LabVIEW 2024 Update compatibility with old VI's

[Charlie_NXP]

Good morning !

The current case: in my department we use LabVIEW 2020, sometimes 2018.

The question: what we wanted to know is "would we have problems moving to the newer LabVIEW 2024 version?"

notably we wonder if there would be problems using our old VI's due to changes made in the newer version.

So has anyone done the update and had any problems with their old code? or can anyone think of problems we may have with trying to make the switch.

in the meantime i will be installing the new version and trying it out, but i thought it important to ask the question here anyway.

Thank you kindly for your time.

[Yamaeda]

2018 -> 2024 should cause none to very little issues, unless you also switch from 32 to 64 bit in which case 3rd party drivers and DLLs most probably will cause problems. (As they do if you don't change version, but bitness)

[Charlie_NXP]

Thank you for your response ! this looks positive, i will keep the discussion open if anyone has had any problems just in case. 

[Bob_Schor]

The other thing you need to know is that once you open, say, a LabVIEW 2018 VI or Project in, say, LabVIEW 2024, and save it, you will not be able to open the VI or Project in the older version of LabVIEW!  It is possible to "go back to a Previous Version", but it is sufficiently "tricky" that you really want to use some form of Version Control Software (Git, Subversion, etc.) and create a new "LabVIEW 2024 Branch" for your Project.

So if you are working with colleagues on a Project, everyone needs to update to the same version, and be prepared to effectively "abandon" the old code.

Bob Schor

[Charlie_NXP]

Thanks ! it is true that when or if we make the jump, it'll be a big step with everyone having to change their LabVIEW version. Currently we are using Subversion for versioning control so that side is well covered !

[GerdW]

Hi Bob,

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

So if you are working with colleagues on a Project, everyone needs to update to the same version, and be prepared to effectively "abandon" the old code.

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The latest LabVIEW version can handle projects created with older version and still save them in the old version…

(Haven't worked with LV2024 so far, so I cannot tell how good it works in daily use.)

[Charlie_NXP]

Thanks for the response GerdW ! true If anyone has experience with the new 2024 version would they recommend the jump?

for us the reason we are interested is that in the 2020 version we are limited to an older version of python for our python scripts. we want to see how easy it would be to make the change to the 2024 version and judge if the hassle is worth the extra functionality. 

[Kyle97330 · Accepted solution]

Some things to consider not mentioned yet:

Any "support" software you use, such as DAQmx, NI-VISA, and so on will install itself on LabVIEW for its version and the last 3 versions.  This means that it's trivial to maintain a PC with 2 LabVIEW versions that are within 3 years of each other (such as your current 2018 and 2020 versions).  

For this reason, at my company we update when LabVIEW is a multiple of 3, so 2015 -> 2018 ->2021, with 2024 probably coming soon.  With our current 2021 as the "main" version, we can keep 2018 installed and working for any project not updated to 2021 yet that we want to view or make minimal modifications to without forcing a version jump immediately.

If you don't use any support software, or don't want to have multiple LabVIEW versions installed on one PC, then this is less of an issue to consider.  But if it is, you could consider updating everyone to 2021 versions of LabVIEW and all support software for now (so you can keep running 2018/2020 at the same time), then 2024 later.

The other thing to be sure to check as you move to 2024 would be building your VIs into EXEs.  I don't have specific examples but in the last couple years I have noticed an increase in the number of threads posted here with a problem like "My EXE builds in 2020 but not 2024", "My EXE is broken after building in 2023" or similar threads.  So I would recommend that on your 2024 test setup, you not only check that the VIs run, but also if you can build into working EXEs.

[crossrulz]

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@Charlie_NXP wrote:

for us the reason we are interested is that in the 2020 version we are limited to an older version of python for our python scripts. we want to see how easy it would be to make the change to the 2024 version and judge if the hassle is worth the extra functionality. 

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As far as Python support, the last released update was with LabVIEW 2023Q3, adding support for Python 3.10. LabVIEW 2023 Q1 Features and Changes 

With that said, I have ported my core libraries to 2024 64-bit from 2019 32-bit with no LabVIEW issues.  My only current issue is an open source .NET library that I am trying to use the latest of that uses .NET 8.0 and the API apparently got major changed.  I have not had a program using this update yet, but what tests I could do were successful.

[stevem181]

I recently got burned on an update from 2018 to 2021. Should be fine right? It meets the normal requirements.

However, after installing LabVIEW 2021, my 2018 RT projects containing NI-9144 EtherCat chassis are broken.

To clarify, I'm opening LabVIEW 2018 to edit an RT project. Worked before installing 2021 - fails after.

Like Kyle97330 (good advice in his post!) I have been using multiple versions since 2010 so this was unexpected.

The root cause is that the NI-9144 was deprecated after LabVIEW 2018. But IMHO that does not justify breaking 2018.

Not many people use EtherCat, but there are some cRIOs that were also deprecated during this time period.

And possibly other hardware?

You can check your hardware for software support here:

Software Support for CompactRIO, CompactDAQ, Single-Board RIO, R Series, and EtherCAT