NetCharts® Pro v5.0 Release Notes and New Features
NetCharts Pro 5.0 introduces three new chart types to give you even more charting choices. A number of new chart component controls and a variety of chart-specific enhancements, such as 3-D dial borders and rotated, angled
axis text enhance your charts
with additional professional touches.
See the appropriate API documentation for each enhancement.
Platform Enhancements
- JRE 1.3.1 or greater required, JRE 1.5.0 recommended
NetCharts Pro 5.0 requires a Java runtime environment version 1.3.1 or greater - JRE version 1.5.0 and greater produced the best performance and graphics quality.
NOTE: Internet Explorer's default JRE 1.1.7 does not meet the minimumum requirement. Internet Explorer must use a Java plug-in to render applets built with NetCharts Pro 5.0.
Chart Type Enhancements
- Heat Map Charts - New Chart Type!
A Heat Map chart has been added to NetCharts Pro in version 5.0. Heat Map charts display a rectangular grid of cells which can colored and labeled based on data. A typical use is to show the percent change in stock prices, as in the middle chart of the top row, where red is negative and green is positive change, and darker colors show the degree or intensity of the change.
|
|
|
|
|
- Multipie Charts - New Chart Type!
A Multipie chart has been added to NetCharts Pro in version 5.0. Multipie charts display two dimensional data sets as a series of pies with a common legend and common titles.
|
|
|
- Pareto Charts - New Chart Type!
A Pareto chart has been added to NetCharts Pro in version 5.0. Pareto charts consist of one or more bar sets and a single line. The bar sets are automatically sorted in descending order. The line is calculated based on the bar data and represents a cumulative total value of the bars. A Pareto chart is a specialized version of a histogram that ranks the categories in the chart from most frequent to least frequent. A Pareto Chart is useful for non-numeric data, such as "cause", "type", or "classification." This tool helps to prioritize where action and process changes should be focused. If one is trying to take action based upon causes of accidents or events, it is generally most helpful to focus efforts on the most frequent causes.
|
|
|
|
|
 80-20 Pareto Chart w/ Dual Y-Axis |
 Stacked 80-20 Pareto Chart w/ Dual Y-Axis |
- Dial Chart Enhancements
Two new CDL parameters allow the addition of three-dimensional borders and gradient backgrounds on dial charts. See the online CDL reference manual for details on DialOuterBorder and DialOuterFillPattern parameters. See also the API documentation for netcharts.pro.charts.dial.NFDialOuterBorder and netcharts.pro.charts.dial.NFDialchart.setDialOuterFillPattern().
|
|
- Axis Label Text Rotation Enhancements
The text rotation algorithm has been improved. Text can be rotated from left or right endpoints. Rotated text can be more tightly grouped, improving chart layout and readability. See the new CDL attributes for the AxisTics parameters and the API documentation for netcharts.pro.common.rectangular.NFAxis.setTicLabelRotationPoint().
 X-Y Chart showing enhanced axis label text rotation |
- New Gradient Types enhancements
NetCharts Pro 5.0 supports three gradient types. See the CDL documentation on fill patterns containing GRADIENTRADIAL, GRADIENTCENTERHORIZONTAL, and GRADIENTCENTERVERTICAL and the API documentation for netcharts.pro.common.NFFillPattern.
- Legend Drawing Enhancements
Several new parameters provide increased control over chart legends. LegendItemBorderallows explicit specification or the borders around legend symbols. LegendSymbolPostion controls the location of a legend items symbol relative to its text. ItemOrder is a new attribute of the LegendLayout parameter. It controls the order in which legend items are displayed. For details see the CDL reference manual and the API documentation for netcharts.pro.common.NFLegend.getSymbolPosition() and netcharts.pro.common.NFLegend.setItemOrder().
- Logarithmic Axis Autoscaling
NetCharts Pro 5.0 supports autoscaled logarithmic axes.
- Automatic Text Wrapping
NetCharts Pro 5.0 supports auto-wrapping of text. Programmers may specify the
maximum length for a string and NetCharts Pro will automatically and intelligently insert line breaks as necessary. See the CDL documentation for a new font attribute called maxLineAdvance and the API documentation for netcharts.pro.common.NFTextStyle.
- Anti-Aliased Text and Graphics
By default, Netcharts Pro 5.0 draws using anti-aliasing. This can be overridden with the AntiAlias CDL parameter or with the netcharts.pro.common.NFGraph.setAntiAlias() API.
Additional Feature Enhancements
- set() API undeprecated
The set() API, which was deprecated in NCPro version 4.x has been undeprecated in vesion 5.0. The set() API is less intuitive than the standard NCPro API, but can provide higher performance. See Chapter 4 of Programming With NetCharts Pro for additional information.
