Simulating the PXIe-5433

The PXIe-5433 supports simulation. To enable the simulation mode, set the Option String parameter of the niFgen Initialize With Options VI or the niFgen_InitWithOptions function as follows.

Model Variant Option String Value
PXIe-5433 (One-Channel) Simulate=1,DriverSetup=Model:5433 (1CH)
PXIe-5433 (Two-Channel) Simulate=1,DriverSetup=Model:5433 (2CH)

Simulating an instrument enables you to perform the following tasks:

  • Protect your instruments by first testing settings and configurations on simulated instruments.
  • Verify instrument behaviors under a wide variety of operating conditions.
  • Start or speed up application development before you have the hardware.
  • Optimize designs and determine ideal design parameters.

Enabling simulation allows you to verify that you have correctly configured the instrument. For example, if a parameter is set to an invalid value for the instrument, NI-FGEN returns the same error it would for a real instrument.

While simulation is useful for verifying your configuration, there are some areas where simulation is not sufficient to verify that your configuration is correct. For example, no errors will be returned for configurations that involve or depend upon external signals, such as configuring an external sample clock or routing signals. Also, the amount of time a generation takes to complete will be ignored in simulation mode; a finite generation will finish immediately after it is initiated, regardless of how much data is downloaded and how fast it is generated.