National Instruments VXI-USB User Manual

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Chapter 3
Developing Your Application
3-2
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provide a high level of performance; however, there may be some 
slight changes in behavior for certain applications.
Your software features several system development utilities including 
MAX, Resman, NI Spy, VISA Interactive Control (VISAIC), and 
optionally VXI Interactive Control (VIC). You can also access online help 
and a variety of examples to learn how to use NI-VXI for certain tasks. 
Each component assists you with one of four development steps: 
configuration, device interaction, programming, and debugging.
You can access the utilities, help files, and release notes through the 
Windows Start menu by opening the National Instruments»VXI or 
National Instruments»VISA
 program groups.
Configuration
The configuration utilities in your software kit are Resman and MAX. 
Resman performs VXI Resource Manager functions as described in the 
VXIbus specification. Resman configures all devices on the VXI backplane 
for operation and allocates memory for devices that request it. Resman does 
not require you to specify any settings; it automatically performs the VXI 
resource management whenever you run it.
Note
Power cycling resets all devices, so you must run Resman to reconfigure your 
system every time you cycle the power on the chassis.
MAX presents a graphical display of your entire test and measurement 
system to help you configure various components. When you launch MAX, 
you see all your devices (including VXI) on the screen. You can view the 
properties (such as logical address, address space, and so on) of each device 
by clicking the device in the configuration tree. To see additional 
configuration options for a given device, right-click the device in the 
configuration tree. When you access the properties of most National 
Instruments devices by right-clicking, you can configure the hardware 
settings by selecting Hardware Configuration.
MAX and Resman are designed to work together. You can run Resman 
through MAX by either clicking the Run VXI Resource Manager button in 
the toolbar or right-clicking a specific VXI system on which to run Resman, 
as shown in Figure 3-1. You can also select Tools»NI-VXI»VXI Resource 
Manager
 to run Resman on all VXI systems. From the VXI Options dialog 
box in the Tools»NI-VXI menu, you can also use MAX to configure 
Resman to run on all VXI systems automatically when the computer boots.