What is a VI?

[namtip]

Hello all,

I've just embarked on the online Core 1 course which assumes only that you know how to use Windows, and you can create simple flow diagrams.  I was led to believe that it was aimed at people who want to learn how to use LabVIEW and have not done so before.  The first sentence of this first course goes like this:

"You received a VI from an employee that takes the seconds until a plane arrives at an airport and converts the time into a combination of hours/minutes/seconds. You must evaluate this VI to see if it works as expected and can display the remaining time until the plane arrives."

There is no explanation anywhere of what a VI is.  Am I missing something here?

Thanks,

Colin

[Yamaeda · Accepted solution]

A VI is a "Virtual Instrument", the file format LV uses (with the file extension .VI).

Check out the Introduction before the Core course.

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/5241/en/

(You can start at page 17 and skip some hardware related stuff)

/Y

[crossrulz]

To put it another way, a VI is simply a code file that LabVIEW uses.  This is the same concept as an m file for Matlab.

[Daikataro]

Think of it as a .c or .bas you would get from other programming languages. You'll be using the term VI a lot if you plan on learning LV, and in essence means a piece of code you use for something in LV.

[namtip]

Great stuff - thanks!  I thought I must have been missing an introduction or something.