General Tab - Enhanced Chart Customization Dialog Box

The General tab of the Enhanced Chart Customization dialog box displays the following items:

Main Title

Allows you to enter a main title for your chart.

Subtitle

Allows you to enter a subtitle for your chart.

Object Name

Allows you to enter an object name for your chart. This name appears in the system tree. It must be unique and is limited to the standard object naming conventions.

Description

Allows you to add a description for your chart, which is the standard object description shared by all object types.

Highlightable

Allows you to highlight the chart at run time so it can be modified.

Selectable

Allows you to select the chart at run time. By default, this option is selected.

Modifiable

Allows you to modify the chart at run time.

Expandable

Allows you to display an Expand or Contract button in the upper right corner of the chart at run time when the cursor hovers over that area. The Expand button displays the chart in full screen; the Contract button resets the chart to its original size and position. The hot keys 'E' and 'C' (upper and lower case) can also be used to Expand or Contract the chart if it has focus.

An Enhanced Chart in thumbnail mode can be expanded and contracted.  Thumbnail mode can be enabled on the Chart Style tab. When expanded, the displayed chart will not be in thumbnail optimized mode, but with user configured legend settings. When contracted, it will revert back to the thumbnail settings.

Zooming

Item

Description

Horizontal

Allows you to zoom into a chart along its horizontal axis at run time.

Vertical

Allows you to zoom into a chart along its vertical axis at run time.

Both

Allows you to zoom into a chart along both its horizontal and vertical axes at run time.

Appearance

Item

Description

Chart Update Rate

Allows you to specify how quickly a chart updates the data plot at run time. When used for real-time data, the fastest update rate is 0.1 seconds and the slowest is 1800 seconds. When used for historical data, the fastest update rate is 5 seconds and the slowest is 1800 seconds.

This value is not used for Histogram and SPC charts. They update at the rate of their data sources.

For XY charts, this rate specified applies to both real-time and historical data sources.

NOTE: If you choose to use a real-time data source for your XY or line/multiline chart, be aware that when you view it in run mode, the first data points will not be plotted until the time specified in the Chart Update Rate field has elapsed. Therefore, there will be a lag time between when you open the chart in run mode and when the data is plotted; the first data point does not immediately display. This applies to tag group substitution, as well.

Historical Update Rate

Allows you to specify the rate at which the historical chart is updated. The default rate of zero disables the chart from being automatically updated. The format is hh:mm:ss. The fastest update rate is five seconds, the slowest, 1800 seconds, or thirty minutes.

NOTE: This field is not available for XY charts.

Number of Points

Allows you to specify the number of points in the chart. Limits the chart's data display for each data source to no more than the number specified.

NOTES:

  • You cannot specify the number of points for SPC or Histogram charts.
  • Do not select 2 for the number of points setting if your chart is a Line/Multiline chart and your chart includes both the graph and the table. Doing so will cause the graph to disappear.
  • If you set the Number of Points too high, the Hourglass will continuously flicker. In most cases, the default value of 500 is high enough to accommodate the data points required and low enough to avoid this situation.
  • For XY charts, using historical data sources, the value in the Number of Points field adjusts automatically to the value closest to the value you entered that will produce evenly spaced data, based on the duration configured and the automatically calculated interval.

Show Time Cursor

Allows you to configure whether the time cursor will display at run time as tool tips or as a table.

Charts in upgraded pictures which display the time cursor will be configured as a table. The default for new charts in new pictures is as tool tips.

In run mode, if the time cursor is configured as tool tips, clicking in the plot area freezes the time cursor where clicked; clicking again frees the cursor.

IMPORTANT: You must also have the Selectable check box enabled for the Show Time Cursor option to work.

Show Hover Tool Tip

Displays a tool tip for the data point that the mouse is placed over.

IMPORTANT: You must also have the Selectable check box enabled for the Show Hover Tool Tip option to work.

Display Milliseconds

Displays milliseconds on the time axis and time cursor in the chart and milliseconds in the (Interval) Time field.

NOTE: This field is not available for XY charts.

Enable Advanced Graphics

Allows you to improve the visual quality of the chart by permitting the use of bitmap/gradient styles, drop-shadow, 3D effects, a variety of plotting style lines and improved font appearance. Disabling this option removes smoothing from fonts and graphics (Anti-Aliasing), as well as disabling transparencies (Alpha Blending) and removing Bitmap and Gradient functionality.

IMPORTANT: Enabling Advanced Graphics may affect chart plotting performance.

Enable Quick Configure

Allows you to change chart properties while in run mode without having to display the configuration dialog or the right-click menu. The Quick Configure chart properties that can be modified in run mode are:

  • Y Axes Style – Hovering over the upper left hand corner of the chart displays Multiple, Stack, or Single buttons that can be used to display the Y Axes of the chart in the specified format.
  • Y Axes Always Visible – Clicking the far right column in the Data Source Legend area allows you to toggle between Yes and No to set the Y Axis Always Visible property for each data source.
  • Plot Visible – Clicking the next-to-last column in the Data Source Legend area allows you to toggle between Yes and No to set the Plot Visible property for each data source.

NOTE: This property applies only to the Line and XY Charts.

Duration

IMPORTANT: These fields do not apply to XY charts plotting real-time data.

NOTE: Be aware that the x-axis labels on the MultiLine Enhanced Chart are auto calculated for you based on the chart dimensions, the maximum labels specified, the chart font size and style, and time format (whether milliseconds display). Because of this auto-calculation, the first label on the x-axis may not indicate the start time of the chart data. Similarly, the last label may not indicate the end of chart data (especially when you zoom). Even though the start and end labels may not be correct, the duration is for the time you specify.

Item

Description

Days

Allows you to enter the number of days for the duration of the display. This field can be used in conjunction with the following field.

The duration for the display determines how much data to display on the x axis. The minimum duration for a display is 1 second; the maximum is 365 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds. The durations apply to all chart data sources.

Time

Allows you to enter the number of hours, minutes and seconds for the duration for the display. This field can be used in conjunction with the preceding field.

Export

Click to access the Exporting dialog box.

Snapshot

Click to get a maximized static snapshot of the chart, presented at full-screen size.

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