NI TestStand 4.0 Accelerates Test System Development

15th May 2007

ES Admin

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National Instruments has announced NI TestStand 4.0, the latest version of the company’s test management software designed to help engineers develop and deploy automated validation and manufacturing test systems. The new version of NI TestStand features a streamlined sequence editor that reduces development time and increases ease of use. Engineers can use the new sequence editor to easily reconfigure the NI TestStand development environment to meet the functionality requirements of advanced systems or to facilitate the use of basic software features for new users. With the preconfigured step templates in the new sequence editor, engineers can easily reuse preconfigured test templates to quickly build test sequences and save time in test system development.

“With the new sequence editor in NI TestStand 4.0, I can develop a test executive that would have taken me six months to create in just two weeks,” said Guy McDonnell, Senior Systems Integrator for National Technical Systems. “Not only can I implement functionality that parallels the features of the previous system, now I can take advantage of the functionality in TestStand that I would not have had time or resources to implement on my own.”

In addition to the new sequence editor, engineers can use NI TestStand 4.0 to enhance enterprise system connectivity and reporting by integrating with requirements management tools, such as Telelogic DOORS and IBM Rational RequisitePro as well as industry-standard reporting tools such as the Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML). By integrating with requirements management tools, NI TestStand can more easily help engineers validate and verify test systems and generate requirements traceability documentation.

NI TestStand 4.0 increases developer productivity with the sequence file translator framework, which provides engineers with tools to quickly translate custom sequence file formats to NI TestStand sequences. The new binary sequence file format reduces the size of sequence files and improves loading time by 75 percent compared to the previous INI format while the new XML sequence file formats increases the readability of sequence files. To increase the productivity of engineers who need only a subset of the features of the full NI TestStand sequence editor, NI TestStand 4.0 adds tools engineers can use to create custom sequence editors that facilitate the development of simplified and custom NI TestStand development environments.

Engineers can customise NI TestStand to meet the needs of many industries as well as call tests written in any language – making the software a standard choice for managing production and validation test systems. The top 10 electronics manufacturing companies as well as nine of the top 10 defence and aerospace companies use NI TestStand, with many standardising worldwide production strategy around the software.

NI TestStand 4.0 seamlessly integrates with a variety of software including NI Switch Executive switch management software, the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical development environment, National Instruments LabWindows™/CVI and NI Requirements Gateway requirements management software. It also integrates with NI measurement hardware including modular instruments and switches, offering a complete software and hardware platform for automated test.