April 2021
This file contains important information about NI Vision Development Module, including installation instructions, new features, fixed issues, and known issues.
You can find more release information on ni.com.
If you plan to use LabVIEW NXG, refer to LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations.
How to Activate the NI Vision License
Product Security and Critical Updates
LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Unsupported Windows Operating Systems
The NI Vision Development Module (VDM) provides hundreds of image processing and machine vision functions. Along with programming libraries, the NI Vision Development Module also includes NI Vision Assistant. Installing this software may remove previous versions of the NI Vision Development Module that are currently installed.
Note: The NI Vision Development Module overwrites existing NI Vision examples and NI Vision VIs. Move modified examples or VIs that you want to save to another directory before installing the NI Vision Development Module.
For information about licensing NI Vision software, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code LicenseVision. Refer to the NI Vision website at ni.com/labview/vision for the latest information about the NI Vision Development Module.
The development computer must meet the following system requirements to run the NI Vision Development Module.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | 233 MHz Pentium or equivalent | Pentium 4/M or equivalent |
| Memory | 256 MB RAM | 512 MB RAM |
| Display (Vision Assistant) | 1,152 × 864 resolution video adapter with a 16-bit display | 1,152 × 864 resolution video adapter with a 24- or 32-bit display |
| Display (other environments) | 1,024 × 768 resolution video adapter with a 16-bit display | 1,024 × 768 resolution video adapter with a 24- or 32-bit display |
| Free Hard Disk Space | 3.2 GB | |
NI Vision Development Module 2020 SP2 supports the following operating systems:
1Only supported as pre-installed on NI hardware.
The following table lists the NI application software versions, including service packs, supported by the NI Vision Development Module. The installer specifically allows side-by-side installations of Vision Development Module for each of the supported versions of LabVIEW, enabling you to use the NI Vision Development Module with multiple versions of LabVIEW. National Instruments recommends that you install LabVIEW, LabVIEW Real-Time, or any other supported development environment, before installing the NI Vision Development Module.
| NI Application Software | Versions Supported by NI Vision Development Module |
|---|---|
| NI LabVIEW | 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| NI LabVIEW Real-Time Module | 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| NI LabVIEW FPGA Module | 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| NI LabWindows™/CVI™ | 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| NI LabVIEW NXG | 5.1 |
NI Vision Development Module 2013 SP1 was the last version to release updated support for the .NET Framework 1.1, .NET Framework 2.0, .NET Framework 3.5, and .NET language integration into Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. Visual Studio 2010 and later are not supported. Development and runtime support for .NET features are no longer included with NI Vision Development Module 2020 and later.
For more information and the complete list of Vision functions and hardware supported on FPGA, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code VisionFPGASupport.
If you purchased LabVIEW, you can install all of your LabVIEW products—including the NI Vision Development Module—using the LabVIEW Platform Suite.
To request additional LabVIEW Platform Suite, refer to the National Instruments Web site.
Complete the following steps to install the NI Vision Development Module from the NI Vision Development Module installation media.
If you purchased this product with an NI Software Suite or NI Product Bundle, use the installation media that shipped with your purchase to install this product.
When you run an NI Vision application for the first time, it prompts you to activate a license for the product. If you do not activate a valid license, the NI Vision application will run in Evaluation Mode and continue to prompt you to activate a license on each subsequent launch.
Complete the following steps to activate the NI Vision license through an Internet connection.
Tip: Enter your email address to receive a copy of your activation code for your records.
Deployment refers to developing an application so that it can be distributed, or deployed, on a different computer than the one on which the application was developed. The NI Vision Development Module provides everything you need to deploy custom NI Vision applications to target computers. The NI Vision Development Module provides the following options:
The NI Vision Development Module installer provides the runtime installer for NI Vision that can be packaged for redistribution by LabVIEW, CVI, or the standalone NI Package Builder. Visit ni.com to download software upgrades for NI Vision and the NI Vision Runtime installers.
You must purchase an NI Vision Runtime License (part number 778044-03) for each target machine onto which you want to install your custom NI Vision application, even if you install the NI Vision Runtime directly from the NI Vision Development Module installation media. The NI Vision Development Module ships with one runtime license. Contact a National Instruments sales representative or visit ni.com to purchase additional runtime licenses.
Note: Additional NI Vision Runtime licenses do not include installation media. To install additional licenses, use the original NI Vision Development Module installation media and the serial number provided by National Instruments.
You can install the NI Vision Runtime with your application installer. If you create the application installer with the LabVIEW Application Builder or with LabWindows/CVI, you can directly include the NI Vision Runtime.
Refer to the LabVIEW Help for more information about the LabVIEW Application Builder. Refer to the NI LabWindows/CVI Help for more information about building and distributing LabWindows/CVI applications.
You can use NI Package Builder to package your custom application installer along with the NI Vision Runtime installer. This may be useful if you are creating an installer for applications created in other development environments.
The NI Vision Runtime installer may require the system to be restarted after installation. Refer to the Automating the Installation of NI Products section for more information on how to change the level of interactivity of the installer or whether it automatically initiates a system restart.
The NI Vision Runtime installer does not install LabVIEW VIs. If you use the LabVIEW Application Builder to create an application (EXE) or dynamic link library (DLL), the Application Builder automatically includes the VIs used by the application. If you distribute a VI, you must include all subVIs that comprise the top-level VI. You must include the appropriate LabVIEW Runtime as part of the installation.
Refer to the LabVIEW Help for more information about viewing the hierarchy of VIs and for more information about using the LabVIEW Runtime.
In addition to including the NI Vision Runtime with the installer, you must include the appropriate LabWindows/CVI Runtime. Refer to the NI LabWindows/CVI Help for more information about creating an executable, creating a dynamic link library, and distributing applications.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
Documentation and examples are installed onto your hard drive with the NI Vision Development Module. To view the documentation, select Start»All Programs»National Instruments»Vision»Documentation»Vision Documentation, or navigate to <Users>\Public\Public Documents\National Instruments\Vision\Documentation.
Refer to the National Instruments Product Manuals Library at ni.com/manuals for the most recent versions of product documentation.
The following sections describe the documents available for each application development environment and where to find examples.
The NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP environment variable is provided as an alias to the location of C language support files. You can use this variable when compiling and linking an application. The Application Interface files (header and library files to include in applications) are placed in a centralized location to prevent users from accidentally overwriting them and to provide this NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP environment variable.
Note: $(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP) is configured as an environment variable on the target system. The variable evaluates by default to \Program Files\National Instruments\shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C.
| Item | Installed Location |
| header files | <$(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP)>\include |
| 32-bit MSVC import libraries | <$(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP)>\lib32\msvc |
| 64-bit MSVC import libraries | <$(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP)>\lib64\msvc |
The following sections detail considerations for using LabVIEW NXG 5.1 with NI Vision Development Module 2020 SP2.
For information about VDM support in LabVIEW NXG, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code VisionNXGGuide.
LabVIEW NXG is installed using NI Package Manager. Complete the following steps to install Vision Development Module for LabVIEW NXG.
View context help in LabVIEW by pressing <Ctrl-H> and hovering over an object.
Search for items using the search bar in the upper right corner of the LabVIEW window. You can also view context help for the search results.
Additional documentation is available online at ni.com/manuals.
Launch LabVIEW and click the Learning tab.
LabVIEW lessons are located in the Lessons tab, and LabVIEW Examples are located in the Examples tab. Follow the instructions in the lessons and examples.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.6.2, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
NI Vision Development Module no longer supports Windows Vista/XP/7/8.x, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, or any 32-bit Windows operating system. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit http://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.
The NI Vision Development Module supports the external vision library OpenCV. Refer to the National Instruments Web site to download the NI Vision OpenCV support utilities.
NI Vision OpenCV support utilities enable the use of OpenCV algorithms in LabVIEW and NI Embedded hardware. NI Vision OpenCV support utilities provide:
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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices
You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:
U.S. Government Restricted Rights
If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.
IVI Foundation Copyright Notice
Content from the IVI specifications reproduced with permission from the IVI Foundation.
The IVI Foundation and its member companies make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The IVI Foundation and its member companies shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.
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Refer to the NI Trademarks and Logo Guidelines at ni.com/trademarks for information on NI trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Patents
For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.
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