BLD File Maker
v0.1
by Ian Dees
(c) 2002 Anritsu Company
Introduction
Starting with version 6, LabVIEW has had the capability to build shared libraries, also known as Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) or Code Fragments, from LabVIEW source code. This capability makes LabVIEW an even more powerful development tool. However, this great power comes at the cost of complexity. The process of manually adding each VI to a DLL and specifying the exact mapping from LabVIEW front panel controls to C-style parameter names is time-consuming and error-prone. BLD File Maker provides a way to automate the process.
Requirements
LabVIEW 6.0 or greater
Application Builder
Installation
Open "Make BLD File.vi". If you are prompted for the paths to any subVIs such as "Dist Load Script.vi", browse to (your LabVIEW folder)/project/prodisttool.llb and then save "Make BLD File.vi".
Instructions
1) Create the VIs you want to build into a DLL. Each VI must have one control you intend to use as the return value. As this toolkit was developed for building instrument drivers, it was assumed that the name of this control would be the same for all VIs in the project. A later toolkit version may be more flexible.
2) Create an empty build script in App Builder, specifying the name of your DLL. Save the build script as a BLD file.
3) Prepare to run "Make BLD File.vi" either as a subVI or using the front panel:
a) Set "VI folder" to the directory where your VIs are located.
b) Set "Path to BLD file" to the script you created in step 2.
c) For instrument drivers, set "Function prefix" to the model number of your instrument.
d) Use "Special name mappings" to specify any controls for which you want to specify the C function name (e.g., you may want "VISA session" to map to "vi" instead of "visaSession" to match the style of VXIpnp drivers).
e) Use "Controls to ignore" to specify any control names you do not want to appear in your C function prototype (such as "error in" / "error out").
4) Run the VI. If this is the first time you run the utility on a particular project, or if you have since added VIs to the project, App Builder will pop up a confirmation dialog for each VI. No need to change anything on this screen--just click OK (or get an automated tool to do it for you).
5) Load your BLD file in App Builder and do a quick check of your C functions to make sure that the prototypes are correct. If there are any errors, check capitalization and spelling in the "Special name mappings" and "Controls to ignore" controls and re-run the utility. Remember that this toolkit requires each function to have a return value!
Limitations
1) A blank BLD file is required to get started. I have not yet discovered the correct values for some of the undocumented data fields required to create a new BLD file from scratch.
2) As this tool was developed for instrument drivers, it requires all of your VIs to have return values for their C functions.
3) Some of the more obscure data types (DAQ Channel Names, Picture Controls, etc.) may use the wrong calling semantics (value vs. reference) in the C prototype and need to be corrected manually.
