Why XY Chart ActiveX?

In our careers as Applications Engineers and Software Developers in Industrial Automation and Controls, we found ourselves using MS Excel and VBA with its XY scatter chart very regularly. We used it to analyze data at our desks, but also in technical presentations in meetings with our colleagues. Typical applications involved capturing multiple process variables from an oscilloscope, and then feeding the raw data into Excel. Say 8-10 channels, where the data ranged between -10 to +10 for some channels, others from 0 to 300, and finally others with a range from -500 to 3,000. The chart would then be displayed directly in Excel, VBA or Visual Basic using mschart.ocx. Unfortunately, the XY scatter plot in Excel is limited to 2 Y scales, one on the left, and the other on the right. Microsoft's mschart.ocx ActiveX actually only supports a single Y scale, although it leads one to believe that it supports two. Hence the problem - how to display multiple channels clearly when a large difference exists in the data range of each channel?

To present and analyze data easily, multiple Y scales was essential, as well as zoom and scroll and crosshairs and coordinates display. So we aggressively searched for ActiveX products that had these features and could seamlessly tie into Excel, VBA and Visual Basic. We found a few, but each had there issues. Price and ease-of-use were the key defining issues. The high end products certainly deliver performance and features... but with well in excess of 1000 properties and methods, overwhelming for all but the advanced developer! What about the typical Applications Engineers like you and I who want a solid, easy-to-use building block to integrate seamlessly into their applications, and do not have the three months required to figure out how to use it! Hence, the idea for XY Chart was born.

We hope you like our product, not only for its built-in functions, clean look and features, but most importantly, because you get a professional looking chart that is quick and easy to implement, and that allows users to analyze data intuitively and with precision. In the final analysis, that is what it is all about.

Sincerely,

The XY Chart Team