What is the difference between VI Template and vi that is reenterant​?

Question

What is the difference between VI Template and vi that is reenterant?
From what little info I can find about them, they seem to basically do the same thing....
What are the difference?
What are the pros and cons of each?
Thanks alot for the help.....

Answer 1

Tarek316 wrote:
I inherited an app that uses .vit for the purpose of having multipe separate instances.
Thanks,
OK, here's what happens when you call a VI Template using Call by Reference or using Invoke and Property Nodes.
Since the VI you are calling is a template, LabVIEW creates a new instance of that VI by creating a copy of it and giving a new name. Notice in the title bar of the instantiated VI the VI name is the same as the template VI plus a number. This is the same thing you see when you open a template from the "New..." menu. So if you call the template VI 3 times, you'd end up with 5 newly instantiated VIs named, "VI Name 1.vi", "VI Name 2.vi" and "VI Name 3.vi". This is how you end up with multiple instances.
Reentrancy only works on subVIs when they are used as a normal subVI in a top level application. Using Call by Reference or Invoke and Property Nodes to open and run a reentrant VI results in the VI only being opened once because LabVIEW will not automatically give it a new name. The new name is only generated when calling templates. Since LabVIEW can only a have a single instance of VI name in memory at a time, you'll not end up with multiple instances.
Not sure if I can help with the know issue on OSX. If it's specific to using the Call by Reference function, you could try calling the templates using Invoke and Property nodes.
Ed
Ed Dickens - Certified LabVIEW Architect - DISTek Integration, Inc. - NI Certified Alliance Partner
Using the Abort button to stop your VI is like using a tree to stop your car. It works, but there may be consequences.