LabVIEW
In 2023 Should I be using LabVIEW 32bit or 64bit.
@RTSLVU wrote:
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
@RTSLVU wrote:
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
@RTSLVU wrote:Other than that I don't think it matters what bitness you use unless your program actually needs to access over 4GB of RAM.
That, and you'd be up to date... You won't be using any emulation layer. 32 bit support will stop at some point.
Experience has taught me not to fix things that are not broken.
But that's a grey area.
It seems black and white to me. If the program runs exactly as intended then it is not broken. Regardless of any OS tricks that are going on.
In fact if the OS changed and the program stopped working as indented, then the I would say OS is broken and freeze my target computers on the last version of the OS that was not broken.
Case in point: I support eight ATE systems in our lab that use an instrument whose drivers are not compatible with Windows 11. The driver is not just pre-fab LabVIEW vi's that use VISA and SCPI commands, every VI uses a call to a DLL. The manufacturer has obsoleted that instrument and has no plans on updating the driver. Equivalent replacement instruments will cost a couple hundred thousand dollars, not counting my time updating the program for the new instruments.
From my point of view Windows 11 is broken not our currently working ATE systems.
So even though our IT department is pushing Windows 11 (So we all have the latest and greatest OS) I have frozen all of our ATE's and my company laptop on Windows 10.
Sounds like a broken situation to me (being obsoleted and all).
But indeed, 64 bit won't make it better in this case.
You'll have to do something at some point. I'd start scrutinizing (hack, reverse, dissect, etc.) the dll or what it's communicating (serial\network monitors, port routing, etc.). Seems to me that the closed nature of the dll is what's keeping you from joining the future. If it's obsoleted by the manufacturer might be persuaded to release the source. Seems like the alternatives (do nothing, replace HW) justifies at least some budged.
Search LabVIEW like a graph! 
@Eric1977 wrote:
@danny_t wrote:
I have and still do use LabVIEW 32bit, it is a habit for me. I remember there were various issues with some drivers and toolkits not being supported and having issues.
That's where I am as well. I don't know if the RGT has been updated to support 64-bit. That's really my only reason for not switching.
NI Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 11
NI Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 10
For Windows 10, it has had 64-bit support since 2015 SP1. For Windows 11, 2022 Q3.
@Eric1977 wrote:
@danny_t wrote:
I have and still do use LabVIEW 32bit, it is a habit for me. I remember there were various issues with some drivers and toolkits not being supported and having issues.
That's where I am as well. I don't know if the RGT has been updated to support 64-bit. That's really my only reason for not switching.
RGT has much bigger issues than 64\32 bit, since it was created 😎.
Ironically, since it's (AFAIK) all AX, 64\32 isn't an issue as long as MS did their job (and if they didn't, there's little NI could do about it).
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
@Eric1977 wrote:
@danny_t wrote:
I have and still do use LabVIEW 32bit, it is a habit for me. I remember there were various issues with some drivers and toolkits not being supported and having issues.
That's where I am as well. I don't know if the RGT has been updated to support 64-bit. That's really my only reason for not switching.RGT has much bigger issues than 64\32 bit, since it was created 😎.
Ironically, since it's (AFAIK) all AX, 64\32 isn't an issue as long as MS did their job (and if they didn't, there's little NI could do about it).
Maybe it's me who did something wrong, but I had to switch to 64 bit as the 32-bit RGT wouldn't work at all with my 64-bit Office install. It was several years ago so I can't remember all of the details, but I do remember that it was the RGT that forced us to switch and that there weren't any workarounds at the time.
I have a vague memory this was around the time when Office 365 launched, and I can't remember if it was an older version that didn't support it correctly or if Office 365 didn't support it correctly. Either way, Office forced the switch. One of the many reasons I enjoy the RGT soo much 😓
@Eric1977 wrote:
I haven't had any complaints about the RGT and LV 2021 32-bit. It's worked well for all my projects that I have had to code.
My issue with RGT was (is?) AX in LabVIEW used (uses?) early binding.
In executables, the consequence was (is?) the exact same Excel version was required, or the exe would be broken.
Even the correct version of excel, but Dutch in stead of English would break the exe.
Of course this is no issue if you deliver the entire system, but on applications that users install on their own system, it simply didn't work at all.
I used to simply recommend txt reports. Now I use the Open XML SDK 2.5 for Office, a .NET library that is pretty low level, but at least it works, even without Excel installed. It's basically one level higher that manipulating the XML in the xlsx (zip) file... Haven't worked on docx fies with it, but that should be similar.
