labview

Is it possible to convert LabVIEW VI's into human-readable text/code?


I was curious if there is a tool or any way to convert a LabVIEW VI into a human-readable form.

My intentions for reading LabVIEW code in a different way then in Block-Diagram is e.g. making a diff over multiple files and looking for "obvious" differences. I know that there is a tool for this purpose (LV-Compare) but that again is only possible with LabVIEW itself.

VI's by itself are only in binary and even opening a VI and immediately saving it can (or will) change the binary file (even with the same code).

I already looked in the internet and in the official NI forum but couldn't find an answer.


Solution

  • If your goal is to make a diff tools for LabVIEW this one exist: https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000YHwACAW&l=en-CH

    However only available on all edition since LV 2022 Q3...

    If you want to inspect the VIs in more deep you can have a look at the Heap Peek: https://labviewwiki.org/wiki/Heap_Peek

    As far as I know, it's not possible to convert LabVIEW to human readable, especially since LabVIEW is written in G which translates badly to text...

    Thomas, Certified LabVIEW Architect