I installed LabVIEW 2014 and TestStand 2014; then later I installed TestStand 2010 SP1 and have been using it since. (I also updated LabVIEW 2014 to 14.0f1; I think I did that after installing TestStand 2010 SP1.) Is this "legal?" I have been seeing strange behavior with TestStand 2010 SP1:
- if I type in any expression text boxes in the Sequence Editor (e.g., for a pre-expression), I periodically get an error dialog as I type:
"The .NET support dll could not be loaded. This is caused by an assembly path that could not be resolved. Error Code: -18700, The .NET support dll could not be loaded. This is caused by an assembly path that could not be resolved! Source: 'TSAPI'
After I acknowledging the dialog, I can contine to type a little more before getting the dialog again, but it doesn't seem to invalidate anything I type.
- If I open the Simple LabVIEW Simple User Interface that ships with TestStand 2014 while TestStand 2010 SP1 is active, LabVIEW immediately crashes. I can open all the subVIs without a problem, but the top-level VI always crashes LabVIEW.
So I used the TestStand Version Switcher to make TestStand 2014 active, opened the top-level Simple UI VI, and deleted all the UI controls. Then I switched back to TestStand 2010 SP1, and then I was able to open the top-level VI. I added back the TestStand UI controls to the VI, and now the VI runs. But many operations return a TestStand error dialog, such as Close Execution ("Value invalid or out of range [Error Code: -17300]"), Logout ("Cannot find item to select in ComboBox [Error Code: -2147467259]"), and (critically) Exit ("Operation Failed. Error Code: -17500]") and the X in the upper right corner of the window ("Operation Failed. Unknown System Error in <VI name>"). So I can't exit without killing LabVIEW.
These two issues may be unrelated. But maybe installing an older version of TS after installing a newer version is not a valid use case? Is the ActiveX error a result of this? Should it be possible to use a (simple) UI written for a newer version of TestStand be able to work with an older version of TestStand?
I have another issue that is probably unrelated, but I'll bring it up here just for completeness. If I right-click on a LV property node or invoke node for a property or method from the TS API and ask for help for the property or method, a command window flashes briefly before showing the TS help window with the top-level item selected (i.e., it doesn't take me to the help for the selected property or method). I have this problem with either version of TS active, and I saw this problem even before I installed TS 2010 SP1. I seem to recall having this problem once before, but I can't find the solution. I don't know if this problem is an indication of some other larger problem.
For what it's worth, I am running WIndows 8.1 on a virtual machine.