Note: This is documentation for version 4.3 of Source. For a different version of Source, select the relevant space by using the Spaces menu in the toolbar above

Charts

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Former user (Deleted)
22 Mar 2018
12 min read

The Chart tab provides a graphical representation of selected result(s). This can be a single result (as shown in Figure 1) or multiple results combined into a single custom chart. Result(s) can be examined using alternative chart types, such as bar, histogram or cumulative. For charts containing two or more results, your chart can use more than one y-axis. All axes are displayed with their associated units. 

Note: Chart views may be affected when transforms are applied to results

In addition to the selected result's chart, the chart tab also contains:

  • The chart toolbar (Figure 2), which allows you to customise the appearance of the charts, edit their properties, as well as save, copy and print charts, see Chart toolbar;
  • An optional preview pane below the chart showing an overview of the entire chart and highlighting in grey the portion of the result that is displayed in the chart above, see Zoom and preview; and
  • A Quick View toolbar that allows you to quickly alter the view of your results. You can apply either a date range filter or a repeating range filter, and you can also apply an aggregator, see Quick View toolbar.
Figure 1. Chart tab 

Chart toolbar

The chart toolbar (Figure 2) includes a range of options for customising the display of results within the active chart.

Figure 2. Chart toolbar

Note: Pan, lasso zoom and drag are mutually exclusive.

Drag

Allows you to drag the time series onto another chart. See Result tabs.

Note: You can drag and drop charts to and from some plugin tools (eg. the Data Calculator and RAP tools).

Pan

You can explore the chart by selecting this tool then clicking and dragging in the chart area. This is particularly useful when examining a particular area of a chart using the zoom function. 

Zoom and preview

You can affect how zooming behaves using the Lasso Zoom button in conjunction with the Zoom Control pop-up menu. By default, you can zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel - scroll the wheel up to zoom in, and down to zoom out. Figure 3 shows a chart with no zoom and Figure 4 shows the same chart after Lasso Zoom has been applied. 

The preview pane below the chart displays an overview of the entire chart, with the section of the result that is displayed in the chart above highlighted in grey and bordered by two handles. You can toggle the appearance of the preview pane using the Toggle Preview Chart button. When you zoom with Lasso zoom or the scroll mouse wheel, the highlighed section in the preview pane moves to reflect what is visible in the chart. The two handles in the pane can also be used to zoom - simply click and drag, left or right. You can also click in the centre of the greyed section to move the visible window to the left or the right. 

Figure 3. Chart tab, No Zoom


Figure 4. Chart tab, Lasso Zoom


The options available with Zoom Control include:

  • Reset Zoom – Resets the zoom level of the chart to 100%. You can also double-click in the chart area to reset the zoom.
  • Previous Zoom – Zooms to the previous zoom settings;
  • Auto Zoom Y Axis – When zooming in or out, the Y-axis will automatically zoom to the maximum Y-axis value within the displayed X-axis values;
  • Zoom Both Axis – Both the X and Y axes are zoomed in this mode. This is the default;
  • Zoom on Y Axis – Only the Y-axis is zoomed, the X-axis remains constant. This can be also be achieved by clicking, then dragging up or down on the y-axis; and
  • Zoom on X Axis – Only the X-axis is zoomed, the Y-axis remains constant. You also click and drag on the x-axis to achieve the same result.

Log Y-Axis

You can choose to display the Y-axis of the chart on a logarithmic scale by displaying the results in base 10, 2 or as a natural logarithm (base e). This can be useful where data ranges are wildly erratic or contain extreme spikes. 

Use the Log Y-Axis drop down menu for this. The chart shown in Figure 5 is a logarithmic representation of the chart in Figure 3 (notice the logarithmic scale on the y-axis).

Figure 5. Chart tab, log base 10 y-axis

Gridlines

You can view or hide the grid lines on the chart using Toggle Gridlines. This pop-up menu allows you to view the major and minor grid lines on both axes. You can create various combinations using the four options in the pop up menu (eg. Figure 6 shows major and minor gridlines on both axes). The spacing of major and minor gridlines is configured in the Chart Settings dialog, see Chart axes.

Tracing points and the Hint icon

Tracing points are the set of data points that form a chart. When the Hint button is enabled, hovering over the chart displays a tooltip of the X and Y values at these tracing points. Disable the button again to hide these values.

To display tracing points, simply click on a series in the chart to select it ( Figure 6).

 

Figure 6. Tracing points

If you display tracing points and then right click in the chart area, a contextual menu (Figure 7) allows you to modify the appearance of the selected series.

  • The first two items create an additional Y-axis or chart area, and moves the selected result to that axis or chart area respectively; and
  • The remaining items alter the appearance of the selected series, see Series Settings.
Figure 7. Tracing points, special contextual menu

Units

To change the units on the y-axis, make the appropriate selection from the Units drop down menu. The units shown are those available commensurate with the result/s selected.

Chart type

Use the Chart Type drop down menu to choose the type of chart to display. See Chart types for details. 

Legend

By default the legend is shown at the top right of the chart area and allows you to choose which results are shown by using the tick boxes beside each series. Toggle the view of the legend with either Hide/show legend in the Chart toolbar, or the chart contextual menu. This is useful when a custom chart contains several results, and the list of results in the legend takes up a considerable amount of space. You can change the position of the legend by clicking with your mouse and dragging, or through Chart area settings, this can make it easier to view your results.Additionally, you can rename the legend using the Series Settings dialog (Figure 16). Once renamed, the original series name appears as a tooltip when you hover over the legend. Renaming a series does not change the name of the result in the tree.

Toggle Preview Chart

Toggles the view of the preview pane below the chart area.

Filter for overlapping data in multiple series

For a custom chart with multiple results, toggle on to hide all data on dates where one or more result has missing values. When toggled off, the data for the other results is still plotted for that date. This button is automatically turned on and disabled for the following chart types:

  • Double mass
  • Exceedance
  • Scatter plot

Edit Graph Properties

Opens the chart settings dialog, see below. 

Save, copy and print

You can save, copy and print charts using the last three items in the Chart toolbar, respectively. These allow you to:

  • Save the chart as an image (*.png file), as a data file (*.res.csv format), or as a full vector graphic (*.xps format);
  • Copy the chart to the clipboard as an *.emf file, which is a full vector format that can then be pasted directly into Word; and
  • Print the chart.

 

Note: Charts saved or copied as vector graphics are fully scalable, and will be a sharp image at any scale.

Quick View toolbar

Located at the bottom of the chart (Figure 1), the Quick View toolbar (Figure 8) allows you to quickly alter the view of your results. You can apply either a date range filter or a repeating range filter, and you can also apply an aggregator (see Transforms - Types of Transforms for descriptions). These affect the chart, table and statistics view of your results. Unlike transforms, if you re-run your model, or save, close and re-open your project, your selections in the Quick View toolbar will not be saved.

Figure 8, Quick View toolbar

 

Chart settings

The Chart Settings dialog (Figure 9) allows you to centrally manage the display settings of charts and their components. It can be accessed via the Edit Graph Properties button on the toolbar, or via Properties from the chart contextual menu; where the section of chart settings dialog that opens is based on the location of your cursor in the chart when you right click to open the contextual menu. For example, if you right click on an axis and then click on Properties, the Chart Settings dialog opens on Axis Settings.

The dialog contains two panes: a tree menu on the left and a properties pane on the right. The former selects between groups of related chart properties.

Figure 9. Chart settings

Colour

In chart settings and in other areas of Results Manager where you are able to modify colour, this is done by clicking on the relevant colour bar. This will bring up the dialog shown in Figure 10. You can alter colour by selecting it from the colour palette on the left-hand side. Underneath the colour palette are alternative colour palette swatches, and below that are the default colours, which can be configured in General Settings (Figure 17). The selected colour is displayed in the centre. You can change the transparency of the colour using the slider. Alternatively you can enter the colour's RGB or HEX code along with the transparency (alpha) on the right. 

Figure 10, Colour choice dialog window

Charts

Here you can:

  • Display the creation date of the chart by enabling Show Creating date. The resulting change appears as a date on the bottom right side of the chart
  • Choose which series is used as the reference for the difference, double mass and scatter chart types; and 
  • Right click on Charts to add another chart area or use Save as theme... to save the current chart settings as a theme that can be applied to other charts. Refer to Themes.

Chart area settings

The chart area settings dialog (Figure 11) opens when you select the title of the chart (called Chart by default). This allows you to make changes to the display settings of a single chart area. You can:

  • Modify title and legend settings, such as toggle on/off display, adjust position, change font size, colour and style. Note that changing the Title field updates the title in the left panel (eg the title has been changed to Downstream Flow in Figure 11);
  • Toggle the display of a background image – upload an image to display on the chart. Use the various controls to specify its size and position on the chart. The image must be a *.png file with transparency, with a maximum display size of 500 by 500 pixels; and
  • Change settings and style of any annotation.

The example shown in Figure 12 is a result of the settings shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Chart area settings

 

Figure 12. Chart area settings, example

Chart axes

The chart axes settings (Figure 13) allow you to customise views of both primary and secondary axes. Note that additional axes can be added using the contextual menu as shown in Figure 11. Having multiple axes can be useful when you want to:

  • Compare parameters that do not have identical units, such as rainfall and temperature; or
  • Compare patterns between multiple time series, particularly if they are at different scales (eg thousands of megalitres vs. tens of megalitres)

The example shown in Figure 14 is a result of the settings configured in Figure 13. Notice you can do the following:

  • Add and remove secondary axes (labelled Y-Axis (2));
  • Edit an axis' title, colour and location;
  • Change tick spacing and style, adjusting the major and minor increments affects spacing of major and minor gridlines; and
  • Toggle visibility of gridlines and change their style.
Figure 13. Axis settings

 

Figure 14. Axis settings, example

Series settings

You can customise the appearance of all time series in a chart using the Series Settings dialog (Figure 15).

The contextual menu allows you to:

  • Rename a time series;
  • Map a time to a different axis (synonymous to using Axis Mapping in the right panel); and 
  • Move the series to a different chart in the same area.

Use the panel on the right to customise the appearance of the selected time series. 

The example shown in Figure 16 shows the series settings, as configured in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Series Settings

 

Figure 16. Time Series settings, example

General settings

Here, you can:

  • Configure the default series settings (line style, thickness and colour) using the right side panel. All new charts you open will have these settings. 
  • Export these settings (as .xml files), and import previously saved settings. This is useful if you upgrade Source versions, or wish to share your default settings between computers; and
  • Restore Defaults - this restores time series settings to the Source default (shown in Figure 17), and deletes any user-created themes.

Note: General Settings and Themes are application settings, and are maintained if you close and re-open Source.

Figure 17. General settings

Chart Themes

Themes allow you to apply pre-configured chart settings onto a new chart. You can configure a chart for a given function, such as your reporting to your organisation, save this configuration as a theme, and then use this theme to consistently format all your charts for reporting. 

Themes are accessed via General Settings » Themes in the Chart Settings dialog (Figure 18). By default, there are four themes available in Source, each of these themes have been designed with specific tasks in mind (see below). Additional themes can be created by saving an existing chart as a new theme. 

Creating a new theme

  • First, in Results Manager, configure a chart with your desired settings;
  • Open the Chart Settings dialog for this chart; and
  • Right-click Chart and choose Save as theme... (Figure 18).

This creates a new theme and adds it to the list shown in Figure 18. It can now be used to format other charts in either this project or other projects. Themes are application settings, and are maintained if you close and re-open Source.
 

For each theme, you can do the following:

  • Apply the theme settings to the current chart (synonymous to choosing Apply... in the contextual menu);
  • Open... a preview of the theme in a new dialog (synonymous to choosing Preview... in the contextual menu); 
  • Delete the theme; or
  • Export... the theme as an *.xml file using the contextual menu. 

If you upgrade Source versions, or wish to share your themes between computers, first export the theme by right clicking on it and selecting Export... from the contextual menu (Figure 18). Then, in the new Source version, import the theme by opening the Chart Settings dialog, right click on Themes and select Import Themes... from the contextual menu. The theme will appear in the list shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18. Themes

Default Themes

Figures #16, #xx, #17, and #yy show examples of the Analysis, High Contrast Analysis, High Contrast Reporting and Stacked Themes, respectively. Each of these themes have been designed with specific tasks in mind:

  • Analysis Theme - optimised for data analysis. The preview pane is shown and the title is hidden. This is the default theme (Figure 19).
  • High Contrast Analysis Theme - for data analysis of overlapping series. The weight, colour, transparency, line thickness and line style have been adjusted to make it easier to distinguish between series (Figure 20).
  • High Contrast Reporting Theme - for reporting. Similar to the High Contrast Analysis theme, but with the title shown and the preview pane hidden. The high contrast between series has been designed to allow overlapping series to be distinguishable from each other when printed in greyscale (Figure 21)
  • Stacked Theme - allows data to be analysed using two chart areas (Figure 22). 

 For all themes, the settings may be changed in the same way as for a chart that has not had a theme applied to it. In the examples below the logo is the eWater Source logo. You can change the logo by using the Watermark section under Chart area settings.

 

Figure 19. Analysis Theme example

 

Figure 20. High Contrast Analysis Theme example

 

Figure 21. High Contrast Reporting Theme example


 Figure 22. Stacked Theme example