Academic Company Events Community Support Solutions Products & Services Contact NI MyNI

VISA

NI-VISA Licensing Requirements

In order to use NI-VISA for application development or deployment, you need a valid NI-VISA license. There are several ways you can obtain such a license depending on whether you are developing or deploying an application.

NI-VISA Development Licensing

Most NI software and hardware products include an NI-VISA installer as part of their installation program and as such, include a valid development license for NI-VISA (see table 1 for details).

Examples of products that include NI-VISA are LabVIEW, CVI, TestStand, NI-488.2, GPIB controllers, PXI controllers, etc. If you are not using any NI software or hardware, you can purchase NI-VISA Development Software separately.

Table 1 - NI-VISA Development Licensing Requirements
Hardware Content Software Content
  NI ADE 3rd Party ADE
NI Hardware License Included License Included
PC Buses License Included Purchase License
3rd Party Hardware License Included Purchase License

  • NI ADE includes: LabVIEW (Base/Full/Pro), CVI (Base/Full), MStudio (Std/Pro/Ent), TestStand, etc.
  • 3rd Party ADE includes: Microsoft Visual Studio (VBasic, C/C++/C#) without MStudio; etc.
  • NI Hardware includes: GPIB, VXI, PXI, DAQ, NI Serial, NI 1394, etc.
  • PC Buses include: Serial (RS232/RS485/Parallel), Ethernet, USB, IEEE 1394, etc.
  • 3rd Party Hardware includes: other vendors' GPIB, PXI, & VXI bus controllers. This does not include PC buses such as Serial, Ethernet, USB, or IEEE 1394.

NI-VISA Deployment Licensing

If you wish to deploy NI-VISA along with an application using NI-VISA, you can determine whether a deployment license is needed by examining the content of each of your deployed system.

If a deployed system contains:

  • NI hardware (e.g., GPIB, VXI, PXI, DAQ, etc.); or
  • NI software ADEs (e.g., LabVIEW FDS, TestStand, etc.); or
  • An application written using NI software, used for communication through a PC bus, along with the NI software runtime (e.g., LabVIEW .exe accessing PC serial port and LabVIEW runtime engine).

    • A deployment license for NI-VISA is included

Otherwise, if a deployed system only contains:

  • 3rd party hardware (e.g., Other vendors' GPIB, PXI, & VXI hardware. This does not include PC buses such as Serial, Ethernet, USB, or IEEE 1394).

A separate deployment license fee for NI-VISA is required

This deployment license allows you to redistribute the NI-VISA runtime version only. However, on deployed systems that contain NI ADEs and/or NI hardware, you can choose to deploy the NI-VISA development software instead.

Table 2 - NI-VISA Deployment Licensing Requirements
Hardware Content Software Content
  NI ADE NI Runtime Software 3rd Party Runtime Software
NI Hardware License Included License Included License Included
PC Buses License Included License Included Purchase License
3rd Party Hardware License Included Purchase License Purchase License

  • NI ADE includes: LabVIEW (Base/Full/Pro), CVI (Base/Full), MStudio (Std/Pro/Ent), TestStand, etc.
  • NI Runtime Software includes: LabVIEW runtime engine, CVI runtime engine, MStudio Apps, etc.
  • 3rd Party Runtime includes: Microsoft Visual Studio (VBasic, C/C++/C#) without MStudio; etc.
  • NI Hardware includes: GPIB, VXI, PXI, DAQ, NI Serial, etc.
  • PC Buses include: Serial (RS232/RS485/Parallel), Ethernet, USB, IEEE 1394, etc.
  • 3rd Party Hardware includes: other vendors' GPIB, PXI, & VXI bus controllers. This does not include PC buses such as Serial, Ethernet, USB, or IEEE 1394.

If your deployed system does not meet any of the requirements set forth above, you may purchase NI-VISA Deployment Licenses or contact your local NI sales representative.

If you have any further questions, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions or contact your local NI sales representative.