How to Add Timeout for General Teststand Step that is Calling Other Code Module & API

The customer is interested in how we can configure the Teststand step timeout, which is not available in normal step settings or properties.

Here are two methods for setting a timeout for steps in TestStand

Setting a timeout for all steps

• Open TestStand and Click on Configure/Stations Options
• Click on the Time Limits section, and you will see the set time limits 
• Enable Set a Time limit for this operation, and set the Time limit needed
• This enables a timeout for all steps in the sequence.
• When time expires, there are four actions: Prompt for action/Terminate Execution/Abort Execution/Kill the threads

Setting a timeout for specific steps

• Open the sequence and click on the step you want to modify
• Click the properties in the steps settings and choose expressions
• Add the following to the pre-expression, and you can select the handling method according to needs

• // Set a 5s time limit for the step before execution and chooseTerminate when timeout

  RunState.Engine.StationOptions.SetTimeLimitEnabled(TimeLimitType_NormalExecution, TimeLimitOperation_Executing, True),

  RunState.Engine.StationOptions.SetTimeLimitAction(TimeLimitType_NormalExecution, TimeLimitOperation_Executing, TimeLimitAction_Terminate),

  RunState.Engine.StationOptions.SetTimeLimit(TimeLimitType_NormalExecution, TimeLimitOperation_Executing, 5)

• Add the following to the post-expression

• Add below into Post-expression:

  // Set the time limit to false after the step execution

  RunState.Engine.StationOptions.SetTimeLimitEnabled(TimeLimitType_NormalExecution, TimeLimitOperation_Executing, False)