Control External LabView programs

[Jjuradotx]

Hello All,

I'm faced with a problem, and I was hoping to get some ideas on possible ways to solve my problem. I have a solar simulator that measures electrical characteristics of solar cells, and the solar simulator is controlled by two, stand-alone labview applications. One application selects the pixel on the solar cell (typically our cells have 6 pixels) being measured, and the other application initializes the measurement. It is quite annoying to have to press two buttons in two different programs, so I was hoping to come up with a solution to this problem. The manufacturer won't provide the source code for either of the applications, so I'm sort of stuck on what to do. We are hoping to write a 3rd program that can control the other two (basically just to press the buttons). Rewriting a new program for the solar simulator is very time consuming, so that's why were looking for a quick solution. One idea we had was simulating mouse clicks like in the following example http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/9BB3211F3469623649257360000E272C but this wouldn't work if the panel of one of the applications was slightly moved, for example. We appreciate any help we can get!

Admin Note: Edited link to remove comma so link works properly now 04/11/16

[Bob_Schor]

If you don't have the source (so cannot get in and modify the code to suit your needs), the fact that the routines are written in LabVIEW may be immaterial.

There is a utility, called AutoIT, that might help in this case.  It basically interactively "runs" other programs for you, but also has the ability to "push buttons" and interact with front panels.  A student of mine used it to control some LabVIEW and other programs (I don't have direct experience with it, so I can't advise if it will be appropriate for your situation).  It may have the ability to allow you to click in a "relative" location (i.e. "Click 20 pixels from the left edge and 20 pixels down from the top of Window #1"), in which case window positioning might not matter so much.

Bob Schor

[Jjuradotx]

Hi Bob,

Great, thanks so much for the idea! I will look into to AutoIT! It would make our lives much easier if that is the case.

Jose