Hello Chemjudy,
There are a few things to consider here. LabVIEW 7.1 is oldest version still fully supported and LabVIEW 8.6 is the current version. That being said, if you develop skills with LabVIEW 7.1, they will be directly applicable to newer versions of LabVIEW if you do upgrade software down the road. With regards to software, whether you upgrade now or later, LabVIEW 7.1 is a perfectly acceptable version to spend some time learning on, newer versions just have some nicer features and available tools.
The second consideration is hardware. It sounds like you need to have 2 channels of analog output ranging +/- 1-5 VDC? This would require a DAQ device that has two analog outputs (or did you want 0 or 5 volts, if this is the case you could use a digital line). From what you've described it sounds like you have the GPIB-PCMCIA card--this card is a GPIB interface for connecting to boxed instruments that have GPIB connectivity. In order to use LabVIEW and the GPIB-PCMCIA to generate analog output voltages you would need to be controlling an external power supply or function generator. If you have a PCMCIA-DAQ card then it would be helpful if you can post the model number.
It sounds like for your particular application one of our multi-function DAQ devices would be better suited. We offer these in PCI, PXI, and USB form factors and all three can work with LabVIEW 7.1.
The benefit of using new hardware with LabVIEW 7.1 is that you would use the current drivers (NI-DAQmx) rather than the Traditional NI-DAQ driver that our legacy DAQ devices use. This would better prepare you for future applications that might require new hardware.
I hope this helps, and feel free to post back if you have more questions.
Cheers,