NI-VISA and Other VISA Support from Instrument Control Toolbox
Use the VISA (NI-VISA, Keysight VISA, TekVISA, and R&S VISA) standard to communicate with instruments from MATLAB.
- VISA Support from Instrument Control Toolbox
- Hardware Support from Instrument Control Toolbox
- IVI and VXIplug&play Driver Support from Instrument Control
Capabilities and Features
NI-VISA is an implementation of the Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) standard for configuring and programming test systems. NI-VISA provides support for communicating with instruments over Ethernet, GPIB, serial, USB, VXI, and PXI interfaces.
MATLAB® and Simulink® support NI-VISA through Instrument Control Toolbox™. With this support, you can use MATLAB software to control instruments, make measurements, analyze data, and build test systems. Once data is in MATLAB, you can analyze and visualize that data for tasks such as signal processing, statistical analysis, digital filtering, and curve fitting.
In addition to NI-VISA, Instrument Control Toolbox also supports Keysight VISA, R&S VISA and Tektronix VISA implementations. Tektronix VISA is only supported through the legacy visa command and is not supported with the visadev command.
Supported VISA Software
Instrument Control Toolbox supports VISA software from the manufacturers shown below.
| Manufacturer | Recommended Minimum Version |
|---|---|
| Agilent/Keysight Technologies | I/O Libraries Version 18.1 |
| National Instruments® |
NI-VISA Version 19.5 |
| Tektronix® |
TekVISA Version 4.0 |
| Rohde & Schwarz |
R&S VISA® 5.12 |
Get Your Support Package
There are three support packages you can choose from depending on the hardware you're using. Click to get your support package now:
For Agilent/Keysight Technologies
For National Instruments
For Rohde & Schwarz
For Tektronix
Platform and Release Support
VISA software support is available on 64-bit Microsoft® Windows® and Mac OS (NI-VISA® and R&S VISA) using the support packages listed above.
The NI-VISA support package is available for R2015a and higher on 64-bit Microsoft Windows. On Mac OS, it is available for release R2015b and higher. For releases prior to R2015a, NI-VISA must be installed manually on Windows platforms and is not available on the Mac OS platform.
The Keysight VISA and I/O Libraries support package is available for R2015b and higher on 64-bit Microsoft Windows. For earlier releases, Keysight VISA and IO Libraries must be installed manually.
The R&S VISA support package is available for R2018a and higher on 64-bit Microsoft Windows and on Mac OS. For earlier releases, R&S VISA must be installed manually.
Starting in R2021a, Tektronix VISA is only supported through the legacy visa command and is not supported with the visadev command. TekVISA must be installed manually.
Check the System Requirements
To install a hardware support package, you must have a supported product release, along with the required operating system and base product.
View the hardware support package system requirements table and confirm you have:
- A supported release
- A supported operating system
- The required base products
If you do not have a supported release or the required base products, you can get started with a free trial, or you can purchase products.
Continue with the Installation
After confirming you have the system requirements, proceed with either installation option listed below.
Option 1: Using the Toolstrip
Launch the Support Package Installer from your version of MATLAB and navigate to the correct support package.
Option 2: "Get Support Package" Button (.mlpkginstall file*)
Clicking the Get Support Package button provides the support package install file:
([filename].mlpkginstall)
There are several ways to initiate the Support Package Installer from these files:
- Open the
.mlpkginstallfile directly from your Internet browser. - Download and save the file (the default option for some Internet browsers), and open it directly from your Windows, Mac, or Linux operating system.
- Open the
.mlpkginstallfile directly from within MATLAB by navigating the Current Folder to the location of the downloaded file and double clicking it. That will initiate the installation for the MATLAB release that you have open.
The primary difference between using the .mlpkginstall file (option 2) rather than the toolstrip (option 1) to initiate support package installation is that the file allows the user to avoid the support package selection screen on the installer.
*These file types were introduced in MATLAB R2013a.
Users without an Internet connection can install hardware support packages by following the download instructions.
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