Unable to install NIVision OpenCV Utilities

[gio.romeo6]

Hi everyone,

I need to install the NIVision OpenCV Utilities to do image processing on LabVIEW (2025 Community Edition).

I tried to download the utilities but was unable to, due to many reasons.

- I tried to download the Utilities via the NI website (using the following link: https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/tools-network/download.vision-opencv-utilities.html#374505) and it automatically runs VIPM (as it should) to open and install the .vip package.

- VIPM doesn't allow me to install the package because it says that it is not compatible with my OS (Win10) -- see attached screenshot n° 1 -- even though the NI website clearly states that it is Win10 compatible (check the previous link; also, in the screenshot, the NIVision OpenCV Utilities package reports it is compatible only up to Win8).

- NIVision OpenCV Utilities cannot be found in the package list.

- I tried every recommended action to solve the issue: running both LabVIEW and VIPM as admin (https://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/NI-Vision-OpenCV-Utilities-DO-NOT-Support-Windows10/td-p/390...), all softwares (including my OS) is up to date, I also tried to disable Firewall (the JKI AI assistant stated it could interfere with communication between LabVIEW and VIPM).

- I was able to download the .vip file somewhere and I could start the install procedure on VIPM (File > Open Package Files), but after accepting the license agreement it is not able to install the package (screenshots n° 2 & 3) and reports code error 5000 (screenshot n° 4).

This is all I was able to achieve, I read on another post (https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/NIVision-OpenCV-Utilities/td-p/4338977) that the .vip file is just a compressed file and I was indeed able to examine the contents by converting the file extention.

In the last reply of this post, a user says that the content of the .vip can be copied in the LabVIEW folders but doesn't specify which ones (I'm very new to LabVIEW so I couldn't find them by myself).

Does anyone have any suggestion? I tried everything I could but there too little info online on this particular issue (the forum posts I linked are those with most resemblance to my problem).

Also, sorry if I may sound frustrated (I am a little bit, I actually think is pretty weird that NI websites reports the Utilities as Win10 compatible but following the "normal route" results in a dead end -- still, I am very new to this software so it's also plausible there is a mistake on my end, but I swear I tried everything i could), but given the little info online on this issue I try to include as many details as possible so that if anyone has the same issue in the future they might find this post useful somehow.

Thank you all in advance for any help.

Best regards.

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@gio.romeo6 wrote:

- I tried every recommended action to solve the issue: running both LabVIEW and VIPM as admin (https://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/NI-Vision-OpenCV-Utilities-DO-NOT-Support-Windows10/td-p/390...), all softwares (including my OS) is up to date, I also tried to disable Firewall (the JKI AI assistant stated it could interfere with communication between LabVIEW and VIPM).

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Did you run it under an administrator account, or did you right click and selected "Run As Administrator"?

There's a different. You should do the latter. This runs an application with elevated rights. An admin might have these rights, but applications don't automatically inherit them.

Sorry if that's what you did, it's a nuance that causes a lot of misunderstanding.

I think LabVIEW can be closed and maybe it's even better if it is.

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@gio.romeo6 wrote:

Also, sorry if I may sound frustrated (I am a little bit, I actually think is pretty weird that NI websites reports the Utilities as Win10 compatible but following the "normal route" results in a dead end -- still, I am very new to this software so it's also plausible there is a mistake on my end, but I swear I tried everything i could), but given the little info online on this issue I try to include as many details as possible so that if anyone has the same issue in the future they might find this post useful somehow.

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No worries, we get that kind of frustration. You're entitled and decent about it.

Pretty sure the incompatible OS is a red haring. Something else is wrong and it's reported in this (wrong) way. 

[Andrey_Dmitriev · Accepted solution]

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@gio.romeo6 wrote:

Hi everyone,

I need to install the NIVision OpenCV Utilities to do image processing on LabVIEW (2025 Community Edition).

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It is not so easy, but possible. I just did this for LabVIEW 2025 64-bit. But I really not sure if this make sense for Community Edition, because OpenCV are heavily dependent from NI Vision, which you can't install or license on Community Edition (as far as I know).

Anyway, all what you need is to download both packages manually:

NIVision OpenCV Utilities by NI - Toolkit for LabVIEW.

NIVision OpenCV Utilities (System) by NI - Toolkit for LabVIEW.

Direct Links:

NIVision OpenCV Utilities by NI - Toolkit for LabVIEW.

NIVision OpenCV Utilities (System) by NI - Toolkit for LabVIEW.

Both *.vip are *.zip files in general, just rename to zip and unpack to two folders.

Inside you will see File Group 0, 1, 2 SubFolders. Inside of "nivision_opencv_utilities" additional VIP Package, do the same.

You should accurately copy some files to National Instruments Folder and some into LabVIEW 2025. Unfortunately no step by step guide, but destinations more or less obvious.

examples, help and vi.lib are belongs for LabVIEW 2025:

National Instruments for root:

Don't forget Menu,

you will get NI OpenCV in the Palette:

If you unsure, then you can open spec file in any text editor, you will see full list and destinations:

[File Group 0]
Target Dir="<application>"
Replace Mode="Always"
Num Files=21
File 0="vi.lib/OpenCV/Video Analysis/NIVisOpenCV DetectMotion.vi"
File 1="vi.lib/OpenCV/Video Analysis/NIVisOpenCV InitMotionDetection.vi"
File 2="vi.lib/OpenCV/Video Analysis/NIVisOpenCV ResetMotionDetection.vi"
File 3="vi.lib/OpenCV/Photo/NIVisOpenCV Inpaint.vi"
File 4="vi.lib/OpenCV/Object Detect/NIVisOpenCV Facedetection.vi"

...

Then it works more or less (when opened first time, the VIs may ask you about missing DLL, just relink if needed). Also test images may be not found, just correct path manually (they are in C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NIVision OpenCV Utilities\examples\Images\), then it works:

To get this running I copied all DLLs into same folder (in theory installer should make a links with post_mklink_64.bat):

But again, I'm not sure if you will be able to get it running in Community Edition. May be installation of Vision Development Module in trial Mode will be sufficient, may be not. Unfortunately can't help here, because I haven't this Edition installed at all.

[gio.romeo6]

Thank you so much wiebe,

That was what I did, I'm runnig the softwares on my own pc so my account is admin by default, but unfortunately even by running the programs as admin (by right-clicking on the app) did not work...

I tried a few more times after your response just to be sure, but to no avail.

I event tried to run the package on "VI Package Manager.exe" and "VI File Handler.exe" separately (running both as admin still), but there was no difference.

I ended up going for Andrey solution and it seemed to work ok, but the Vision Development Module is needed and it must be licensed (i'll response in more detail under his solution).

Still, thank you very much again for your support, I saw in other online posts that the "run as admin" solution works for some users, so your answer is still definitley valid... for the time being i dunno why i experience this behaviour.

Best regards.

[Andrey_Dmitriev]

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@gio.romeo6 wrote:

I ended up going for Andrey solution and it seemed to work ok, but the Vision Development Module is needed and it must be licensed (i'll response in more detail under his solution).

As small trick you can try to install Vision Acquisition Software (VAS) instead of fully featured VDM. It is "free" when you using NI Framegrabber and must be licensed for USB or GigE Vision cams only, but the primitives like IMAQ Create/Open Image as well as Vision Display will work also in absence of the license. May be they sufficient for this OpenCV, but I'm not sure if VAS can be installed on Communit Edition or not, but you can try at least.

[gio.romeo6]

Thank you Andrey,

Regarding your first answer, I ended up going for your procedure and it seems to work very well.

All the VIs are in the LabVIEW environment, but unfortunately, as you foresaw, the NI Vision Development Module is probably needed for the VIs to work in LabVIEW community Ed (i still haven't done a full test, but when dropping a the motion detection VI in the block diagram I get a warning of a sort of "bad compile" mentioning the development module -- unfortunately, i already downloaded the run-time version of the development module so i forgot to screenshot this warning, my bad).

You mentioned "(when opened first time, the VIs may ask you about missing DLL, just relink if need)"

> Yes, it does every time i open a VI from the OpenCV palette, but i locating the file once sets it good for all the other times (btw, the software explicitly names the .dll to find, so it's pretty easy).

For now i have the Vision Developement Module on trial for 45 days, but it's not going to be sufficient time for my project.

I'm going to mark your answer as solution because it's the only way i could actually implement the openCV palette in LabVIEW, also thank you sooo much for such a detailed response.

Regarding your second answer, going for the VAS was my first attempt, but unfortunately I do have to work with a USB camera (what are the odds, huh?) and I need a real time image acquisition to operate a dc motor in response to the acquired video, which changes constantly. So yeah... i need the licensing for the VAS too.

I think it's pretty apparent i have to work possibly with free softwares (the NI license are very expensive! but I get it, they're professional tools, couldn't be otherwise, too bad my uni does not have these licenses for the time being).

I would like to ask if you guys know if there is any "alternative solution" to capture with a camera in order to acquire in real time image data (eventually with LabVIEW, I'm still going to continue my research for a solution by myself, eventualy contemplating alternative softwares), but I understand that this is definitely going off topic, so for now i'll consider this thread as closed.

Thank you all again for your help, it meant so much.

Best regards, to all.

[Quiztus2]

You can do the acquisition using openCV. There is plenty of resources on integrating openCV here. Most advise you to write a wrapper exporting c-style functions. 

Did you search github? I found this: https://github.com/barrowsb/labview_opencv

Maybe you can add missing functionality yourself