Lab View CAD Software Review
Features:
Lab View was originally created in 1986 as a way for scientists and engineers to graphically solve their programming problems. Over the years it has developed in to quite the software editor, and a pictorial graphs will help.
1) Physical measurements and I/O
2) Analysis and signal processing
3) Data logging so that you can go back and see what changes you made days ago.
4) Report generation that are ready to bring to a meeting as they are.
5) Optical Character Recognition is a feature that can translate an image of text in to editable text or pictures in to standard encoding scheme that represents them.
6) Real-Time Execution Trace Toolkit aids in the finding of the cause of a problem.
7) LabVIEW Mobile Module allows you to read and edit your drawings on your Windows Mobile or your Pocket PC.
8 ) NI LabVIEW Embedded Module for ADI Black fin Processors aids in embedded programming without extra set up or training.
9) LabVIEW System Identification Toolkit is a security tool used to ensure, that if your network was ever breached your information is not taken.
10) LabVIEW PID Control Toolkit allows you to compare features on line.
Con’s:
1) It is expensive, and in the several thousand dollar range it is a bit over priced.
2) Too many releases too soon. Some have complained that they are still working out kinks from one software release when another one comes along.
Review:
Using a system of wizard like creation you can program your CAD software to talk to your hardware. It is fast and simple to do and it saves you the time of writing the code. Lab view is a like drawing a picture of what you want programmed and allowing the software to do the work. With a basic understanding of C or even VB programming languages and an understanding of the project you need to complete you can create a program to read data, interpret data, and spit that data out in a usable format. There are tons of other possibilities, but that is just one example. Lab View is expensive at several thousand dollars per license; although it is impressive, in today’s economy it might be smarter to pay the same amount for Auto CAD which is a market leader. The learning curve to figure out where each task can be completed may take a while, but it was easy to get on and play around. Lab View 8.6 should be supported on Mac as well which is a nice feature for the other 10% of the population. There are measures of security that are built in so that if your network or a computer has ever been hacked there is tracking to catch him.