Installation and Setup

• Download Component .
• Unzip the downloaded file into the folder of your application where you plan to use this control. The compressed file contains the following five files.
  • ASPNet_Drawing.dll
  • GraphicsEngine.dll
  • WindowChart.dll
  • WinChartApp.exe
  • BarChartData.xml
• For using the control the design time, you will need to copy the following two DLLs to <VS.Net Install Folder>/Common7/IDE/PublicAssemblies folder.
  • ASPNet_Drawing.dll
  • GraphicsEngine.dll
  The reason for copying these DLLs to this folder is because FormChart.Net component refrences these two assemblies for actual rendering operation. During design time the IDE looks for these assemblies in GAC or the folder from where it is running. So you have two options, either register two assemblies in GAC or manually copy them in the folder earlier mentioned. Curently we don't have a installer in place that will automatically copt these two assemblies in appropriate folder. You will have to manually them over.
• Now add this control library to Visual Studio .Net toolbox. Perfrom the following steps to accomplish it.
  • From Tools menu choose Customize Toolbox .. option.
  • This will bring up the following dialog box.
    
  • Click on .NET Framework Components tab.
  • Click on Browse button at the bottom and browse to the folder where you copied WindowChart.dll assembly.
  • Select the control library assembly WindowChart.dll and click OK to close the dialog box.

  • You will get all the chart controls added to toolbox as shown in the following picture.

Usage Instructions

To use this control library, you will follow the steps that you follow for using other .Net framework windows forms controls. For this discussion we will assume that you want to display BarChart2D. For that you will need to use BarChart2DControl from the FormChart.Net control library.

• Add a windows forms to your application and bring up the Forms designer.
• Pick the control for the type of chart you want to display from Toolbox and drop it on the form. Resize and drag the control to appropriate size and at appropriate position on form.
• To modify the attributes of the control like BackColor, Backgroundtype, GridColor, SUbgrid rendering, Legend position, etc. use Properties view of IDE. Most of the control's attributes are contained in Appearance and Alignment sections.
• Once you are satisfied with the appearance and alignment, switch to CodeView for that form. And load the XML Document and Colors collection (if not using Random colors) to control as explained in the article.

The following pictures show some of the screen shots that you may come across while working with these controls.