CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netgridseriesmschart
sinDizzy
sinDizzy

Reputation: 1364

Display a Template MS Chart for ,NET

VB2010 using MS Chart Control: I think my question is basic but havent found out how to do it. When the form first loads the chart control shows nothing, not even a grid. When I load points into my series then the grid plus the points get displayed.

How can I display a template chart with just the gridlines so that the user can see that there is a chart that will be populated. I did try to add two bogus points to one of my series and then disable the series to not display the points but the Chart control doesn't see it as a reason to render a grid.

Thanks for any help.

Edit: Thanks to @baddack for giving me food for thought. Here is what i did:

On form load create a bogus series. This series will stay in the chart for the life of the app.

        Dim srs As New Series                           'create a new series
        cht.Series.Add(srs)                             'add series to chart
        srs.ChartType = SeriesChartType.Point           'it will be a point chart with one point (or you can add several points to define your display envelope)
        srs.Name = "bogus"                              'name of our bogus series
        srs.IsVisibleInLegend = False                   'do not show the series in the legend
        srs.Points.AddXY(25000, 1000)                   'this will be a point in the upper-right corner of the envelope you want to display
        srs.Points(0).MarkerColor = Color.Transparent   'no color for the marker
        srs.Points(0).MarkerSize = 0                    'no size for the marker
        chtObstacles.Series("bogus").Enabled = True     'name of the bogus series
        chtObstacles.Update()                           'update the chart

then the first thing I do when I run my process is to clear all other series and enable the bogus series so that it can be used to size the "empty" grid.

        cht.Series("srs1").Points.Clear()
        cht.Series("srs2").Points.Clear()
        cht.Series("bogus").Enabled = True

then run the process that provides the points for the chart:

  if pointCount > 0 then
       'turn off the series so it will not be used in the grid sizing
       cht.Series("bogus").Enabled = False 

       'add points to the chart
       'code to add points to MS Chart
  endif

  cht.ChartAreas("chaMain").RecalculateAxesScale()  'we must recalculate the axes scale to reset the mins/maxs

  'resume updating UI
  cht.Series.ResumeUpdates()

  'force redraw of chart
  cht.Update()

Upvotes: 0

Views: 67

Answers (1)

Baddack
Baddack

Reputation: 2053

You can add an empty point to the chart. That will make the grids show up, but not display any points.

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    chart1.Series.Clear();
    SetChartAxisLines(chart1.ChartAreas[0]);

    Series s = new Series();
    chart1.Series.Add(s);
    s.Points.Add();
    s.Points[0].IsEmpty = true;
}

private void SetChartAxisLines(ChartArea ca)
{
    //X-Axis
    ca.AxisX.MajorGrid.LineColor = Color.DarkGray;
    ca.AxisX.MajorGrid.LineDashStyle = ChartDashStyle.Dash;
    ca.AxisX.MinorGrid.Enabled = true;
    ca.AxisX.MinorGrid.LineColor = System.Drawing.Color.Silver;
    ca.AxisX.MinorGrid.LineDashStyle = ChartDashStyle.Dot;

    //Y-Axis
    ca.AxisY.MajorGrid.LineColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkGray;
    ca.AxisY.MajorGrid.LineDashStyle = System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartDashStyle.Dash;
    ca.AxisY.MinorGrid.Enabled = true;
    ca.AxisY.MinorGrid.LineColor = System.Drawing.Color.Silver;
    ca.AxisY.MinorGrid.LineDashStyle = System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartDashStyle.Dot;
}

Example

Upvotes: 1

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