ImageLayer is a new feature that can be gradually filled with smaller images which accumulation process happens in the background thread process allowing the chart UI to remain fast and responsive even when compounding ImageLayer from several smaller bitmaps requires a lot of memory.

Additionally, all the ViewXY series can be rendered on top of the ImageLayer. It is possible to create multiple ImageLayers and each layer’s visibility can be switched on/off independently.

On top of the main layers, several sublayers of image could be created and each of them reduces the pixel count approximately by factor 4. This allows a fast interaction in the application with all the zoom levels (works similar to tiles of geographical maps).

Semiconductor Industry

This is a handy feature for the semiconductor industry where optical measuring systems are used for surface analysis. The surface in question could be silicon wafers, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), or similar.

For other industries

Any application that requires a display of a very large image and needs fast zooming could use the ImageLayer feature. If there is information about each sub-image position and size (in XY axes units), developers can create a collage of any size.

For the best performance and the least memory usage, it is recommended to supply images to the ImageLayer in the Indexed8 color space format. Otherwise, internally, the photos will be converted to 32-bit RGBA format (which requires ~3 times as much memory).

We are introducing the IntensityGridSeriesPolarseries. The IntensityGrid allows visualizing an M x N array of nodes colored by an assigned value-range palette where the colors between nodes are interpolated.

The IntensityGridSeriesPolar is evenly spaced in Polar space. The data are stored in the Data property as a two-dimensional array of doubles: Angle and Amplitude.

The MinimumAmplitude and MaximumAmplitude properties define the amplitude range where the grid should fit. While the BeginAngle and EndAngle properties set a range for angles to be fitted. For streaming/real-time applications, use the Series.UpdateData() method.

The DataCursor property for all the views included in XY, 3D, Polar, and Smith series has now a configuration property tree. Users can now control color, style, and visibility of labels for each axis interdependently.

LightningChart .NET now supports XAML serialization. This means that the .NET class XamlWriter can be used to serialize LightningChart object into XAML markup while the .NET class XamlReader reads the XAML input and creates a LightningChart object.

By using the XamlWriter.Save() and XamlReader.Load() methods, the user can save the current state of the Chart and stay the next time the user opens the application.

Note:

1. Series Data/Points properties are not serialized
2. VolumeModel properties are not serialized
3. Starting from this version, it is perfectly fine to create a chart in *.xaml code with the non-bindable edition of LightningChart, although if someone needs to bind chart properties, then MVVM edition of LightningChart should be used instead.

XAML string of serialized Chart

New examples have been added to the Interactives Examples App including the ExampleImageLayer, ExampleHeatMapPolar, ExampleXamlSerialization, and ExampleTranslucentChart3D.

The source code of the new examples can be extracted as non-bindable WPF or WinForms (for both .NET Framework 4.8 and .NET 6.0).

While ExampleXamlSerialization shows how ‘state’ of chart could be saved and restored, the Demo allows to save XAML string of serialized Chart of any example (button ‘Extract Xml’).