Chapter 1
Introduction
PCI-4451/4452/4453/4454 User Manual
1-4
www.ni.com
functions for using LabWindows/CVI with National Instruments DAQ
devices. The LabWindows/CVI Data Acquisition library is functionally
equivalent to the NI-DAQ software.
VirtualBench is a suite of VIs that allows you to use your data acquisition
products just as you use stand-alone instruments, but with the added benefit
of the processing, display, and storage capabilities of PCs. VirtualBench
instruments load and save waveform data to disk in a form compatible with
popular spreadsheet programs and word processors. A report generation
capability complements the raw data storage by adding timestamps,
measurements, user names, and comments.
The complete VirtualBench suite contains VirtualBench-Scope,
VirtualBench-DSA, VirtualBench-FG, VirtualBench-Arb,
VirtualBench-DIO, VirtualBench-DMM, and VitualBench-Logger.
VirtualBench-DSA is a turnkey application you can use to make
measurements as you would with a standard dynamic signal analyzer.
ComponentWorks contains tools for data acquisition and instrument
control built on NI-DAQ driver software. ComponentWorks provides a
higher-level programming interface for building virtual instruments with
Visual Basic, Visual C++, Borland Delphi, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
With ComponentWorks, you can use all of the configuration tools, resource
management utilities, and interactive control utilities included in NI-DAQ.
Measure is a data acquisition and instrument control add-in for Microsoft
Excel. With Measure, you can acquire data directly from plug-in DAQ
devices, GPIB instruments, or serial (RS-232) devices. Measure has
easy-to-use dialog boxes for configuring your measurements. Your data is
placed directly into Excel worksheet cells, from which you can perform
your analysis and report generations using the full power and flexibility of
Excel.
NI-DAQ Driver Software
The NI-DAQ driver software is included with most National Instruments
DAQ hardware. NI-DAQ has an extensive library of functions that you can
call from your application programming environment. These functions
allow you to use all features of your PCI-445X.
NI-DAQ addresses many of the complex issues between the computer and
the DAQ hardware such as programming interrupts. NI-DAQ maintains a
consistent software interface among its different versions so that you can
change platforms with minimal modifications to your code. Whether you
are using LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, ComponentWorks, or other
