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Graphics Server .NET 3.5

New features in Graphics Server .NET 3.5 include:

• Minor Grid Lines

  Grid lines (also known as coordinate lines) can serve as an excellent visual aid by providing guide lines that viewers can use in reading data values on a chart. Previous versions of Graphics Server .NET supported grid lines aligned with major tick marks on an axis. New in version 3.5 is the addition of grid lines aligned with intermediate or minor tick marks. Both types of grid lines are now available with all linear chart types.

  To add minor grid lines to a chart, first set the MinorTicks property of the axis to a value greater than zero (causing minor ticks to display). Then set the MinorGridLinesOn property to true (causing minor grid lines to display). You can control the color and thickness of the lines by setting MinorGridLineProperties.

  

  In this illustration, the chart's Axis3DX and the Axis3DY have the MinorTicks property set to a value greater than zero, MinorTicksOn set to true, and MinorGridLinesProperties.Color set to LightGray. Major grid lines were also enabled for both axes by setting GridLinesOn to true and GridLinesProperies.Color to DimGray.

  
  
• SpokeEvery for Radar Charts

  A new SpokeEvery property allows you to display only some of the spokes on a Radar chart rather than all of them. Previously a spoke was displayed for every data point.

  

  In this illustration, SpokeEvery has been set to 10, causing every 10th spoke to display.

  
  
• Symbol Overrides

  You can now override individual symbols within a series using the SeriesDrawing.SetDataPointSymbol method. And you can retrieve the symbol for a given data point using the SeriesDrawing.GetDataPointSymbol method.

  In the example shown here, the third data point's symbol has been overridden with a large green upside-down triangle.

  

  This result was produced by the following code fragment:

  // Get a reference to the chart
  Chart cht = this.gsNetWinChart1.Chart;
   
  // Replace the third point's default symbol with an upside-down triangle
  cht.GetSeriesDrawing(0).SetDataPointSymbol(2, SymbolShape.UpsideDownTriangle, Color.Green);
  
  // Increase the symbol's size
  cht.GetSeriesDrawing(0).GetDataPointSymbol(2).Size = 15;
  
  // Redraw the chart
  cht.RecalcLayout();
  	  

  
  
• Marker Labels for 3D Charts

  Until now, only 2D charts could have marker labels. In version 3.5, all 3D chart types also support them. You turn on labels for 3D markers, just as you do for 2D markers, by setting either the SeriesDrawing.MarkerLabelsOn property for each data series or use the SeriesDefaults.MarkerLabelsOn property to set the default for all series. With version 3.5 you can also override any 3D marker label with a custom label using the SeriesDrawing.SetUserMarkerLabel method.

  

  In this illustration, marker labels were turned on by setting SeriesDrawing.MarkerLabelsOn to true, and the label colors were assigned the same color as the marker by setting SeriesDrawing.MarkerLabelProperties.Color = SeriesDrawing.MarkerFill.Color.

  
  
• Tooltips for Windows Forms

  Several new properties and one new method allow you to add tooltips to charts on Windows Forms. The control's ToolTipEnabled property toggles tooltips on and off, and the ToolTipDuration property specifies how long the tooltip displays. By default, tooltips for data markers display the point value. You can override this and specify your own text by calling the SeriesDrawing.SetUserMarkerToolTip method. In addition, you can specify custom text for tooltips for non-data elements of a chart by setting the Grid.ToolTipText, ChartTitle.ToolTipText, Legend.ToolTipText, and Annotation.ToolTipText properties.

  

  In the example shown here, the control's ToolTipEnabled property has been set to true. When the mouse hovers over a data point, a tooltip displays the point's value.

  
  
• Recommended Usage: Font.Dispose

  Whenever you set the font or get the font in code, you should call Font.Dispose in the same local function. This is a change in version 3.5 from the practice permitted in earlier versions. For example, you can set the chart title's font like this:

  private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
      // Get chart reference
      Chart chart = this.gsNetWinChart1.Chart;
  
      // Set chart title font
      chart.ChartTitle.TextFormat.Font = new Font("Comic Sans MS", 14);
  	
      // Dispose of the object after you are done with it
      chart.ChartTitle.TextFormat.Font.Dispose();
  }
  
  

  The example code creates a new Font object and stores it in the TextFormat.Font property. As with many classes in System.Drawing, you should dispose of a Font object when you are done using it. Internally, the font information is saved by Graphics Server, so there is no difficulty with disposing of the Font object as soon as you are done using it, preferably later in the same routine where it is created. Our example disposes of the Font object in the next line, immediately after it is created and used.

  
  
• And much more....

Download the evaluation of Graphics Server 3.5 today and see how easy and powerful graphing can be.

What's new in Graphics Server .NET 3.5

This document details the new features and the bugs fixes within GS.NET 3.5.

Click the MS Word icon to view our Version 3.5 Features document. Or right-click the icon and choose "Save Target As..." to download and save the document.

What's in Graphics Server .NET 3.0

To see what has been added to our previous version Graphics Server .NET v3.0, please go here to see all the features of Graphics Server .NET 3.0.