Chart editions v10

LightningChart® .NET SDK is an add-on to Microsoft Visual Studio, consisting of data visualization related software components and tool classes for WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), UWP (Universal Windows Platform) and WinForms (Windows Forms) .NET platforms.

Editions and performance

For WPF, LightningChart component is available in various binding level editions, to balance between different performance and MVVM (Model - View - ViewModel) bindability needs. UWP chart is based on the bindable WPF version, providing similar performance, binding and MVVM capabilities.

Bindability and performance matrix

• For best performance in WPF and multithreading benefits, select non-bindable chart.
• For good tradeoff between WPF bindability and performance, select bindable chart. Bindable also supports MVVM design pattern.

Different chart editions can be used in the same application. It's possible to create basic charts with bindable chart and bind various properties while using the non-bindable chart for performance-critical tasks. The collection properties of bindable charts (such as ViewXY axes, 3D lights) are empty by default which supports XAML editor in full. In Non-bindable and WinForms collections are prefilled with default items.

Per-data-point binding is supported only in fully-bindable WPF, which is available in the source code only.

NOTE !

Non-Bindable WPF chart is not intended to be configured in XAML at all. Use it in code-behind.

Differences between Windows forms, WPF and UWP

The property tree and object model between Windows Forms and WPF are almost identical, regarding the Chart category. The main differences are:

	Windows Forms	WPF	UWP
Rendering options property	RenderOptions	ChartRenderOptions	ChartRenderOptions
Background fill property	Background	ChartBackground	ChartBackground
Fonts	System.Drawing.Font	Arction.WPF. LightningChart.WPFFont	Arction.Uwp. ChartingMVVM.UwpFont
Colors	System.Drawing.Color	System.Windows.Media. Color	Windows.UI.Color

Namespaces

Chart edition	Assembly name	Namespace root	XML namespace
WPF (non-bindable)	Arction.Wpf.Charting. LightningChart.dll	Arction.Wpf. Charting	xmlns:lcunb= "http://schemas.arction.com/ charting/ultimate/"
WPF (bindable)	Arction. Wpf.ChartingMVVM. LightningChart.dll	Arction.Wpf. ChartingMVVM	xmlns:lcusb= "http://schemas.arction.com/ ChartingMVVM/ultimate/"
UWP	Arction. Uwp.ChartingMVVM. LightningChart.dll	Arction.Uwp. ChartingMVVM	xmlns:lcu= "using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM”
WinForms	Arction. WinForms.Charting. LightningChart.dll	Arction.WinForms. Charting	N/A

Table. Assembly names and namespaces of LightningChart® .NET editions.

UWP uses several namespaces in XML. The following are the most common ones:

xmlns:lcu="using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM”
xmlns:viewxy="using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM.Views.ViewXY”
xmlns:axes="using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM.Axes”
xmlns:titles="using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM.Titles”
xmlns:seriesxy="using:Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM.SeriesXY”

When using other views than ViewXY, use the respective view and series names (View3D, ViewPolar etc.).

Example of using namespaces in UWP or ChartingMVVM:

<lcu:LightningChart 
    ChartName="Line and Bars Chart">
    <lcu:LightningChart.ViewXY>
        <viewxy:ViewXY>
            <viewxy:ViewXY.XAxes>
                <axes:AxisX Maximum="10"/>
            </viewxy:ViewXY.XAxes>
        </viewxy:ViewXY>
    </lcu:LightningChart.ViewXY>
</lcu:LightningChart>

Using LightningChart® .NET libraries

In order to use LightningChart® .NET components, Arction .dll -files have to be added to references. These can be found in the installation folder. The following assemblies are required when developing an application:

Winforms:	Arction.WinForms.Charting.LightningChart.dll
WPF Non-bindable:	Arction.Wpf.Charting.LightningChart.dll Arction.DirectX.dll Arction.RenderingDefinitions.dll
WPF Bindable:	Arction.Wpf.ChartingMVVM.LightningChart.dll Arction.DirectX.dll Arction.RenderingDefinitions.dll
UWP Chart:	Arction.Uwp.ChartingMVVM.LightningChart.dll Arction.Uwp.RenderingDefinitions.dll Arction.Uwp.RenderingEngineBase.dll
If using SignalTools:	Arction.WinForms.SignalProcessing.SignalTools.dll OR Arction.Wpf.SignalProcessing.SignalTools.dll OR Arction.Uwp.SignalProcessing.SignalTools.dll

NOTE !

If the above references are added, building the project will automatically copy all the required assemblies to the output folder. When deploying a LightningChart application, double check that all all the required assemblies copied to destination folder (see Deployment).

Arction.DirectXFiles.dll is not automatically included as reference, as it is a large file which can increase the initialization time. It is only needed when there are no correct DirectX assemblies already in the system. Arction.DirectXInit.dll routines check the existing dlls and loads them when necessary. When loaded once, it writes the DirectX-dlls into Windows temp folder where LightningChart can access them in the future, thus making the initialization fast.

We recommend not to include Arction.DirectXFiles.dll as reference, instead, copy it next to your exe.