MSChart Extension - Zoom and Pan Control Version 2.2.0

Introduction

MSChart Extension is an extension class for Microsoft Chart (MSChart) control in Visual Studio for WinForms applications. The tool was first published on July 2012 with the intention to overcome some of the limitation from the original MSChart and provide new functions. With zoom, pan and cursors added, the stock MSChart components can be use as an oscilloscope for waveform display and inspection.

If you are new to MSChart Extension, we recommend you to read the previous articles listed below first.

These articles including this is created as technical sharing as well as documentation for this library.
The source code and compiled package is available for download at:


Known Issue

  • MSChart Extensions is designed for chart type with X and Y Axis, the extension method will not work with some of the chart type such as Radar and Pie.
  • It is known that zoom does not works properly with Log Axis. We decided to disable extensions functions for chart with LOG Axis.
  • Date Time Axis - Zoom may not behave correctly for chart where XAxis values in DateTime format.

What's new

Scroll Zoom

Zoom along X-Axis can now be done by pressing the CTRL + ALT Key while moving the Mouse wheel to zoom in  / out X-Axis of the chart. This is the simplified version of the Mouser Wheel Zoom function with Y-Axis remain untouched. The code take consideration both X and X2 Axis.

private static void ChartControl_MouseWheel(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    //Some Codes...

     if (Form.ModifierKeys == (Keys.Alt | Keys.Control))
    {
        //Mouse Wheel Zoom: X Axis
        ScaleViewZoom(ptrChartArea.AxisX, e.Delta);
        ScaleViewZoom(ptrChartArea.AxisX2, e.Delta);
    }
    
    //More Codes...
}

Series Selection for Chart Cursor

From Version 2.2.0 onward, user can now select which series to use for chart cursor 1 and 2. Prior to Version 2.2.0, both chart cursors is only works with primary X-Axis and Y-Axis. An additional drop down menu is added to "Select - Cursor n" menu to let user to choose which series to use by chart cursor. This drop down menu will not exist if the selected chart area contains only one axis.



The additional drop down menu is created in context menu opening event.
Drop down menu for "Select - Cursor n" menu is cleared. Next, we filter out series which belongs to selected chart area using foreach loop.  If series count is only 1,  drop down menu is not created and chart cursor will always use the one and only one series in chart. Otherwise, a drop down menu is created for user to select which series to use for each chart cursor. On top of that , a Clear Cursors... function is added to remove all cursors from chart.

Since the drop down menu is recreated each time chart context menu open, it's important to remember the last selected series for each chart cursor somewhere else. A new property named SelectedChartSeries is added to ChartCursor class to store the last selected cursor.

All the menu item in context menu will trigger the event ChartContext_ItemClicked when clicked. However, the drop down menu which we added to chart cursors does not trigger this event. Hence, we subscribed to the Click event for this newly added menu item. The Tag property of the series menu added to chart cursor is set to either ChartToolSelect or ChartToolSelect2 to identify which cursor is activate when serving the click event.

Selecting series for selected chart cursor is not solely to identify which X and Y Axis to use, but also preparation for the next feature.

Snap Cursor to Nearest Data Point


The chart data is always much interesting compare to those empty area of the chart. Hence, it's important for the chart cursor to snap to the nearest data point of the selected series for more precise analysis. This feature first introduced in this Version 2.2.0. Should anyone prefer the old way of how chart cursor works, simply set the SnapCursorToData in ChartOption to set chart cursor free again.

This search function is implemented in SnapToNearestData function using the following method:

  1. Sort data points (data) by X value.
  2. Assume that data is evenly distributed along X-Axis, estimate the nearest data index based on x value of cursor, where:
    index = Data_Count x ( Cursor_X_Value - X_Minimum ) / ( X_Maximum - X_Minimum)
  3. Find 2 data point where 1 with x value less than cursor's x value and another with x value greater than cursor's x value.
  4. Calculate distance of each point to chart cursor where distance d = sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2)
  5. Note: We omitted the square root function since we are not interested with the actual distance.
  6. Data with shortest distance is the nearest data point to cursor.
  7. Draw cursor based on the X and Y value of selected data point.

Some more new functions

Some other minor changes included together with this release as follow:
  1. Added function IsZoomed to check if any of the axis is zoomed.
  2. Added function RemoveAnnotation to remove annotation by name.
  3. Exposed function SetChartControlState as public for changing chart control state programmatically.

Bug Fixes

  1. CursorLineWidth and CursorDashStyle does not effect cursor property.
  2. ZoomChanged event not trigger on Mouse Scroll function.

Popular posts from this blog

(AGauge) WinForms Gauge Control - Discontinued

Image
Introduction   Original AGauge control AGauge is a gauge control for WinForms create by A.J.Bauer using GDI+. Original code was published in " Code Project - A fast and performing gauge " The version that I published here is an improved version of AGauge which contains the following changes. Download from GitHub   WinForm Gauge - Released 2021     Looking for more gauge control? Check out this high performance .NET Windows Form gauge for info-graphics and real-time dashboard.Find out more  at https://winformgauge.codearteng.com/   NOTE: We no longer actively maintaining AGauge. The development of this package is taken over by nutdotnet . Refer to his GitHub and NuGet page for details.   Improvements   Dynamic Gauge Label and Gauge Range Properties for gauge label (previously known as CapText ) and range are grouped into GaugeRanges and GaugeLabels which allow us to create any number of range and
Read more

C# DSP Simulation - DSP Lab

Image
Introduction DSP Lab  is a digital signal processing simulation application created to simulate and visualize process of sampling and filtering analog signal using DSP system. This application is created to provide as a tool for educator and student to have a better understanding how DSP system works. DSP Lab allow you to view and listen to output from (Data Acquisition Unit) DAQ and digital filters. DSP Toolbox is the core of DSP Lab application which is a .NET assembly written in C#. The library is released under MIT license. You can use this library to jump start your own DSP powered application. DSP System DSP Lab is built using the system as shown above. Settings for each components are configurable. In PREMIUM  version, a 3 channels mixer system is available for more fun and signal combinations.
Read more

WinForms Controls

Image
Description Collection of .NET Windows Forms controls for WinForms application. Named as CodeArtEng.Controls.dll Download GitHub NuGet Features  Command Line Helper Labeled Text Box Hinted Text Box Multi-Line Button Status Label Open File Panel and Folder Browse Panel MRU (Most Recent Used File List) File Explorer Control Quick Access List Rich Text Box Editor Features Description Command Macro Editor Input editing dialog inspired by Visual Studio "Edit Pre-Build" and "Edit Post-Build" Dialog... ( Learn More... ) Command Line Helper Generate and parse command line with command line helper. ( Learn More... ) Labeled Text Box  Text box with label and hint, derived from Hinted Text Box. Hinted Text Box  Enhanced version of WinForms TextBox with capability to show hint in gray color text. Multi-Line Button  Button control with optional image and 2 lines of text, main and sub title. Each line can be configured using d
Read more