Evaluating NI Vision Acquisition Software

Updated Mar 26, 2025

Reported In

Software

  • Vision Development Module

Driver

  • Vision Acquisition Software
  • NI-IMAQ
  • NI-IMAQdx
  • NI-IMAQ I/O

Issue Details

I'm working on setting up a system, and would like to evaluate whether NI's vision drivers (IMAQ or IMAQdx) would be a good fit for my project. I've found the download link for a trial version of the Vision Development Module, but I'm only looking to import, view, and log the images to file.

Do I need to download and install the trial version of Vision Development Module to acquire images from my camera?

Solution

You may need different NI vision software, depending on what you're hoping to accomplish.

Because you're hoping to acquire images and will be performing only basic functions like viewing them and saving them to disk, the functionality included with NI's camera drivers should fit your needs.

Depending on the type of hardware you're using, you may end up using IMAQ, IMAQdx, or IMAQ I/O. All 3 of these drivers are included in the same download- Vision Acquisition Software, or VAS, which can be downloaded from our website.

When you download and install VAS on your system, you will have the option to either activate the software or run it in trial mode. For more information on Vision Acquisition Software's licensing, please reference our Vision Licensing page.

Additional Information

We generally recommend that you use the newest version of drivers compatible with your version of the LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI development environment. More information about development environment compatibility can be found in the readme file for each version of the drivers.

Note: The readme is available on the driver's download page, highlighted in blue in the image below.

If you're also planning to do image processing in LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI, Vision Development Module might be a good fit for your project. We offer a trial version of this software that you can use to evaluate whether it fits your needs.

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