Time and structure charts

TRUECHART supports the chart types time and structure:

• Time charts are charts with horizontal category axes representing data per time period or point of time.

• Structure charts are charts with vertical category axes representing data of one time period or point of time.

Figure 1. On the left time chart and on the right structure chart.

Creation

Time and structure charts can be created on initial TRUECHART objects or any grid cell desired by selecting Time or Structure from the cell type selector on an initial cell or in the settings editor.

Chart settings

Chart Settings are split into several topics. You can navigate to each topic with the navigation menu. The specific settings for charts are:

• Context Selector if multiple contexts are defined,

• Dimensions

• Measure

• Time and structure charts

  • Stack

Header

Every chart settings page has a header line at the top of the options view. In the header you can the define the cell name of the currently selected cell and you can reset your current changes to the state when you opened the settings page.

Figure 2. Measures Settings Header.

Measure

Here you define how every measure is displayed in your chart. 

Measure List

The measure list allows a quick activation and deactivation of measures in a chart. Clicking on a measure shows the whole range of options for the measure. The currently selected measure is always highlighted, and the name of the measure is visible above the options. By clicking on the button on the right side, it is possible to jump to Measure settings of the corresponding measure.

Figure 3. Measure List.

Type

Every measure in a chart can be defined as a different type. Initially, the type is set to Bar for the first three measures. The other measures are set to none, which hides the measure in the chart.

The supported types are:

Following our recent IBCS verification, we've ensured compliance with needle charts starting from version 2023.6.0. Please review any existing needle charts for accuracy and compliance.
We implemented a new line colour option on scenarios in the Notation Manual that would specify the colour of Needle Lines

Needle lines will now also appear in front of the symbols.

Show only as value

Shows the checked element only as a value. If the type is not checked, the corresponding element is displayed as the defined measure type.

You can display the rest, subtotal and total as only a value.

Legend/Header – Show

Determine if the legend and header should not be displayed or at a specific position.

Value Position

The legend is drawn on the same level as the first value position, that is different from zero

Axis

The legend is drawn on the level of the axis.

Middle

The legend is drawn on the middle of the first element.

Values - Show

Determine if you want to show all values, none of them, smallest and largest value or selected values, according to a predefined logic.

None

Hide all values of the measure.

All

Show all values of the measure.

Suppress Null

Suppress null values.

Min/Max

Show only the min and max value.

Function

Define a list of conditions to show or hide specific values according to your definitions

Advanced settings

Settings for more experienced users, which allow very specific definitions of the visualization.

Position

The Position setting allows you to set the position of an element within the dimension. To every position exists at least one frame position. A frame position’s orientation depends on possible bars or waterfalls. Therefore, a frame position cannot be a bar or a waterfall itself. The following positions can be set:

Mid

This is the standard position. The elements position is in the middle of position left and right and has two frame position, mid-left and mid right.

Left, top

The position before the middle element. In a time chart it is left, in a structure chart on top. The frame position is left-left or top-top.

Right, bottom

The position after the middle element. In a time chart it is right, in a structure chart on the bottom. The frame position is right-right or top-top.

Starting at

By using the Starting at setting, you can define if the values of a measure should start at the axis or at the value of another measure. In the latter case, the element is drawn at runtime at the height of current measure value.

Notation

The Notation list provides different ways of displaying the measure’s meaning, specified in its data rules. Depending on the type of measure visualization, you can apply the meaning to:

Element

The visualization concept of the base datatype affects the element, e.g. a bar.

Header

The visualization concept of the base datatype affects the header of the table.

Axis

The visualization concept of the base datatype affects the axis.

Element-Header

Additional to element notation the table header is affected by the reference visualization concept.

Element-Axis

Additional to the element notation, the axis is affected by the reference visualization concept.

Concept

The Concept list is used to define one of the visualization concepts Area, Color, and Shape, or combinations of them for the element, dependent on the time type and the scenario (actual, budget, forecast) in the notation manual.

Base and Reference

When there’s a Reference data rule defined in the context, you can set separate visualization concepts for both Base and Reference (i.e. axis).

Values

Settings that are specific for the value labels.

Type

Determine how the values should be displayed.

Normal

This is the default and resembles the current value during runtime.

%-Self

Display the percentage of the value in proportion to the sum of all values of the measure.

%-Stack

(only when stack is active) Display the percentage of the value in proportion to sum of all stacked values in the dimension.

%-Total

(only when stack is active) Display the percentage of the value in proportion to the sum of all measures in all dimensions.

Background

Determine the background of a value.

None

No background displayed.

transparent

2A white, lightly transparent background. (default)

Inverted

The font color is black or white, according to the underlying color.

Overlap – Others

Determine if the value of the measure should overlap values of other measures. If this is forbidden for both measures, the value with the topmost priority is displayed. Otherwise, the value, that is allowed to overlap other measures, is displayed.

Overlap – Self

Determine if the values of the measure should overlap, If not, the right value is removed.

Legend/Header

Settings for the Legend and Header Labels.

Displacement

Determine if the legend should be moved, when intersecting with another legend occurs.

None

No movement.

Vertical

The legend is moved vertically from its original position.

Horizontal

The legend is moved horizontally from its original position.

Connector

Determine if a link should be drawn between the legend and the first measure. Either it is set to none or active.

In grid

Determine if a legend is allowed to grow over the cell border or not. The default is to not grow over the borders.

Outlier

Outliers are values that are larger than the other values of a measure. TRUECHART can display these outliers so that the chart is readable.

Figure 4. Chart with outliers.

Operator/Value

Every value of a measure is checked to this condition and when the condition is true the value is displayed as an outlier.

Show as

Determine how the value of the outlier should be displayed.

None

No value is displayed.

Value

The original value is displayed.

Symbol

Instead of the original value a symbol is displayed at the position of the outlier.

Figure 5. Chart Outlier with Symbols.

Style

Determine where the value and where the outlier symbol is displayed.

Symbol at value position, value at axis

Outlier symbol at the original value position of the outlier and value at the axis.

Symbol at axis, value at value position

Outlier symbol at the axis and value at the original value position of the outlier.

Figure 6. Chart Outlier Symbols and Symbol at Axis, Value at Value Position.

Symbol

Determine the position of the outlier and the outlier symbol.

Scaling helper

Add or remove a scaling helper. A scaling helper helps to visualize the scaling of a chart.

Figure 7. Chart with Scaling Helper.

Show

Determine if a value should be displayed on the scaling helper and the position of the value.

None

No value is displayed.

Start

Value at the start of the scaling helper.

End

Value at the end of the scaling helper.

Displace

Determine if the value should be moved, when intersecting with another value occurs.

None

No movement.

Vertical

The value is moved vertically from its original position.

Horizontal

The value is moved horizontally from its original position.

Sign

When activated shows a sign at the value of the scaling helper.

Figure 8. Chart with Sign at the Scaling Helper.

Dimensions

Dimension settings specific for the current chart. These settings determine how the dimension values are displayed in the chart.

Show At

Define if the dimension values should be hidden, at free axis position or at the axis position.

The free axis position will only be applicable if there are negative values in your chart, then the values will be placed in "free" positions.

Distance Between Dimension

Distance between each dimension entity. Value is interpreted as mm/10pt.

Figure 9. Chart with dimension distance 3 mm/10pt.

Horizontal/Vertical Alignment

The alignment defines the position of the dimension entities.

Time charts only allow left and right positioning. Structure charts allow left, center, right and top or bottom positions.

Filter

Filters dimension entities according to the conditions. Each dimension has a filter which initially doesn’t filter any entities. A filter requires three parameters:

Figure 10. Filter Settings List.

Applies to

Decides to which dimension entity the filter is applied to.

Condition

The condition decides if the filter is applied, the condition needs to return true.

Cut at

The length at which an entity is displayed. When the length of the dimension entity is greater than this value it will be displayed.

Figure 11. Chart with Dimension Filter mm/10pt > 6.

Gaps

Allows to add gaps between certain dimension entities. A chart can have multiple gaps defined, if the condition is the same the higher sorted gaps has priority. A gap is defined with the following properties:

Figure 12. Gap Settings List.

Type

Determine at which entities the gap is applied. There are two predefined options and option to define your own rule.

mm/10pt

The size of the gap.

Position

The position of the gap, only activated when you define your own rule, the predefined types have a specifically set position.

Split

If checked the axis is split at the gap position, otherwise the axis is one continuous line.

Figure 13. Chart with Gaps and Split Active.

Separators

Options to display a separator at certain points.

Time Type

A change in time generates a separator.

Scenario

A change of the scenario generates a separator.

Dimension

Set the separator at the start of the dimension.

Figure 14. Chart with Separators at Scenario change.

Stack

A stack is the summation of two or more measures in form of bar charts, together they represent the total of a given category value. In time charts, the bars are ordered upwards, in structure charts from left to right using the order of the stack list.

Figure 15. Stack Example.

To activate or deactivate the stack, select an option in the dropdown at the top of the stack settings page. Stacks can only be created for bar charts and measures of one scaling group, therefore the dropdown only lists scaling groups. Creating a stack that contains measures with different scaling groups is not possible.

Figure 16. Stack Dropdown

Type

Determine if the stack should be interpreted and displayed with absolute or percent values.  Stacks in % are calculated automatically according to the given sums.

Figure 17. Stacked Chart Left Displayed as Absolute and right as Percent.

Line

Draws a line in the chart where the 100% position is. The 100% can be at the start or the end of the chart axis.

Figure 18. Stacked Chart with 100% Line.

Position

The Position setting allows you to set the position of an element within the dimension. To every position exists at least one frame position. A frame position’s orientation depends on possible bars or waterfalls. Therefore, a frame position cannot be a bar or a waterfall itself. This setting is only applied when there is at least one other visualization active, beside the stack.

Alignment

Defines the position for the values of the stack.

Figure 19. Stacked Chart with displaced values.

Show As

Determines which values should be displayed in the stack. There are some predefined options, or you can define your own set of rules. This property only applies to the summation labels at the top of the stack. The individual measure values are handled by the measures themselves.

Figure 20. Stacked Chart with Function for Displayed Values.

Label

Options for how labels should be displayed in the stacked chart.

Order

Sorting the stack is possible with the drag and drop list at the bottom of the stack settings page. The left column represents the stacked measures, by rearranging them the stack is also updated to match the list.

If a Measure belongs to a different scaling group the measure is displayed in grey on the right column. When a measure of a different scaling group is added to the stack, you will be asked if you want to stack all measures of their scaling group instead.

Figure 21. Stack Order Settings