Archived:Bitfile Missing When Creating Real-Time Application

Issue Details

I created a project with LabVIEW 2014 that involve a FPGA and Real-Time code where I open a Reference to the Bitfile that I compiled. When I created the Real-Time Application I noticed that on the target there was a folder that contains the Bitfile.
The path of this folder was by default the following:

home\lvuser\natinst\bin\data

Now I migrated my project to a newer LabVIEW version, but on the target the folder with the Bitfile is missing. Is the folder in another path?

Solution

In the LabVIEW version greater than 2014, this behavior is the expected and the correct one. In LabVIEW 2014 is a known issue that was fixed in LabVIEW 2015. In past versions of LabVIEW, the LabVIEW Application Builder mistakenly thought that the bitfile was a run-time dependency when in reality it's only an edit-time dependency.
If you use the Open FPGA VI Reference, LabVIEW will not require the Bitfile on disk for the application to run the FPGA code. However, LabVIEW 2014 Application Builder mistakenly believed that the bitfile was necessary and would include it as a run-time dependency. From LabVIEW 2015 the bitfile is no longer included in the data directory as it is not required. The bitfile used by the built application is instead included as a component embedded in that application binary. 
If you want to include a copy of the bitfile you will need to add it to your Build Specification manually.