For more details, see https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvconcepts/building_standaloneapps/

The LabVIEW Application Builder Module provides tools for exporting LabVIEW code in various forms. The most common ones are stand-alone, end-use applications and source code exports.

Builds are configured via build specifications. A build specification contains all the settings for a LabVIEW build, such as files to include, directories to create, and settings for VIs. The following items can be built:

• Stand-alone application
• Installers
• .NET interop assemblies
• Packages
• Packed libraries
• Shared libraries
• Source distributions
• Web services
• Zip files

The builder will not create an empty directory, it only counts files as contents and ignores folders. You can add a dummy file as 'always included' in a hierarchy level you want to be existent in the build.

Source:

source/someFilesNotIncludedInBuildSpec.txt
source/ParentFolder/ChildFolder/file1.ext
source/ParentFolder/ChildFolder/file2.ext
source/neededDir/dummyFile.txt
source/neededDir/nextLevel/someIncluded.vi

Build Result:

builds/ParentFolder/file1.ext
builds/ParentFolder/file2.ext
builds/neededDir/dummyFile.txt
builds/neededDir/someIncluded.vi

The destination directory of a build specification can only be defined by the user as an absolute path. However, internally it can be handled as a relative path in the project file. Under certain circumstances the property <Property Name=“Bld_localDestDirType” Type=“Str”>relativeToCommon</Property> is added to the .lvproj file. In that case, when building the build specification, the directory will be created at the same relative position to the project file.

• relative path: destination directoy is not more than one level above the project file, at the same level or under
• absolute path: destination directory is more than one level above the project file

In general, it is recommended to use relative paths, to ensure, that e.g. on a build server or on other developers machines, the build results will be created at the correct place.