Version 14.0.1
July 2017
This file contains information about DASYLab 2016 with Service Pack 1:
For the correct use of DASYLab 2016, the following minimum requirements must be met:
| CPU | X86-compatible processor from 1 GHz |
| Memory | More than 1 GB, 4 GB recommended |
| Disk Space | 1 GB free space, of which at least 500 MB on the system partition |
| Video/Graphic card | Color depth at least 24 or 32 bits (True Color) |
| Screen resolution | At least 1024x768 |
| Note Note that not all DASYLab drivers support all of the listed operating systems. DASYLab does not run under the Windows 7 Starter version. |
|
Note Please note that you must be logged on as an administrator on the computer in order to install DASYLab, to rund the Configurator and to work over the network. If you are logged in as the default user, you can run DASYLab. However, DASYLab does not support guest user logon. |
| Note You may not use Asian characters in the installation path. |
You can use the new state machine module (control sequence chains) to compile sequences which were previously set up using a combination of action modules, trigger modules, relays and links into a lower number of modules. The operations are considerably more simple to create and to administer since steps can be added, deleted and changed in their sequence inside the module itself.
Whereas all modules were always worked off simultaneously in parallel using the conventional setup of a sequence chain in DASYLab, only the currently active branch is edited in the state machine module. This does not just accelerate the development, but also execution of the state machine requires less computer time and memory during runtime.
The maximum block size was significantly increased from the previous value of 32768 values per block (32k) to 1048576 values per block (1M) in the current version. The resolution or accuracy has been considerably increase, especially in the case of block-based operations such as an FFT. The user also profits from an improved support for faster measurement technology and the multiplexing of channels has been optimized. A few old drivers ("DASYLab Driver Toolkit drivers") and the time base "Driver" cannot use the new maximum block size and are still restricted to the previous 32k-sized blocks.
The internal data format — both for measurement data recording and also for further processing — has been converted from float (32-bit floating-point type) to double (64-bit floating-point type). Even if a wide range of hardware has been supported in the past, this deep-reaching modification through the entire DASYLab structure now enables you to use the capabilities of modern high-resolution measuring hardware with a considerably increased accuracy.
DASYLab 2016 now supports the TDMS file format (TDM Streaming) so that measurement data can be recorded and processed using other programs. TDMS also stands out thanks to the fact that different data channels can be saved here with differing speeds and channel types.
The DASYLab file format (file extension DDF) also has also been given an extension so that large data blocks and measured values can now be saved with double accuracy. You can now choose to save DDF files in the "traditional" format from DASYLab 13 in order to guarantee compatibility with older DASYLab versions. However, the restrictions imposed by older DASYLab versions continue to apply in this case: the block size is at most 32768 and the data type is float (single precision, 32-bit).
DASYLab 2016 can now read in TDM and TDMS files. This increases compatibility with other products. If you wish to evaluate measured values both using DASYLab and with other programs, you now only require one format.
The integrated Python environment in DASYLab 2016 has been updated from version 2.6.5 to version 2.7.10. In addition to a range of detail improvements in language and error correction, you can now also access a wide range of Python modules which were not yet or no longer supported in Version 2.6.5. You can find details on the website at https://hg.python.org/cpython/raw-file/v2.7.10/Misc/NEWS.
The system information you accessed over Help»About has been extended. Especially the details about the operating system and the computer have been amended. The report you accessed over Help»Report was revised and user information was added.
For all image formats this functionality was supplemented by a scaling option which appears as an additional parameter in an action module's configuration dialog. Without additional scaling (at factors 0 and 1) the image will be saved at the size of the display DASYLab was started on. Earlier versions of DASYLab saved the images with wrong dimensions. Especially with print layouts, this led to very bad results in small formats.
The scaling differentiates between 3 ranges for the scaling factor (all values outside this range will be treated as 1.0):
With DASYLab 2016, two additional time bases have been introduced: the so-called virtual time bases. These are used as a reference to real time bases and simplify uniform allocation of certain hardware time bases (which are not "drivers") to the data-creating modules (for example, a Generator or Slider).
The behavior of automatic block sizes has been changed. The "automatic block size" is no longer a power of two, it is now 1/10 of the set sampling rate.
The time base dialog has been reworked. Selection of the time base now takes place in a list which can also display longer names of time bases completely. This now makes it more simple and clear when selecting a specific time base to change its parameters.
For modules that generate data the time base presetting has been changed to DASYLab. For historical reasons, in previous DASYLab versions the time base Driver was preset. Modern DASYLab drivers which are created using the Extension Toolkit can provide their own time base.
When using multiple screens with DASYLab, we recommend a simple monitor configuration with:
Other configurations do work much better than in DASYLab 13, but might result in unexpected behavior — especially different zoom factors for different screens (new notebooks with high resolution very often have zoom factors other than 100%). These effects relate to the support of Windows 7 in most cases.
Note Please keep in mind that changing the zoom factor of a screen needs a shut down of DASYLab, log off / log on to Windows and restart DASYLab again to take effect in DASYLab.
Note When using multiple screens, it is advisable to use the same screen resolutions and the same scaling on all screens, as well as to mark the left monitor as the main screen.
Due to extensive changes to the data format, block sizes and memory management, all modules from third-party suppliers which use the Extension Toolkit for implementation have to be adapted for DASYLab 2016. Most hardware manufacturers which offer their own DASYLab drivers will provide new driver versions for the release of DASYLab 2016. Needless to say, the drivers supplied with DASYLab 2016 have been updated for the release.
Older drivers which still use the Driver Toolkit (these are available in menu Measurement»Select Driver...) are not affected by this and also function with DASYLab 2016. However, these drivers cannot use the changes introduced with DASYLab 2016: greater accuracy and increased block size.
The following drivers are new or have been revised. Refer to the driver help sections for a detailed description of each extension.
Greater accuracy when sending values via NI Data Socket: Doubles (VT_R8) are now transmitted.
The instruNet driver has now been updated with the current API driver. Furthermore, the memory range for the driver's configuration data has been increased.
The DASYLab DAP driver (DAP Box) no longer installs the API file DAPIO32.DLL driver. To create and edit worksheets with a DAP Box, the operating system drivers (DAPtools) for the DAP hardware must be installed. Otherwise, the DAP Box is not available in DASYLab, even if the driver is active in DASYLab's Configurator.
The following list contains descriptions of the issues fixed between DASYLab 13 and DASYLab 2016.
| ID | Caption | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2110 | Bitmaps on buttons of Switch modules | If images for buttons are stated using global strings, the images are not displayed when loading the worksheet. The issue has been resolved. |
| 3361 | Create missing folders | DASYLab was unable to create files and directories, if the target was accessible via a network path: //servername/share/folder/file.ext. The issue has been resolved. Note The currently logged on Windows user that launched the DASYLab application, needs to have granted privileges to create files and directories at the given location on the network. |
| 3426 | Error in flip-flop module | If the hold time was stated in seconds and the value was read from a global variable, in rare situations that could cause a crash of the application. The issue has been resolved. |
| --- | Visualizationn of global variables and strings | The text for a variable's name (and description) can have a length of 19 characters. The texts are now no longer abbreviated to a fixed length by two points. |
| --- | Slow loading of worksheets | When loading a worksheet with Y/t Chart modules the x-axis was drawn at wrong positions. The loading of worksheets was considerably delayed when the worksheet used numerous Y/t Chart modules. This error has been resolved. |
| --- | CAN driver and CANdb files in frame mode | If signal configuration took place using a CANdb file, the interpreted values were incorrect. The correct results were supplied during manual configuration (without using a CANdb file). This error has been resolved. |
| --- | Incorrect calculation of available memory | DASYLab detected the available memory incorrectly, so that the results were sometimes wrong on 64-bit operating systems. This error has been resolved. |
| --- | Error message "Display time is too large" | The error message is now only shown once and no longer for each of the module's channels. Additionally, the automatically determined value is now rounded off to prevent repeated display of the same message. |
| --- | DAQmx Counter Input | Upon entering a timeout the specified replacement value was not properly output from the module. This error has been resolved. |
| --- | Error in Polar Plot module | If the block size of the current data was larger than the block size at the time of the module's creation, it could cause crash. |
| ID | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4677 | Module documentation: Leaving the Dialog | In the "Modify Documentation" dialog, changes were saved and not discarded when the cancel button was pressed. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4883 | ODBC input and Action "Measurement start" | Incorrect text in the error message was fixed. |
| 4030 | List module: Copy to Clipboard | When copying several channels into the clipboard, the correct separator is always used, even if the time channel is deactivated. |
| 4342 | Counter module: Unexpected behavior | When loading older worksheets created by older DASYLab versions, some settings of the Counter module (Statistics group) have not been applied correctly. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4344 | Headlines in the Chart Recorder module | The headings in the Chart Recorder are now no longer limited to 32 characters, but now have the same maximum length of 1024 characters as the Y/t Chart module. In addition, the header can now be edited with a double-click. |
| 4351 | Graphics export to the clipboard | When exporting the display of the Chart Recorder, the Y/t Chart or X/Y Chart modules to the clipboard, the graphics were much too large. This has been corrected so that the exported graphics are now the same size as the current display. |
| 4430 | Error displaying Quick FIFO View | Fixed an error that occurred when a block of data with a block size of 1 is seleted to be displayed in the Quick FIFO View. The quick FIFO view can be opened during the current measurement by clicking on a data line in the worksheet workarea (<SHIFT> + <Linksklick>). |
| 4439 | Switch module: Update the button label | If a global variable or a global string was used in the button label of a switch, the label was not updated when the contents of the global variable or the global string changed. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4423 | Combi Trigger module: Start/Stop conditions incomplete | For two-channel Combi Trigger mode, "Never" can now be used as a starting condition, and "Direct" is now available as a stop condition. |
| 4463 | Scaling module, Offset adjusment | If the file name for the INI file comes from a global string, the module did not work correctly. This bug has been fixed. |
| --- | Bitmaps with umlauts in the file path | Reading and writing bitmap files now also works when German umlauts are used in the file path. |
| --- | Send email with SMTP | Sending email using the SMTP method did not work because the incorrect version of an auxiliary library was used. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4450 | Third-/Octave Analysis Module | DThe module could only deal with blocks up to a size of 32K. Use of larger blocks resulted in an error message. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4324 | Silent Installation of DASYLab | DASYLab 2016 with Service Pack 1 now supports unattended installation ("Unattended / Silent Installation"). For this, the / SILENT parameter must be passed to the installer. |
| 4545 | Display licenses during installation | DThe DASYLab installer now displays the National Instruments licenses before installation. These must be accepted in order to perform the installation. |
| 3092 | Close and Reopen File action on TDMS files. | DThe "Close file and reopen" action in the Write Data module now works when using the TDM and TDMS formats. |
| 3030 | Slider module | The "Scale" settings slider have not always been used correctly. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4539 | Y/t Chart module: "Date and Time" | If you set "Date and Time" for the X-axis, an internal error (buffer overflow) could occur. DThis bug has been fixed. |
| 4032 | "Worksheet to cliboard" | The "Worksheet to cliboard" function (Edit Menu) now creates a higher resolution and better readable image of the current worksheet. The documentation frames in the work area are now included in the area computation. |
| 3713 | Reference Curve module | If target curve files with spectral or histogram data are used, a runtime error could occur due to a faulty calculation of the sampling rate in the Reference Curve module". This bug has been fixed. |
| 3940 | Sequence Generator module | The channel names of manually added outputs were changed to the channel name of the first, always available, output in certain situations. This bug has been fixed. |
| 359 | Backup Data module | The Backup Data (Files group) module can now also store the free memory of a monitored drive into a global variable. |
| --- | Visualization modules: Error when marking markers | When drawing large blocks or data with extremely high sample rates with a line style that has markers (for example, "circle line"), the application could crash. This bug has been fixed. |
| 4511 | Data separation character when reading ASCII data | The Read Data ASCII Options dialog allows you to specify the data and decimal separators for time and data channels. This allows an ASCII data file to be written more precisely, which increases the readable format variations. When selecting the data separator and the decimal point (read and write), it is checked that these are not the same characters. |
| --- | Read data module: CSV files | The Read Data module file selection now allows ASCII-Format (*.CSV) to be selected. CSV files created by DASYLab can be read. CSV files written by other programs may not be readable. |
| --- | Data Window module | The selection list for the block size to be output was supplemented by additional common block sizes. |
| 263 | RS-232 modules | The selection list for determining the COM port now allows the numbers 1 to 256 (instead of 1 to 32). |
| --- | System string ${PATH_FLOWCHART} | Unlike all other system,strings are directories, ${PATH_FLOWCHART}, terminated with a backslash character. This bug has been fixed. |
| ID | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4399 | InstruNet Driver | When outputting analog values, floating-point numbers were converted incorrectly. |
| 4545 | Instrunet Driver | Correction of error handling during channel selection in the DI and DO module. The current driver API now distinguishes input and outputDIO channels. |
| 4699 | Modbus Output Module | The Modbus output modules have always had their own fixed sampling rate for the data output which was independent of the arrival of data blocks at the module input. The option was then added to send the value only with each incoming data block. If no data blocks are received at the input of the module, there is no transmission to the Modbus device. Until now, the last known value with the set sampling rate has been transmitted repeatedly to the device at Modbus outputs, even if the value has not changed. |
| --- |
NuDAM driver |
The maximum number of usable Nudam modules in the circuit diagram has been increased from 64 to 256 modules. |
The color sonogram and the waterfall presentation in the Y/t Chart module do not work very well with the introduced larger block sizes. If you use very large blocks sizes as offered by DASYLab 2016 , the execution of a worksheet could be considerably slowed down.
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