LabWindows/CVI (CVI is short for C for Virtual Instrumentation) is an ANSI C programming environment for test and measurement developed by National Instruments. The program was originally released as LabWindows for DOS in 1987, but was soon revisioned (and renamed) for the Microsoft Windows platform. The current version of LabWindows/CVI (commonly referred to as CVI) is 2020.
LabWindows/CVI uses the same libraries and data-acquisition modules as the better known National Instrument product LabVIEW and is thus highly compatible with it.
LabVIEW is targeted more at domain experts and scientists, and CVI more towards software engineers that are more comfortable with text-based linear languages such as C.
Release history Starting with LabWindows/CVI 8.0, major versions are released around the first week of August, to coincide with the annual National Instruments conference NI Week, and followed by a bug-fix release the following February.
In 2009, National Instruments started to name the releases after the year in which they are released. The bugfix is called a Service Pack (for instance, the 2009 Service Pack 1 release was published in February 2010).LabWindows™/CVI™ Release Information
In October 2025, National Instruments officially announced plans to revive LabWindows/CVI with a new release tentatively named 2026 Q3, via a posting from NI employees to the LabWindows/CVI forum.
Name/version Build number Date Operating system support and notes The LabWindows/CVI project begins 1987 LabWindows/CVI 1.0 Jan 1989 DOS LabWindows/CVI 2.0 Apr 1991 DOS. GUI Tools and Memory Extender LabWindows/CVI 3.0 Mar 1994 DOS, Windows 3.1, and Solaris LabWindows/CVI 3.1 Jul 1995 generate codes automatically LabWindows/CVI 3.1.1 1995 first release with "application builder" capability LabWindows/CVI 4.0 May 1996 External C/C++ compiler compatibility LabWindows/CVI 4.0.1 Aug 1996 LabWindows/CVI 5.0 Feb 1998support for VXI and IVI LabWindows/CVI 5.5 Feb 2000 Multithreaded libraries, debugging LabWindows/CVI 6.0 Oct 2001 ActiveX support, improved presentation LabWindows/CVI 7.0 Jul 2003 use Workspace LabWindows/CVI 7.1 Sep 2004 completion automatically LabWindows/CVI 8.0 Oct 2005 support for .NET assemblies LabWindows/CVI 8.0.1 LabWindows/CVI 8.1 2006 LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 LabWindows/CVI 8.5 2007 LabWindows/CVI 8.5.1 LabWindows/CVI 9.0 2008 ANSI C99 support LabWindows/CVI 9.0.1 LabWindows/CVI 2009 9.1 2009 create 64-bit applications LabWindows/CVI 2009 SP1 LabWindows/CVI 2010 10.0 2010 Linux support LabWindows/CVI 2010 SP1 LabWindows/CVI 2012 12.0 2012 LabWindows/CVI 2012 SP1 LabWindows/CVI 2013 13.0 2013 Changed compiler to Clang 2.9. New debugger running in its own process. LabWindows/CVI 2013 SP1 LabWindows/CVI 2013 SP2 LabWindows/CVI 2015 15.0 2015 upgrade to Clang 3.3 LabWindows/CVI 2015 SP1 15.1 2016 LabWindows/CVI 2017 17.0 2017 Tracepoints, word/semantic highlighting, thread-specific breakpoints, comment/uncomment LabWindows/CVI 2019 19.0 May 2019 Updates to Source Code Editor: zooming, code snippets, multi-line edits LabWindows/CVI 2020 20.0 Sep 2020 UTF-8 support LabWindows/CVI 2020 f3 20.0 Feb 2023 Windows 11 support
See also National Instruments
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