Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of stone123
stone123

asked on

Draw Oscilloscope line chart on a Windows Form

Experts,

I am trying to draw oscilloscope-like line chart on a Windows Form in C#. The data contains thousands of sample points along certain time period. so the line easily gets to exceed the border of the form.
I wonder if there is any way I can add a scroll bar so that  the points with X-coordinates beyond the limit of the form can be seen, instead of being clipped out.

Thanks a lot
stone
Avatar of eternal_21
eternal_21

No there is not, unfortunately.  Why don't you create an image in memory, and draw on that?  Then you have a PictureBox object on your form that you can set to display your image every time you add a point.  The PictureBox would then have scroll bars.  Or create a custom control that you will draw to instead.

But what I am really wondering is why you don't just size your output to the form's current size?
it can be done. i did the exact same thing. i didn't want to resize or distort the graph.

i used a panel within a panel, and drew on the child panel. if the x coordinate was greater than the width, i increased the child panel's width to the x value. and i set the parent panel's autoscroll property to true.
Avatar of stone123

ASKER

It sounds like a good idea, msdixon. However, when I move the scroll bar, the line changes its length. it becomes shorter than the original one.

you will see the same effect if you try the following code.
      
Graphics g = panel1.CreateGraphics();
Pen myPen = new Pen(Color.Blue);
myPen.Width = 2;
panel1.Width = 2000;
pnlCanvas.Refresh();
g.DrawLine(myPen, 0, 50, 2000, 50);

Thanks a lot

stone
This is to eternal_21,

How do you draw a line on a System.Drawing.Image object? Can you provide more detail?

Thanks.
SOLUTION
Avatar of msdixon
msdixon

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial