Importing an array of containers with Property Loader

Hi,
I'm using TestStand 2.0 and am having trouble importing arrays of containers using the property loader... The first array element is copied in ok but the subsequent ones do not (all values are 0).
I'm sure I'm looping through the array ok as I can load in simple arrays of numbers. I only see this problem with arrays of containers.
Is there anything I may have overlooked?

Hi,
The trouble with importing arrays with the property loader is you have to specify each elements of the array individually.
I have attached an example which I hope helps.
Regards
Ray Farmer
Regards
Ray Farmer
Attachments:
LoadContainerArray.seq ‏22 KB
LoadContainerArray.txt ‏1 KB

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Message Edited by hans17 on 11-05-2008 06:28 PM

Hans,
What version of TestStand are you using?
Starting with TestStand 3.1 you can import/export arrays and containers as XML strings.
If
you want to be able to set the array bounds in the text file all you
have to do is to modify the LBound and HBound attributes in the
corresponding XML Prop tag and add the Value tags corresponding to the
elements you want to add.
For example.
Let's assume I have an numeric array local variable named MyArray (Locals.MyArray).
The first thing I would do is to use the Import/Export Properties tool to generate my text file.
1. Make sure that the Locals.MyArray variable is not empty (In my case Lower Bound =0 and Upper Bound= 9)
2. Go to Tools>>Import/Export Properties
3. Go to the Source/Destination tab and specify your text file location
4. Go to the properties tab and add Locals.MyArray to the selected properties list
5. Click the Export button
6. Open your text file and verify it looks as follows:
<Step Name>
<Locals>    Variable Value
MyArray
<Prop Name='MyArray' Type='Array' LBound='[0]' HBound='[9]'
ElementType='Number'><Value ID='[0]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[1]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[2]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[3]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[4]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[5]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[6]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[7]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[8]'>0</Value><Value
ID='[9]'>0</Value></Prop>
<FileGlobals>    Variable Value
<StationGlobals>    Variable Value
7. In my case I only exported the Locals.MyArray variable
8. Notice that the Value of the Locals.MyArray variable is a XML string that contains a Value tag for each element in the array.
9.
If I want to change the number of elements in the array next time I
import the text file, I only have tp modify the LBound and HBound
attributes and add or remove the value tags for the array elements.
10.
Let's say that I want my array to have only one element, then I need to
set the value of HBound to 0 and get rid of the Value tags
corresponding to the rest of the elements.
<Step Name>
<Locals>   Variable Value
MyArray
<Prop Name='MyArray' Type='Array' LBound='[0]' HBound='[0]'
ElementType='Number'><Value
ID='[0]'>0</Value></Prop>
<FileGlobals>   Variable Value
<StationGlobals>   Variable Value
11. Modify your text file and use the Import/Export Properties tool or the property loader step to import the text file
12 . Verify that the array bounds are modified
You could use this technique to initialize an empty array using the property loader.
Hope it helps.
Regards.

Can the Property Loader load arrays of variable size?

I need to run a series of tests on the same UUT, changing only one parameter at a time (for example, a frequency response test). The hardware developers would like to be able to change the values of parameters of the test at will, without making changes to the sequence. That's easy - just change the value of the parameter in the Properties file. The hard part is changing the number of iterations of the test, by ONLY adding or deleting the number of parameters from the text file. In other words, all I know during sequence editing is the types of parameters, not the values or how many. I want the test to loop as many times as there are sets of parameters in the text file.
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Hi,
there's a couple of options here, and I've included what I think is the simplest below (using TestStand 2.0.1).
It's not exactly elegant though. What I've done is to put in a step that finds out the number of steps to load (based on an earlier decision - in this case a message popup step). I read a number from the limits file, and use this in the looping options of the property loader step that's loading the values into the array. I've done it with a fixed size array target here, big enough to take any incoming data. (Otherwise, knowing how many items you're going to load from the limits file, you could start with an empty array and re-size it prior to loading).
I've cheated slightly by using the pre-expression on the property loader step to specify where th
e data is coming from and where it's going to in the sequence on each iteration of the loop based on the Runstate.Loopindex.
Another option is to go straight into the property loader step, and keep loading properties until the Step.Result.NumPropertiesRead = 0 (remember we're only doing this one at a time)
Another idea would be to load in a value, and check it isn't a "flag" value (i.e. you'd never use say 999 in your array, so set the last element in your limits file to this, and drop out of the loop when this happens.
Further still, you've got the source code for the property loader step, so you could re-write it to make a custom step that loads an array until it fails all on its own (no looping in TestStand).
Hope this gets you going
S.
// it takes almost no time to rate an answer
Attachments:
DynamicPropertyLoader.seq ‏32 KB

Set Array of Containers

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To explain in detail I have an Local Array of containers with three elements. Each container element has a boolean and a numeric. I have a equivalent array of clusters in LabVIEW. In a LabVIEW action step I use the to variant node to convert the array to a cluster and use the setvaluevariant method to set the local. But it does work.
SequenceContext.AspropertyObejct.SetValueVariant(variant, "Locals.ArrayofContainers",0)
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Asbo,
Thanks for replying. This is what I'm trying to do. See the attachements.
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test.vi ‏12 KB

Error while importing a big array with thr property loader

Hello,
the following problems occure: when I want to import a *.txt file with a array of more than arround 3300 members with the property loader, the following error meassage occures:
property loader step failed to import or export properties
x property values were found
x-1 property values were imported from y rows
Error code: -18, user defined error code.
how can I solve this problem?
I think sizes of arrays are limited somewhere in the source code of the property loader. is it possible to increase this size? And how?
regards samuel

Could you attach an example of your .txt file and your sequence?

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I am trying to architect a test system to run a variety of tests (DIO, AIO, PWM...etc) and I noticed that Property Loader can be quite handy. I am trying to find the best method to utilize NI TestStand Property Loader to load test properties from Excel into some sort of parameter database. The properties shall be loaded only once when the test sequence is opened. The parameters of the excel table will have a format like this:
TestType TestCondition ECUPin# Limits.High    Limits.Low Units PWM_Frequency CAN_TX   CAN_RX
DI        ON 1    0x0102   0x0304
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Property Loader to FileGlobal Container- This would basically be a hybrid of the two. Pretty much what you described in your post. Where the property loader only has to load the container in your FileGlobals.
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Runtime Error Occured
Error evaluating expression:Runstate.Sequence.locals.ChannelList = (""101")
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There are couple of approaches for fixing the problem:
1. Use a different character for comma in the property loader file. After importing the data, replace the character with comma using TestStand expression in the sequence file.
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ChannelList,101""+Chr(44)+""102""+Chr(44)+""103""+Chr(44)+""104""+Chr(44)+""105
This will create the expression such that, the value of ChannelList property will become 101,102,103,104,105
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Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
TTIM.csv ‏12 KB
TTIM.seq ‏69 KB

Hello Bryan,
I think I have found out what is happening. I looked at your properties file in Notepad and noticed that the FileGlobals.Duration < 5 did not have quotes around it. This causes TestStand to evaluate the expression when it is being imported which causes it to be set to true. If it has quotes around it, TestStand will still evaluate it, but it does so by removing the quotes and then putting the expression in the While loop. I am not sure what caused the file to be exported this way. I was hoping you could walk me through the steps you did to export the file so we can try and see what might have gone wrong. Also what version of TestStand are you using?
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1. Go to Tools»Import/Export Properties
2. Selected the destination for my file and the format
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A workaround you can use right now is to go into your properties files and manually put quotes around the expressions for the While Loop. Look forward to your response and have a great day!
Best Regards,
Adam G
National Instruments
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The trick is in the Sequence Properties dialog. Turn off "Optimize Non-Reentrant Calls to This Sequence". The little comment there makes it pretty clear that this is what's needed. I tried it, and it works.
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1 off StationGlobals.CurrentTestName
1 off StationGlobals.FailTarget
1 off StationGlobals.PassTarget
1 off Step.Comp
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Array 0f [0] to [49] of:
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The program ran and loaded all limits successfully.
I have a large program under development that I could not get this function to work in. I copied the property loader step and limits string from the working files into the larger program. I have checked the correct variables are being passed to the property loader for the limits source file name and the Data Start and End Markers. Everything looks fine but when I run the program I get an error message saying:
Sequence File: 1065-32911_Block09_RDVS.seq
Property loader step failed to import or export properties.
153 property value(s) were found.
3 property value(s) were imported from 6 row(s) of data
I even tried copying the complete performance test across and the whole of the limits section for that performance test too. It still won’t work.
Also, what does the error message
3 property value(s) were imported from 6 row(s) of data
actually mean anyway?
I've attached a text file with the individual linits test text.
Attachments:
Multilim.txt ‏6 KB

BrianM,
It seems that the properties does not exist in your current context.
'Rows of data' means the number of lines in your text file within the data markers.
Is the error message you are providing complete?
Did you copy the message from the Run-Time error dialog?.
Make sure you have the same steps you had originally and that the steps contains tha same properties (measurements).
In this case you should aways have a step called 'Test Multiple Numeric' containing 50 measurements.
It is very importatnt that the step name is the same.
It seems to me that the step is only being able to import the station globals.
You can verify it by ignoring the error and checking the station globals values after the step executes.
Hope it helps.
If you have any question let me know.
Antonio Lie.
Message Edited by Antonio Lie (NI) on 04-12-2006 12:46 PM

Importing an array of containers with Property Loader

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