LabVIEW 2024 Q3 Saving for previous versions

[blackburnitearmy]

Maybe I misunderstood what this new feature does, the Saving All VIs in a Project for a Previous Version of LabVIEW (Configure Project Save Version) functionality added in 24 Q3.

I was under the impression this would allow me to do several things

• Configure a new project/library/class to use a specific version and then any VI created in that project/library/class would be saved as that LV version instead of 24.0
• Load a VI/project/library/class saved in an older version, make changes to it, and save it in the same older version (as long as it does not include features added after that version
  • This seem to require manually setting the new config property in the project/library/class, I thought it would just default to adding that tag based on the editor setting Maintain the save version of loaded projects by default. That appears to not be the case, it has to be manually set otherwise it up saves everything to 24.0

However even when manually setting that property, but the items above appear to not work as I expect. Files are saved and reported as 21.0 as reported by GetVI.Version but are actually being saved as 24.0 as reported by GetVI.Editor Version.

Attempting to then open them in LV 21.0 receives the usual "this VI is too new error".

This doesn't seem like this is how this feature is supposed to work as I don't see what the utility would be. It seems like if I explicitly say "save this project as 21.0" that all new files created under that project should be saved as 21.0 and be able to be opened in LV 21.0. However that does not seem to be the case.

[avogadro5]

In my experience it does work the way you seem to think it should. If the file isn't saving in the target version for the project there should be an entry in the error list for the specific file like this 

The usual culprit will be the same as the screenshot: "separate compiled code" must be checked for all the files.

I've been developing in 2024 Q3 and building in 2021 SP1 for months now; as long as separate compiled code is checked the 2021 projects open into 2024 with a save version of 2021 applied automatically, and as long as you don't add incompatible stuff (in my case, python node object datatype from 2022) it's handled, and if it's not handled it shows in the error window even though show warnings is unchecked.

The thing that usually trips me up is opening a bare file without a project, which just saves in 2024 no matter what. I find out I messed up because the build fails in 2021.

[crossrulz]

There is some talk floating around here and there about not saving the version in the project, but instead use the .lvversion file to set the version for the project. This has the added benefit of having an external file that anybody can read with a simple text editor instead of having to open something in LabVIEW.

To do this, you just have a file named ".lvversion". Yes, it is no name with an extension. In the file, you just have the version you want anything in that folder saved as, for example "23.0". No special formatting. No headers or anything. Literally just the version text. With that in place, it also doesn't matter if you open just a single VI: it will still use that version setting from the .lvversion file in the same directory.

[blackburnitearmy]

That would be real slick 

[crossrulz]

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@blackburnitearmy wrote:

That would be real slick 

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No "would" about it. That works right now as a feature built into LabVIEW. It is just becoming the preference of using the .lvversion file instead of setting the version directly in the project I was commenting on.