Introduction

The National Instruments TestStand environment is a powerful and flexible test automation tool widely used in industrial applications. It offers a variety of features to support implementation and debugging processes. However, it's important to understand how these features can impact overall test cycle time.

Since cycle time is a critical performance indicator for industrial test systems, the following tips will help you get the most out of your TestStand setup and optimize efficiency.

Execution Time Comparison

We measured the following scenarios in a loop of 1000 repetitions to ensure the most accurate results. While some variation in execution times is expected on a non-real-time system, all cases yielded significant and evaluable results.

Tracing

While monitoring sequence status using execution tracing can be useful, it is a resource-intensive feature. In our example, simply disabling execution tracing resulted in a 10× reduction in test time.

LabView Adapter

We typically use LabVIEW action steps in our NI TestStand sequences to implement test logic. The adapter used for LabVIEW action steps can be specified in the execution settings. By using pre-built LabVIEW steps (e.g., *.lvlibp) and selecting the Runtime environment instead of the Development environment, you can significantly reduce execution time.

In some cases, it's also possible to implement logic directly within the step itself, without calling any adapters, which can further reduce execution time slightly.

Result Logging

Disabling result logging for certain steps can help generate cleaner, more concise reports—and may also slightly reduce test time. While the performance gain is typically minimal, as reporting is handled by a parallel loop, it can still be beneficial in long-running sequences (e.g., tests exceeding one hour). In such cases, turning off result logging for non-critical steps can help reduce memory usage and improve overall efficiency.

Callback Sequence

By using a SequenceFilePostStep Callback the sequence executioner will execute a piece of sequence after each step. This can add a noticeable execution time to each step, even if the Callback sequence is empty, since it will result in a context switch in all cases.

Test conditions

The execution times were measured on a 11th Gen Intel Core i5 2.40Ghz processor, using TestStand 2021 21.0 version, in Windows 10 Pro. No other active processes were running. The example sequence was a simple Action step:

Conclusion

As a sequence developer, it's essential to strike the right balance between flexibility and efficiency in your test sequences. To achieve an efficient and maintainable sequence, we recommend the following best practices:

• Organize your sequence into subsequences and enable execution tracing only for the high-level MainSequence. This allows you to monitor the overall test status while minimizing computational overhead.
• Use the LabVIEW Runtime adapter for your steps once basic functionality has been successfully validated in the Development environment. This change can significantly improve execution speed.
• Disable result logging for non-test-related steps such as if/else logic, device connection routines, and database logging steps. This reduces report size and helps manage memory usage, especially in long test sequences.

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