related Terms

VXI-MXI-Express Series User Manual
Measurement Studio allows you to choose from standard environments
such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual Studio .NET to
create your application, using tools specific for each language. With
Measurement Studio, you can write programs quickly and easily and
modify them as your needs change.
LabWindows/CVI is an interactive ANSI C programming environment
designed for building virtual instrument applications. LabWindows/CVI
delivers a drag-and-drop editor for building user interfaces, a complete
ANSI C environment for building your test program logic, and a collection
of automated code generation tools, as well as utilities for building
automated test systems, monitoring applications, or laboratory
experiments.
To use any of these application programs, install them before installing
the NI-VISA/NI-VXI software. LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and
LabWindows/CVI integrate the VXI and VISA libraries required to support
your NI VXI-8360T/LT controller. You also get hundreds of complete
instrument drivers, which are modular, source-code programs that handle
the communication with your instrument to speed your application
development.
Before you develop your application, it is important to understand the
difference between NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and similar terms.
• NI-VXI/NI-VISA CD is the software package that ships with National
Instruments VXI and VME controllers. This software CD includes
Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX), NI-VISA, NI I/O
Trace, 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 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. Refer to the
information regarding the NI-VXI API.
NI-VXI API Notes
3-2
section for more
ni.com