The Polar Chart Control
This article is a quick guide to use the PolarChart
control, you can explore all the properties and the source code
at the ApiExplorer.
The PolarChart
control is a 'ready to go' control to create plots using the
Polar coordinate system,
To get started all you need to do is assign the Series
property with a collection of
IPolarSeries
.
Drag a new PolarChart
control from your toolbox, then in the code behind assign the Series
property:
PolarChart1.Series = new[]
{
new PolarLineSeries<double>
{
Values = new double[] { 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 },
Fill = null,
IsClosed = false
}
};
The main components of this control are:
- Series
- Axes
- Tooltip
- Legend
But notice in the previous code snippet we did not specify the Axes, Tooltip, Legend or the series colors, this is because LiveCharts will decide them based on the current theme of the library, you can also customize any of these properties when you require it, this article will cover the most common scenarios.
Series
There are multiple series available in the library, you can add one or mix them all in the same chart, every series has unique properties, any image bellow is a link to an article explaining more about them.
InitialRotation property
Defines an offset to stablish where the 0 angle is.
Drag a new PolarChart
control from your toolbox, then in the code behind assign the Series
property:
polarChart1.InitialRotation = -90;
Notice a change in the InitialRotation
property is animated automatically based on the chart animations settings:
InnerRadius property
Defines the inner radius in pixels of the chart.
Drag a new PolarChart
control from your toolbox, then in the code behind assign the Series
property:
polarChart1.InnerRadius = 50;
Notice a change in the InnerRadius
property is animated automatically based on the chart animations settings:
TotalAngle property
Defines the total circumference angle in degrees, from 0 to 360, default is 360.
Drag a new PolarChart
control from your toolbox, then in the code behind assign the Series
property:
polarChart1.TotalAngle = 270;
Notice a change in the TotalAngle
property is animated automatically based on the chart animations settings:
PolarAxis.LabelsPaint and PolarAxis.SeparatorsPaint properties
You can set the color, use dashed lines, build gradients for the axis name, labels and separators, if you need help using Paint
instances take
a look at the Paints article.
polarChart1.RadiusAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
TextSize = 10,
LabelsPaint = new SolidColorPaint(SKColors.Blue), // mark
SeparatorsPaint = new SolidColorPaint(SKColors.LightSlateGray) { StrokeThickness = 2 } // mark
}
};
polarChart1.AngleAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsPaint = new SolidColorPaint(SKColors.Green), // mark
TextSize = 20,
SeparatorsPaint = new SolidColorPaint(SKColors.LightSlateGray) // mark
{ // mark
StrokeThickness = 2, // mark
PathEffect = new DashEffect(new float[] { 3, 3 }) // mark
} // mark
}
};
PolarAxis.Labels vs PolarAxis.Labeler properties
There are 2 ways to format and axis labels, using the Labels
property and using the Labeler
property,
you must normally use the Labels
property to indicate names, and the Labeler
property to give format to the current label.
The labels property is a collection of string, if this property is not null
, then the axis label will be pulled from the labels
collection, the label is mapped to the chart based on the position of the label and the position of the point, both integers,
if the axis requires a label outside the bounds of the labels collection, then the index will be returned as the label,
default value is null.
polarChart1.Series = new ObservableCollection<ISeries>
{
new PolarLineSeries<double>
{
Values = new ObservableCollection<double> { 5, 2, 1, 4, 3, 3 },
GeometryFill = null,
GeometryStroke = null,
LineSmoothness = 0.2,
Stroke = null,
IsClosed = true,
},
new PolarLineSeries<double>
{
Values = new ObservableCollection<double> { 3, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5 },
GeometryFill = null,
GeometryStroke = null,
LineSmoothness = 0.2,
Stroke = null,
IsClosed = true,
}
};
polarChart1.RadiusAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
// formats the value as a number with 2 decimals.
Labeler = value => value.ToString("N2")
}
};
polarChart1.AngleAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
Labels = new[] { "strength", "stamina", "resistance", "power", "hit points", "mana" },
MinStep = 1,
ForceStepToMin = true
}
};
PolarAxis.LabelsRotation property
Indicates the axis labels rotation in degrees, in the following image we have a rotation of 45 degrees in the Radius axis, and for the angle axis the labels rotation will follow the tangent line.
RadiusAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = 45 // mark
}
};
AngleAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = LiveCharts.TangentAngle // mark
}
};
You can also place labels at the cotangent angle:
AngleAxes = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = LiveCharts.CotangentAngle // mark
}
};
Finally notice that you can combine the LiveCharts.CotangentAngle
and LiveCharts.TangentAngle
with decimal degrees,
the following expressions are valid also:
Series { get; set; } = new PolarAxis[]
{
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = 30, // in degrees
},
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = LiveCharts.TangentAngle + 30, // the tangent + 30 degrees
},
new PolarAxis
{
LabelsRotation = LiveCharts.CotangentAngle + 30, // the cotangent + 30 degrees
}
};
PolarAxis.Visible property
When the Visible
property is set to false
the axis will not be drawn and also it will not take any space in the chart
default is true
.
AnimationsSpeed property
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
Defines the animations speed of all the chart elements (axes, series, sections).
cartesianChart1.AnimationsSpeed = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(500);
EasingFunction property
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
This property defines the way the shapes in the chart animate, in other words it controls the way the IMotionProperties of all the chart elements (axes, series, sections) in the chart move from a state 'A' to state 'B'.
The property is of type Func<float, float>
, it means that it is a function that takes a float
argument (the time elapsed from 0 to 1),
and returns float
value as the result (the progress of the animation from 0 to 1), you can learn more about easing curves at
this article.
cartesianChart1.EasingFunction = LiveChartsCore.EasingFunctions.BounceOut;
Now the chart will animate following the BounceOut curve.
Now try the LiveChartsCore.EasingFunctions.Lineal
function, it will animate things lineally as the time elapses.
Finally you can also build your own function:
cartesianChart1.EasingFunction = time => time * time;
The library also provides some builders based on d3-ease easing curves, the builders.
Func easingCurve = LiveChartsCore.EasingFunctions.BuildCustomBackOut(0.8f);
Func easingCurve = LiveChartsCore.EasingFunctions.BuildCustomElasticOut(0.8f, 1.1f);
// there are more builders, check them out all, they start with Build{ function }({ args })
Disable animations
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
Settings the EasingFunction
to null
disables animations.
cartesianChart1.EasingFunction = null; // mark
Disabling animations will not improve performance drastically: if you come from LiveCharts 0.x
version then
maybe you are thinking that disabling animations will improve the performance of the library, in most of the cases
that is not true, animations are not the bottle neck in performance in LiveCharts 2.x
, normally you must need to
clean your code somewhere else, not here, plus we put a lot of effort building the animations of the library, please
just do not disable them ðŸ˜, instead try to make them run faster, animating data visualization normally brings
an excellent user experience.
DrawMargin property
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
Defines the distance from the axes (or edge of the chart if there is no axis) to the draw margin area.
// Notice the constructor of the Margin class has multiple overloads
// https://livecharts.dev/api/2.0.0-rc1/LiveChartsCore.Measure.Margin
cartesianChart1.DrawMargin = new LiveChartsCore.Measure.Margin(100);
Tooltips
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
Tooltips are popups that help the user to read a chart as the pointer moves.
This is a brief sample about how to use the main features of the IChartTooltip<T>
interface, you can find a more detailed article at the button below or at the
API explorer.
You can place a tooltip at Top
, Bottom
, Left
, Right
, Center
or Hidden
positions, for now
tooltips for the PieChart
class only support the Center
position, default value is Top
.
Notice the Hidden
position will disable tooltips in a chart.
cartesianChart1.Series = new ISeries[] { new LineSeries<int> { Values = new[] { 2, 5, 4 } } };
cartesianChart1.TooltipPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.TooltipPosition.Bottom;
Legends
This section uses the CartesianChart
control, but it works the same in the PolarChartControl
control.
A legend is a visual element that displays a list with the name, stroke and fills of the series in a chart:
This is a brief sample about how to use the main features of the IChartLegend<T>
interface, you can find a more detailed article at the button below or at the
API explorer.
You can place a legend at Top
, Bottom
, Left
, Right
or Hidden
positions, notice the Hidden
position will
disable legends in a chart, default value is Hidden
.
cartesianChart1.TooltipPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.LegendPosition.Bottom; // mark
// or use Top, Left, Right or Hidden