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Combine BarChart and PointChart

i got a Little "Problem", i want to create a Chart looking like this:
So basically
Series 1 = Normal bar Chart. Color green if it Ends before the "time max" (series2) Series 2 = just a DataPoint / Marker on top of series 1 items.
I am struggling with this though...
my Code:
chart_TimeChart.Series.Clear();
string series_timeneeded = "Time Needed";
chart_TimeChart.Series.Add(series_timeneeded);
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded]["PixelPointWidth"] = "5";
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.ScrollBar.Size = 10;
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.ScrollBar.ButtonStyle = ScrollBarButtonStyles.SmallScroll;
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.ScrollBar.IsPositionedInside = true;
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.ScrollBar.Enabled = true;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded].BorderWidth = 2;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded].ChartType = SeriesChartType.StackedBar;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded].YValueType = ChartValueType.Time;
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.LabelStyle.Format = "HH:mm:ss";
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded].XValueType = ChartValueType.String;
for (int i = 0; i < MaxNumber; i++)
{
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_timeneeded].Points.AddXY("item"+ " " + (i + 1).ToString(), DateTime.Now.Add(Timespans[i]));
}
chart_TimeChart.Series.Add(series_FinishTime);
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].ChartType = SeriesChartType.StackedBar;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].BorderWidth = 0;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].MarkerSize = 15;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].MarkerStyle = MarkerStyle.Square;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].MarkerColor = Color.Black;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].YValueType = ChartValueType.DateTime;
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].XValueType = ChartValueType.String;
for (int i = 0; i < MaxNumber; i++)
{
DateTime YPosition = GetFinishTime(i);
chart_TimeChart.Series[series_FinishTime].Points.AddXY("item"+ " " +(i+1).ToString(), YPosition);
}
but this only Displays the 2nd series on top of the first one but the first one isnt visible anymore. The Maker of series 2 isnt shown but instead the bar is (eventhough i made borderwidth to 0). In my opinion/thinking i just have to make the "bar" of series 2 invisible and just Show the marker Points for series 2.
Any ideas?
Update:
string seriesname = Name+ i.ToString();
chart_TimeChart.Series.Add(seriesname);
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].SetCustomProperty("DrawSideBySide", "false");
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].ChartType = SeriesChartType.StackedBar; //Y and X are exchanged
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].YValueType = ChartValueType.Time;
chart_TimeChart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.LabelStyle.Format = "HH:mm:ss";
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].XValueType = ChartValueType.String;
DateTime TimeNeeded = DateTime.Now.Add(List_AllLiniengroupsTimespans[k][i]);
DateTime TimeMax = GetFinishTime(k, i);
TimeSpan TimeDifference = TimeNeeded - TimeMax;
if (TimeNeeded > TimeMax) //All good
{
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points.AddXY(seriesname, TimeNeeded); //Time till finish
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].Color = Color.Blue;
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points.AddXY(seriesname, TimeNeeded.Add(TimeDifference)); //time left
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[1].Color = Color.Red;
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[1].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
}
else if (TimeMax > TimeNeeded) //wont make it in time
{
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points.AddXY(seriesname, TimeNeeded); //time till still okay
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].Color = Color.Blue;
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points.AddXY(seriesname, TimeNeeded.Add(TimeDifference)); //Time that is too much
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[1].Color = Color.Green;
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[1].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
}
else if (TimeMax == TimeNeeded) //fits exactly
{
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points.AddXY(seriesname, TimeNeeded);
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].Color = Color.DarkOrange;
chart_TimeChart.Series[seriesname].Points[0].SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", seriesname);
}
the Code will be displayed as:
but i want it to look like this:

!! See the update below !!
If you really want to create a StackedBar chart, your chart has two issues:
If you want to stack datapoints they need to have meaningful x-values; without them how can it know what to stack on each other?
You add strings, which look fine but simply don't work. That is because the DataPoint.XValue field is double and when you add string into it it is set to 0 !! Your string is copied to the Label but otherwise lost.
So you need to come up with a suitable numeric value you use for the x-values..
And you also need to group the series you want to stack. For this there is a special property called StackedGroupName which serves to group those series that shall be stacked.
Here is how you can use it:
yourSeries1.SetCustomProperty("StackedGroupName", "Group1");
For a full example see this post !
It also shows one way of setting the Labels with string values of your choice..
This is the way to go for real StackedBar charts. Your workaround may or may not work. You could try to make the colors transparent or equal to the chart's backcolor; but it won't be more than a hack, imo.
Update
I guess I have misread the question. From what I see you do not really want to create a stacked chart.
Instead you struggle with these issues:
displaying bars at the same y-spot
making some bars invisible
displaying a vertical line as a marker
Let's tackle each:
Some column types including all Bars, Columns and then some have a little known special property called DrawSideBySide.
By default is is set to Auto, which will work like True. This is usually fine as we don't want bars to sit upon each other, effectively hiding all or part of the overlaid points.
But here we do want them to share the same y-position, so we need to set the property to false for at least one Series; the others (on Auto) will follow..:
You can do it either like this:
aSeries["DrawSideBySide"] = "false";
or like this:
aSeries.SetCustomProperty("DrawSideBySide", "false");
Next we hide the overlaid Series; this is simple:
aSeries.Color = Color.Transparent;
The last issue is displaying a line marker. There is no such MarkerStyle, so we need to use a custom style. For this we need to create a suitable bitmap and add it as a NamedImage to the chart's Images collection.
This sounds more complicated than it is; however the MarkerImage will not be scaled, so we need to created suitable sizes whenever we resize the Chart or add/remove points. I will ignore this complication for now..
int pointCount = 10;
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(2, chart.ClientSize.Height / pointCount - 5);
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)) g.Clear(Color.Black);
NamedImage marker = new NamedImage("marker", bmp);
chart.Images.Clear(); // quick & dirty
chart.Images.Add(marker);
Here is the result:
A few notes:
I would recommend to use variables for all chart elements you refer to repeatedly instead of using indexed references all the time. Less code, easier to read, a lot easier to maintain, and probably better performance.
Since your code called for the visible datapoints to be either red or green the Legend will not show a good representation. See here for an example of drawing a multi-colored legend item..
I used the chart height; this is not really recommended as there may be Titles or Legends or even more ChartAreas; instead you should use the height of the ChartArea, or even more precise, the height of the InnerPlotPosition. You would need to convert those from percentages to pixels. Not too hard, see below or see here
or here for more examples!
The markers should be adapted from the Resize and probably from the AxisViewChanged events. Putting it in a nice function to call (e.g. void setMarkerImage(Chart chart, Series s, string name, int width, Color c)) is always a good idea.
If you need to adapt the size of the marker image repeatedly, you may want to write better code for clearing the old one; this should include disposing of the Bitmap that was used before..
Here is an example:
var oldni = chart.Images.FindByName("marker");
if (oldni != null)
{
oldni.Image.Dispose();
chart.Images.Remove(oldni);
oldni.Dispose();
}
In some situations one needs to nudge the Chart to update some of its properties; RecalculateAxesScale is one such nudge.
Example for calculating a suitable marker height:
ChartArea ca = chart.ChartAreas[0];
ca.RecalculateAxesScale();
float cah = ca.Position.Height;
float iph = ca.InnerPlotPosition.Height;
float h = chart3.ClientSize.Height * cah / 100f * iph / 100f;
int mh = (int)(h / s.Points.Count);
Final note: The original answer stressed the importance of using meaningful x-values. Strings are useless! This was important for stacking bars; but it is equally important now, when we want bars to sit at the same vertical positions! Adding the x-values as strings is again resulting in nonsense..
(Since we have Bars the x-values go along the vertical axis and vice versa..)

Aligning and Synchronising X Axes in MS Chart Doesn't Work

I have a chart control (from System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization) with two chart areas. ChartArea2 is aligned to ChartArea1 as follows:
ChartArea2.AlignWithChartArea = "ChartArea1";
ChartArea2.AlignmentOrientation = AreaAlignmentOrientations.Vertical;
ChartArea2.AlignmentStyle = AreaAlignmentStyles.All;
This works well except the X Axes are not aligned, despite being included in the AlignmentStyle. Instead, their minimum, maximum, interval, etc remain independent and are set according to the datapoints.
I need the X Axes to be identical, i.e. min, max, interval, etc. I can set these properties in code to force them to be identical. However, as soon as I zoom into ChartArea1, then the X Axes become misaligned again.
Is there a simple way for the X Axes to mirror each other regardless of the zoom level?

Well, they actually are aligned , i.e. sit at the same position regardless of their labels but they don't have the same range.
You don't see the alignment of the X-Axes when the sit vertically but look at the Y-Axes: They have different Font sizes but sit at the same horizontal position!
If you want to show the same range you need to set the range, as you wrote, by setting the Minimum & Maximum from the default NaN (which here means Automatic) to some values.
And when you zoom one the other will zoom in parallel automatically as long as AreaAlignmentStyles.AxesView or AreaAlignmentStyles.All are selected.
So what you need is the combination of a non-automatic, explicit range (for the unzoomed state) and and a suitable AreaAlignmentStyle (for the zoomed state.)
Note that the AlignmentStyle needs to be made only for one of the two ChartAreas. But the Minimum/Maximum values need to be set for both:
ChartArea CA1 = chart1.ChartAreas[0];
ChartArea CA2 = chart1.ChartAreas.Add("ChartArea2");
// 2nd CA aligns to the 1st one:
CA2.AlignWithChartArea = "ChartArea1";
CA2.AlignmentOrientation = AreaAlignmentOrientations.Vertical;
CA2.AlignmentStyle = AreaAlignmentStyles.All;
// both have the same range:
CA1.AxisX.Maximum = 30;
CA2.AxisX.Maximum = 30;
CA1.AxisX.Minimum = 0;
CA2.AxisX.Minimum = 0;
// both are interactively zoomable:
CA1.AxisX.ScaleView.Zoomable = true;
CA1.AxisX.ScrollBar.Enabled = true;
CA1.CursorX.IsUserSelectionEnabled = true;
CA2.AxisX.ScaleView.Zoomable = true;
CA2.AxisX.ScrollBar.Enabled = true;
CA2.CursorX.IsUserSelectionEnabled = true;
In a zoomed state both ChartAreas still show the same range and have the same ScaleView.ViewMinimum / ScaleView.ViewMaximum:
Code to test the ScaleView values:
private void chart1_AxisViewChanged(object sender, ViewEventArgs e)
{
AxisScaleView ASV1X = chart1.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.ScaleView;
AxisScaleView ASV2X = chart1.ChartAreas[1].AxisX.ScaleView;
label1.Text = "ScaleViews Min/Max: " + ASV1X.ViewMinimum + " - " + ASV1X.ViewMaximum +
" | " + ASV2X.ViewMinimum + " - " + ASV2X.ViewMaximum ;
}
Note that to keep not only the value ranges aligned but also the visual display of the Axes you need to use the AlignmentStyle = AreaAlignmentStyles.All;, not just AxisView or else great differences in the values' formatting results or in the number of points to display can move the Y-Axis and make the X-Axes look misaligned!

Setting ChartArea.AxisX.IsMarginVisible = false; will solve the problem

Visual artefacts when drawing 2D Function contour plot (using FPlot)

So I use an open source .NET library for plotting: FPlot
Here's the function that I'm trying to draw:
f(x,y) = x^2+3*y^2+2*x*y
Here's what I want it to look like:
Clarification:
I don't need the exact same appearence as in the image, I just need the plot to be mathematically correct
There are only 10 conours in the picture, I need as much as can be fit on the screen
Here's how I tried to do this:
var graphFunction = new Function2D();
graphFunction.source = "return (pow(x,2)+3*pow(y,2)+2*x*y)/10;";
/* I'm dividing by 10 because otherwise the whole plot is solid color */
graphFunction.Compile(true);
That's how the FPlot generated plot looks up close:
This is exactly what I want, but when I zoom out here's what happens:
Theese extra ellipses are not supposed to be there, in fact they are not there, this is just a graphical artefact, because when you zoom into one of theese 'fake' ellipses this is what you see:
The problem can be in this line:
graphFunction.source = "return (pow(x,2)+3*pow(y,2)+2*x*y)/10;";
...or in the FPlot source code. Any Ideas?
UPDATE:
So, z value in graph seems to be the problem. When value of a function, z = f(x,y) in a graph exceeds the z1 (max z) value it resets to z = z%z1 (same happens when z is lower then z0), which causes these "lines" - they are not countour lines, like I thought.
So that means the solution is: set z0 to min f(x,y) on screen, and set z1 to max f(x,y) on screen.

Make the displaying borders of your FPlotLibrary.GraphControl have the same value in all 3 dimensions and the problem goes away:
graphControl1.x0 = -40;
graphControl1.x1 = 40;
graphControl1.y0 = -40;
graphControl1.y1 = 40;
graphControl1.z0 = -40;
graphControl1.z1 = 40;
Btw, the "problem" reproduces, for instance, if you do
graphControl1.x0 = -40;
graphControl1.x1 = 40;
graphControl1.y0 = -40;
graphControl1.y1 = 40;
graphControl1.z0 = -1;
graphControl1.z1 = 1;

Windows Forms Chart - column series not plotting from zero on y axis

I have an MS chart control with several StepLine series and one column series.
All series are plotted by doing:
double yvalue = ...;
Series[seriesName].Points.AddXY(DateTime.Now, new object[] {yvalue});
the series in question is defined in the designer:
series31.ChartArea = "ChartArea1";
series31.Color = System.Drawing.Color.BlueViolet;
series31.CustomProperties = "EmptyPointValue=Zero, MaxPixelPointWidth=1";
series31.Legend = "Legend1";
series31.MarkerSize = 1;
Step lines plot fine, however the column series is displayed with a line going from the bottom of the chart to the value (in the screen cap below, the value is typically around 2.0).
How can I get the series to just draw a line that starts at 0 on the y-axis?

I assume you want a chart that will start from zero in Y-Axis at the bottom.
chartArea.AxisY.Minimum = 0;
if you do so,then you will not see the value less then zero in chart.you can also set the Maximum of
Y-Axis.
chartArea.AxisY.Minimum = 0;
chartArea.AxisY.Maximum = 10;
above code will show only the values from 0 to 10.

MS Chart Control Two Y Axis

I'm building a chart to show items by volume by category. So far I've been succcessful in showing items by volume as it's a simple x/y chart, however I'd like to show y2 and I know MS Chart Controls has a built in AxisY2 however when I try anything with it the Chart get's all funky.
Here's what I'm looking for (in ascii art):
item1 |[][][][][].............| cat1
item2 |[][]...................| cat2
item3 |[][....................| cat1
item4 |[][][][][][][][........| cat1
|_______________________|
0 1 2 3 4 5
Like previously mentioned I can get Items and counts to show fine as that's relatively easy, it's the Categories that I can't seem to place.
Thanks

Here's what did it for me- after I created the chart I added the following lines:
chrtMain.Series[0].YAxisType = AxisType.Primary;
chrtMain.Series[1].YAxisType = AxisType.Secondary;
chrtMain.ChartAreas[0].AxisY2.LineColor = Color.Transparent;
chrtMain.ChartAreas[0].AxisY2.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
chrtMain.ChartAreas[0].AxisY2.Enabled = AxisEnabled.True;
chrtMain.ChartAreas[0].AxisY2.IsStartedFromZero = chrtMain.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.IsStartedFromZero;
There was no need to superimpose two charts or anything!

It gets even better:
For using the second Y axis, there is no need for a second chart area. You can decide per serie which axis you want to use with the Series.YAxisType property.
Take a look at the documentation on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd489216.aspx
Martijn

Short Answer first : According to MS Examples, there is no straight way to do that, but just a workaround trick : Plot your series on a second chartArea matching exactly your existing area position, (by performing a copy of your Series) having invisible primary X/Y Axis and a visible secondary Y Axis (AxisY2). And set the chartArea and the copied series's backcolors to transparent. (This can be applied to secondary X axis in case of column graphs rather that bars)
//Suppose you already have a ChartArea with the series plotted and the left Y Axis
//Add a fake Area where the only appearent thing is your secondary Y Axis
ChartArea area1 = chart.ChartAreas.Add("ChartAreaCopy_" + series.Name);
area1.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
area1.BorderColor = Color.Transparent;
area1.Position.FromRectangleF(area.Position.ToRectangleF());
area1.InnerPlotPosition.FromRectangleF(area.InnerPlotPosition.ToRectangleF());
area1.AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisX.MajorTickMark.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisX.LabelStyle.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisY.MajorTickMark.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisY.LabelStyle.Enabled = false;
area1.AxisY2.Enabled = AxisEnabled.True;
area1.AxisY2.LabelStyle.Enabled = true;
// Create a copy of specified series, and change Y Values to categories
Series seriesCopy = chart.Series.Add(series.Name + "_Copy");
seriesCopy.ChartType = series.ChartType;
foreach(DataPoint point in series.Points)
{
double category = getYourItemCategory(point.XValue);
seriesCopy.Points.AddXY(point.XValue, category);
}
// Hide copied series
seriesCopy.IsVisibleInLegend = false;
seriesCopy.Color = Color.Transparent;
seriesCopy.BorderColor = Color.Transparent;
//Drop it in the chart to make the area show (only the AxisY2 should appear)
seriesCopy.ChartArea = area1.Name;
PS : I've spent two nights awake messing with MS chart controls, trying to put two different Y axis on a Chart Area. I wanted to put two differently scaled series (same X scale, different Y Scales : one on the left for Series A , the other on the right for Series B).
In fact, this proved to be a real nightmare, when one could expect this to be pretty straightforward. The truth is that MS Chart Controls are definitely NOT adapted for this particular use case IMHO. The multiple Y axis sample suggested in the MSCC sample examples is an awful and very ugly workaround, which requires two chartareas on top of the default one, playing with visibility and transparency, to achieve the desired effect (which sounds like a very bad illusion magic trick).
While hoping for this to be enriched and fixed in a proper way in future versions, if you really need an efficient way to manage multiple Y-Axis, sitck to ZedGraph

You can add as many series on the Y axis as you want, below code is an extract from a chart I use that has more than 2 secondary y axes, code is for vb.net but i'm sure you can work it out:
ChartKPI.Series.Clear()
ChartKPI.Series.Add("Series1")
ChartKPI.Series("Series1").XValueMember = "Date"
ChartKPI.Series("Series1").YValueMembers = "HSDPA_Vol_MBy"
ChartKPI.Series("Series1").Name = "HSDPA_Vol_MBy"
ChartKPI.Series("HSDPA_Vol_MBy").ChartType = SeriesChartType.Column
ChartKPI.Series("HSDPA_Vol_MBy").ToolTip = "HSDPA MBytes: #VAL"
ChartKPI.Series.Add("Series2")
ChartKPI.Series("Series2").YAxisType = AxisType.Secondary
ChartKPI.Series("Series2").XValueMember = "Date"
ChartKPI.Series("Series2").YValueMembers = "cs_voice_traffic"
ChartKPI.Series("Series2").Name = "cs_voice_traffic"
ChartKPI.Series("cs_voice_traffic").ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
ChartKPI.Series("cs_voice_traffic").BorderWidth = 3
ChartKPI.Series("cs_voice_traffic").ToolTip = "CS Voice Traffic: #VAL"
ChartKPI.Series.Add("Series3")
ChartKPI.Series("Series3").YAxisType = AxisType.Secondary
ChartKPI.Series("Series3").XValueMember = "Date"
ChartKPI.Series("Series3").YValueMembers = "cs_conv_traffic"
ChartKPI.Series("Series3").Name = "cs_conv_traffic"
ChartKPI.Series("cs_conv_traffic").ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
ChartKPI.Series("cs_conv_traffic").BorderWidth = 3
ChartKPI.Series("cs_conv_traffic").ToolTip = "CS Conv Traffic: #VAL"
ChartKPI.Series.Add("Series4")
ChartKPI.Series("Series4").YAxisType = AxisType.Secondary
ChartKPI.Series("Series4").XValueMember = "Date"
ChartKPI.Series("Series4").YValueMembers = "ps_backg_traffic_ul"
ChartKPI.Series("Series4").Name = "ps_backg_traffic_ul"
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_ul").ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_ul").BorderWidth = 3
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_ul").ToolTip = "PS Backg Traffic UL: #VAL"
ChartKPI.Series.Add("Series5")
ChartKPI.Series("Series5").YAxisType = AxisType.Secondary
ChartKPI.Series("Series5").XValueMember = "Date"
ChartKPI.Series("Series5").YValueMembers = "ps_backg_traffic_dl"
ChartKPI.Series("Series5").Name = "ps_backg_traffic_dl"
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_dl").ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_dl").BorderWidth = 3
ChartKPI.Series("ps_backg_traffic_dl").ToolTip = "PS Backg Traffic DL: #VAL"
ChartKPI.ChartAreas("ChartArea1").AxisX.Title = "HSDPA Traffic (MB)"
ChartKPI.ChartAreas("ChartArea1").AxisX.MajorGrid.Interval = 1
ChartKPI.ChartAreas("ChartArea1").AxisX.LabelStyle.Interval = 1
ChartKPI.ChartAreas("ChartArea1").AxisY.Title = "RRC Attempts"
ChartKPI.ChartAreas("ChartArea1").AxisY2.Title = "R99 Traffic (Erlang)"
ChartKPI.DataBind()

Solution:
chart1.ChartAreas[1].AlignWithChartArea = chart1.ChartAreas[0].Name;
chart1.ChartAreas[1].AlignmentOrientation = AreaAlignmentOrientations.All;