Advanced reporting
and data visualization components for .NET
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How to use Designer to create or modify gauges?

SharpShooter Gauges features high-performance visual designer which allows modifying existing gauges and creating new ones from scratch. No coding, only a few mouse clicks – and even the most complicated gauge is created. Designer appearance is shown on the picture below.

An instrument represents an object different elements are placed on. Each element has a set of properties displayed in the Properties Window. You can edit properties values in this window. Most of properties can be bound to the expressions, assigned in the special expression language. The expressions are displayed in the Expressions Window. You can edit expressions in this window.



Figure 1: Gauge Visual Designer

Visual and non-visual elements for gauges creation are available via the Insert menu or via the Element Toolbox buttons. In order to add an element to the instrument it is necessary to select it from the Insert menu or in the Elements Toolbox. Then click the left mouse button on the Work Area, or stretch the element to the desired size by pressing and holding the left mouse button.

The instrument structure is displayed in the Instrument outline window. You can change the elements positional relationship by dragging them with the mouse.

By using Toolbar buttons you can:

Perform the following operations over a file:
  • create a new empty gauge (the toolbar button);
  • creation a new gauge with the help of Wizard (the toolbar button);
  • load gauge from a file (the toolbar button);
  • save gauge (the toolbar button);
Perform the following edit operations:
  • undo changes made to gauge (the toolbar button);
  • redo change made to gauge (the toolbar button);
  • cut selected gauge elements (the toolbar button);
  • copy selected gauge elements (the toolbar button);
  • paste gauge elements from the buffer to the selected element or its parent if the selected element is not a container (the toolbar button);
  • delete selected gauge elements (the toolbar button); Perform designer appearance manipulations:
  • switch on/off rules in the Working area (the toolbar button);
  • switch on/off grid in the Working area (the toolbar button);
  • snap gauge elements’ control points to grid (the toolbar button).
Use various tools:
  • Select tool which allows selecting gauge elements in the Working area and editing them (the toolbar button);
  • Test tool which allows testing of edited gauges (the toolbar button);
  • Pan tool which is used for panning the picture of the Working area (the toolbar button);
  • Zoom in tool to zoom gauge elements in (the toolbar button);
  • Zoom out tool to zoom gauge elements out (the toolbar button);
  • Region zoom tool to zoom the selected region in (the toolbar button);
  • Dynamic zoom tool to dynamically zoom a selected region (the toolbar button).
It is also possible to exports an instrument into one of popular bitmapped or vector graphics formats (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, SVG and Macromedia Flash) by calling the ‘Save to file’ dialog box.

Element Toolbox buttons provide ability add different elements to the gauge, so you can add:

Structural elements:
  • Circular trajectory represented by the Joint element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Linear trajectory represented by the Guide element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Scale (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Slider (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Group of elements represented by the Group element (the button on the Elements toolbox).
Basic primitives:
  • Line represented by the Line element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Circle represented by the Circle element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Ellipse represented by the Ellipse element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Rectangle represented by the Rectangle element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Rounded rectangle represented by the RoundedRectangle element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Frame represented by the Frame element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Picture represented by the Picture element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • A number of pictures represented by the PictureSet element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Text inscriptions represented by the Label element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Arc represented by the Arc element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Pie represented by the Pie element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Ring sector represented by the RingSector element (the button on the Elements toolbox).
Scale elements:
  • Scale labels intended for numbering scale divisions and represented by the Scale element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Graphic scale marks represented by the ScaleMarks element (the button on the Elelements toolbox);
  • Ticks on a scale represented by the Ticks element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Text labels represented by the CustomLabels element (the on the Elements toolbox);
  • Ranged level represented by the RangedLevel element (the button on the Elements toolbox);
  • Linear level represented by the LinearLevel element (the button on the