NI InstrumentStudio for PXI modular instruments

NI has announced the release of its InstrumentStudio software for NI PXI modular instruments. InstrumentStudio improves the live, interactive use model for modular instruments and makes debugging while running tests more intuitive. It is designed to help engineers in the aerospace, automotive and semiconductor industries benefit from a more effective workflow for test system development.

The software evolves the concept of single-instrument soft front panels into a unified, multi-instrument environment, so engineers can capture screenshots and measurement results in one view from their suite of instruments. It can also save project-level configurations for specific devices under test that can be repurposed later or shared with colleagues. This efficiency is key for testing high-mix devices and provides test repeatability at a convenience to the engineer or technician.

At different stages in the product design cycle, test engineers often waste valuable time correlating measurements between similar tests that ultimately use different hardware. And in production test, engineers who need to debug on the manufacturing floor may invest in separate hardware either for monitoring their tests or debugging their automated test equipment.

InstrumentStudio addresses these challenges by exporting configuration files to programming environments that reproduce settings, thereby simplifying measurement correlation. Additionally, test engineers can monitor PXI instrument behaviour by running the software while test sequences execute in parallel, streamlining the debug process. Through these seamless interactions with programming environments and test sequences, InstrumentStudio becomes an important part of a comprehensive software workflow and helps engineers maximise their investment in PXI instrumentation.