A symbolic path or pseudopath is a predefined short form of a path that you can use in LabVIEW. Use a symbolic path to point to a location that changes with the execution environment, such as where on disk LabVIEW is installed or which user is logged in.
For example, the <vilib> symbolic path represents the <vi.lib> directory in the labview directory. At run time, LabVIEW interprets the <vilib> symbolic path as an absolute path, such as C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2009\vi.lib or D:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2009\vi.lib, depending on where LabVIEW is installed.
The following table includes information about the symbolic paths that you can use in LabVIEW.
| Symbolic path | Description | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| <osdatadir> | Path to the default file directory on the operating system. | Use this symbolic path when setting the VI Search Path on the Paths page of the Options dialog box. To use this symbolic path, enter <osdatadir>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI. |
| <vilib> | The vi.lib directory in the labview directory. | Use this symbolic path when setting the VI Search Path on the Paths page of the Options dialog box. To use this symbolic path, enter <vilib>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI. |
| <userlib> | The user.lib directory in the labview directory. | Use this symbolic path when setting the VI Search Path on the Paths page of the Options dialog box or the Help path on the Documentation page of the VI Properties dialog box. To use this symbolic path, enter <userlib>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI or help file. |
| <instrlib> | The instr.lib directory in the labview directory. | Use this symbolic path when setting the VI Search Path on the Paths page of the Options dialog box or the Help path on the Documentation page of the VI Properties dialog box. To use this symbolic path, enter <instrlib>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI or help file. |
| <helpdir> | The help directory in the labview directory. | Use this symbolic path when setting the Help path on the Documentation page of the VI Properties dialog box. To use this symbolic path, enter <helpdir>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the help file. |
| <resource> | The resource directory in the labview directory, which is intended to store support VIs for a particular version of LabVIEW. | Use this symbolic path when creating VIs that are meant to be additions to the LabVIEW editor and are not meant to be used in user applications. The APIs of the resource directory are subject to change between successive versions of LabVIEW without maintaining backward compatibility. To use this symbolic path, enter <resource>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI. |
| <ExtraVILib> | The ExtraVILib directory in the LabVIEW Data directory. | Use this symbolic path to store VIs instantiated from templates for various LabVIEW features. For example, LabVIEW stores channel instances for channel wires in this symbolic path. The channel instances are generated from channel templates. When you load VIs using a different LabVIEW version and bitness other than the LabVIEW version or bitness that you used to create the VIs, LabVIEW recreates a separate copy for the instances that the loading VIs need so that you can use the VIs in the loading LabVIEW version and bitness. To use this symbolic path, enter <ExtraVILib>:\ then the filename or path and filename to the VI. |