Version History
The list below describes past changes and additions to MindFusion.Charting:
The TowerChart control and TowerRenderer component draw tower charts, rendering series side by side to allow comparing data sequence and sizes. Assign the series to compare to LeftSeries and RightSeries properties of the chart. The chart segments are arranged according to the value of TowerLayout property, and their shape is drawn as specified by SegmentShape.
Tower charts require three-dimensional series. The first dimension specifies event order or timing and is used to sort or position segments. Second dimension specifies duration and is rendered as segment length along the main axis. Third dimension specifies a value rendered as segment width along the cross axis. You could use the stock EventSeries class as data container, or implement the Series interface to provide data from your own data structures.
The MindFusion.Charting distribution now includes assemblies for .NET 6. Locally installed assemblies don't show automatically in toolbox at this time, you can either add them manually or through Nuget package manager.
The MindFusion.Charting distribution now includes assemblies for .NET 5. Design time support is not available at this time, you can add Dashboard and other controls to a form only by code.
The Origin method of Axis class lets you specify the origin of an axis. If set to a non-null value, the component renders an axis line inside the plot. Bars are drawn below that axis line if their values are smaller than the origin. For stacked bar charts, each bar length corresponds to the difference between bar's value and origin.
Funnel charts are often used to represent the stages of a process and show relative values or measurements associated with each stage. In MindFusion.Charting API, funnel charts can be created using the FunnelChart stand-alone control or a FunnelRenderer instance placed inside a more complex dashboard. FunnelChart inherits from the base Chart class and offers additional customization through its SegmentSpacing and StemWidth properties.
Data that should be drawn in charts is read through an interface called Series, whose instances can be assigned to the Series properties of Chart and SeriesRenderer classes. You could implement this interface in your own model classes to avoid duplicating data. Alternatively, if a model class is sealed but provides API to access its data, you could implement the interface in an adapter class. The library includes several pre-defined series classes that let you specify data via IList or array objects. For example, BarSeries lets you specify lists of values, inner labels and top labels, and PointSeries lets you specify data as a list of points. In addition, the DataBoundSeries and XmlSeries implementations can be used to automatically read from a .NET data source or from an XML document. Instances of latter series types are automatically generated when chart's DataSource property is set.
Chart graphics are drawn inside Plot components by SeriesRenderer -derived objects. Each plot can contain multiple series renderers from same or different types. For example, you can draw area, line and bar graphics in same plot by adding AreaRenderer, LineRenderer and BarRenderer objects to its SeriesRenderers collection. Chart controls automatically generate a series renderer of appropriate type for their Series.
The Dashboard control can contain multiple plots, axes, legends, images, gauges and text blocks arranged in dynamic layout. Individual components can be added to dashboard's default RootPanel or LayoutPanel containers, or for more complex layouts add intermediary panels such as GridPanel and StackPanel to the default ones. To show different types of chart graphics, add Plot2D to draw in 2D Cartesian coordinate system, Plot3D for 3D Cartesian system, and PolarPlot for polar coordinate system. To draw horizontal or vertical axes, add respectively XAxisRenderer and YAxisRenderer objects. To show gauges, add LinearGaugeRenderer or OvalGaugeRenderer, whose Gauge property contains the gauge model definition.
The Dashboard control and Chart controls that derive from it expose Print and PrintPreview methods for printing on paper. Call the ExportImage and CreateImage methods to generate bitmap image of the dashboard. The ExportPdf method exports the chart to a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. The ExportSvg method exports the chart to an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file.
Values of appearance properties can come from several places in the component hierarchy. SeriesRenderer -derived objects can use attributes from their local SeriesStyle, from plot's SeriesStyle, or from the *Series properties in current Theme. Component classes use either their local properties or ones defined in the theme. By default, appearance properties in SeriesRenderer and Component classes have null values, which makes the drawing code use values from the theme.
