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LabVIEW

LabVIEW

Overview

What is LabVIEW?

National Instruments headquartered in Austin offers LabVIEW, a systems engineering software platform and toolkit.

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

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Pricing

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LabView Base

$407

Cloud
per year

LabView Full

3,206

Cloud
per year

LabView Professional

5,344

Cloud
per year

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

What is LabVIEW?

LabVIEW Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(13)

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Trang Ngo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a start-up developing novel water treatment products. To test the performance of the product, we develop in-house lab-scale automated testing systems and also pilot-scale systems to test the products off-site. For our systems, we used LabVIEW to read and write I/O, control the instruments, analyze and log systems' data.
  • Automation.
  • I/O.
  • Data Processing.
  • Debug features.
Most of the time, I am using LabVIEW to develop automated controls for lab-scale and pilot-scale systems. LabVIEW is great for its graphical programming interface, which is easy to learn and understand. The program also has a lot of built-in VIs to perform different complicated I/O, data processing, controls, and graphing tasks which are extremely useful and convenient to use. My only problem with LabVIEW is how hard it is to clean up and debug the program, due to its being a graphical interface. It is hard to search for specific variables when debugging, and some of the online debugging features don't function well in real-time.
  • Pre-defined function.
  • HMI Design.
  • Graphical Interface.
  • Documentation.
  • Fast development of systems.
  • Easy integration with hardware.
  • Readily available training course
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are an engineering services company who uses LabVIEW to write test and automation code for our clients. Sometimes the decision to use LabVIEW is dictated by our clients and other times they do not care what software it used but either way we always use LabVIEW. LabVIEW allows all of our engineers, regardless of background, to ramp up and develop code quickly.
  • Debugging tools are fantastic.
  • Since it is graphical it is easy to quickly understand what a section of code is doing.
  • The integration with hardware, especially NI hardware, is very good.
  • UI development is lacking compared to other languages.
  • The software requires a bulky run-time engine for EXEs which can be a pain when distributing simple applications.
  • Anything to do with websites is a challenge.
Well suited for any type of industrial testing or automation, whether in a lab or production environment. It's a great tool for engineers to use.
Not well suited for any type of web development or a simple application that needs to be easily distributed to multiple people without having to install separate support software.
  • Any engineer in our organization can quickly develop tools in LabVIEW that are easily shared and usable by other engineers.
  • We have found LabVIEW to be a much more adaptable software to quickly change with the needs of our customers.
  • Training someone up on LabVIEW seems to be much faster than other languages so we can have engineers making positive contributions to projects much faster and with less investment cost.
We chose LabVIEW over MATLAB due to the integration with hardware and the graphical programming interface. Also, the ability to use LabVIEW with FPGAs and real-time processors without having to make large changes to the code base or swapping to a separate programming environment was a big benefit since we don't know what hardware will be suitable for each customer application.
[object Object], [object Object], [object Object]
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a small contract engineering company our organization often finds the need to use LabVIEW to write our own programs to solve problems. The software is used primarily by the software and firmware engineers, but several of the mechanical engineers also utilize it. Our organization saves money by writing some simple programs in house instead of sending them out.
  • Being a graphical programming language, it is a little easier for a layperson to understand than text based programming languages.
  • The program has very good debugging features.
  • Support is good.
  • There are a variety of tutorials which make it easier to do something that you aren't sure about.
  • Sometimes backwards compatibility issues arise.
  • Error messages can be confusing.
  • Although it is a graphical programming interface, it has a pretty steep learning curve at first.
I think National Instruments LabVIEW is well suited to those who have to run experiments whether that is in a formal lab or a less formal setting. Most of the programs that we write are aimed at some sort of data acquisition using sensors or hardware. LabVIEW is probably also well suited for hobbyists who do not know a written programming language but are willing to take time to use tutorials to figure things out.
  • We are able to save money by writing our own programs instead of outsourcing.
  • We recently bought a new force test stand and we are able to use LabVIEW to write a program that fits our needs exactly instead of making due with what came with the stand.
  • When our customers ask us to do data acquisition, we know that we can always make a solution.
I don't know of any other graphical programming languages that our organization has tried to use or does use. Speaking for myself, I am not familiar with any other graphical programming languages. Comparing to text based programming languages, I feel like it is easier to understand what is going on with LabVIEW.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
All mechanical engineering students learn to use it in their junior year. It allows students to quickly acquire data and analyze it. The rest of the university use it to some degree.
  • Data acquisition
  • Robotics
  • Barrier to entry is large
  • Install times are crazy
  • Just in time help needs to be more apparent (most students do not know about the examples section)
Well Suited:
  • quick analysis of data - quick development of a UI
  • Allows us to spend more time on analysis and less time on coding
Abdullah Umair Bajwa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use LabView with our engine test bench's data acquisition system to collect high-speed pressure data and low-speed temperature data. The signal from the sensor needs to be acquired for a certain amount of time and in certain formats that meet our research requirements. I use LabView to make custom interfaces (VIs) that meet these requirements and output the recorded data in the desired form.
  • Graphical programming interface makes it easy and intuitive to set up data acquisition VIs.
  • Easy to add new sensors.
  • Easy to add/modify calibration specifications to get the desired form for output data.
  • Easy to package VIs in easy-to-use form that can be used by technicians and operators.
  • Sometimes have problems with my VIs when the software version is updated.
  • Becomes somewhat slow after updates.
  • Real-time plots (in my case pressure-time plots) sometimes get stuck or are laggy. Same is true for RPM gauge.
LabView is a great tool to connect your sensors to your data aquisition hardware. It makes it really easy to set-up a data acquisition routine that meets your individual requirements. I, as an engine researcher, find it very well suited for engine experimentation.

For any other programming needs, i.e. not data acquisition, I would not recommend using LabView because of its graphical programming architecture. The architecture makes it a great tool for Data Aquisition but puts at a disadvantage when it comes to other computational tasks, e.g. making a thermodynamic engine model. For those applications having text-based programming is better suited.
  • We use NI's data acquisition hardware as well which has made it possible to get whatever experimental data we need to get for our studies.
  • LabView has made it possible for us to post-process and tailor the raw data to our specific needs.
  • With a responsive customer support team, NI allows us to expand our data acquisition and post-processing capabilities to carry out the kind of research projects that we would want.
We have used MatLab's data acquisition toolbox in the past which was not too bad either, especially if you prefer the text-based programming format. The only problem with that was that the library of compatible data acquisition hardware was somewhat limited and if your hardware is not from one of the more popular brands like NI there is a good possibility that you won't be able to use it with your MatLab script. LAstly, the amount of supporting material (tutorials, etc.) is very limited as it is not a very popular tool.
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