Triangular Graph Section
Applicability: Cranium, Synapse (core versions 0317+)

The Graph Section contains one large field displaying a triangular graph control. The control displays the current graph's data values, curve segments, and region segments.

Editing a Triangular Graph

Clicking the left mouse button on the field's large graph control activates the Triangular Graph Attributes Dialog. The dialog provides numerous capabilities for editing axes, labels, ticks, and notes.

1
Graph Display Control: displays the graph, data values, curve segments, region segments, and notes.
2
Limits Button: activates the Graph Limits Dialog which enables you to edit the graph's scale and axis minima. See below for documentation.
3
Area Button: activates the Graph Area Attributes Dialog which enables you to gridline, area spacing, and area color attributes. See below for documentation.
4
X, Y, Z Label Buttons: activates the Graph Axis Label Dialog which enables you to enter the text value displayed on each axis.
5
X, Y, Z Axis Buttons: activates the Graph Axis Attributes Dialog which enables you to edit axis thickness, number of divisions, and line color. See below for documentation.
6
X, Y, Z Ticks Buttons: activates the Graph Ticks Attributes Dialog which enables you to edit tick dimensions, line color, position, number format, and font. See below for documentation.
7
Notes Button: activates the Graph Notes Dialog which enables you to add notes (short text values) to the current graph. See below for documentation.
Axis Limits Dialog

Triangular graphs display three values whose total equals either 1 or 100. Thus, axis minima and maxima cannot be assigned completely independent values. The Axis Limits Dialog ensures feasible limits are assigned by enabling you to change only the graph's scale and the minimum of each axis.

Initially, a triangular graph is assigned an axis minimum of 0 and an axis maximum of 100. Thus each vertex of the graph corresponds to 100% of one component and 0% of the other two components.

Using the Axis Limits Dialog enables you to change the scale and minimum value of each axis. This is a very useful capability that enables you to focus on specific areas of the graph. In the graph to the right, the minimum of the y axis has been changed to 25.

The Axis Limits Dialog has controls for setting the graph scale, setting axis minima, finding axis minima, and displaying the calculated x maxima.

1
Graph Scale Control: enables you to set the graph's scale to either 1 or 100.
2
Axis Minima Controls: enables you to enter a value for the x, y, or z axis minimum.
3
Find Buttons: will insert the minimum value found in the current data values.
4
Axis Maxima Controls: display the calculated maximum value of each axis.
Graph Area Dialog

Pressing the Graph Edit Dialog's Area button activates the Graph Area DEialog. The Graph Area Dialog enables you to change the attributes of gridlines, borders, and background color.

1
Gridline Thickness Controls: enable you to set the thickness of each axis's gridlines. The gridlines are not shown if their thickness is set to 0.
2
Gridline Color Controls: enable you to set the color of each axis's gridlines.
3
Area Spacing Controls: enable you to specify the space on each side of the graph.
4
Area Color Control: enables you to change the background color of the graph's area.
X, Y, Z Axis Dialog

Each axis uses the Graph Axis Attributes dialog to change axis thickness, number of divisions, and color.

1
Axis Minimum Control: displays the minimum of the current axis.
2
Axis Maximum Control: displays the maximum of the current axis.
3
Axis Thickness Control: enables you to select the thickness of the current axis.
4
Axis Divisions Control: enables you to select the number of segments the axis is divided into. The number displayed in parentheses is the resulting increment for each number of divisions.
5
Line Color Control: enables you to change the color of the current axis.
X, Y, Z Ticks Dialog

Each axis uses the Graph Ticks Attributes dialog to change the dimensions, color, position, format, and font of displayed ticks. As you change each attribute, the effect on an example tick is shown in the dialog's Display control.

1
Tick Thickness Control: enables you to change the thickness of the tick's inside and outside line segments.
2
Label Spacing Control: enables you to change the distance between the end of the tick's outside line segment and the tick's label.
3
Tick Length Control: enables you to change the length of the tick's inside and outside line segments.
4
Line Color Control: enables you to change the color of the tick's inside and outside line segments.
5
Position Control: enables you to specify if a tick's inside and/or outside line segments are displayed.
6
Number Format Controls: enables you to specify the numerical format used to display tick labels.
7
Font Control: enables you to specify the font used to display tick labels.
8
Display Control: shows an example tick displayed using the currently selected attributes.
Tip: Displaying ticks' inside lines is very helpful

Reading the coordinates from a triangular graph can be difficult at times. By default, Cranium and Synapse display ticks with line segments positions both inside and outside the graph. The inside tick line segments align with the axis's gridlines which make reading the coordinate of displayed points much easier.

Although you can use the Ticks Attributes Dialog to remove ticks' inside line segments, it is typically best to leave them displayed.

Notes Dialog

The Notes dialog enables you to create and position formatted text values at specific locations within the triangular graph.

The dialog displays attributes of each displayed note. (Several additional attributes are not displayed in the table but are available for editing by using the Note Edit Dialog.)

1
Note Text: the text displayed on the graph.
2
X Value: the x coordinate at which the note is displayed.
3
Y Value: the y coordinate at which the note is displayed.
4
Z Value: the z coordinate at which the note is displayed.
5
Angle: the angle at which the note's text is displayed.
6
Transparent: specifies if the note's text is displayed with a solid colored or transparent background.

The Notes dialog also provides several controls for manipulating the displayed notes data.

7
Edit Button: activates the Note Edit Dialog which enables you to change the attributes of the selected note datum. See below for documentation.
8
Commands Button: pressing the dialog's Commands button or clicking the right mouse button on the table control displays the commands menu. This menu provides standard commands for copying, pasting, and clearing graph notes. See the documentation on Common Menu Commands for details.
9
Sort Button: the dialog's Sort button will be enabled if two or more rows are selected. Pressing the Sort button will activate the Sort Attribute dialog. This dialog enables you to sort graph notes in ascending or descending order by several attributes.
10
Offset Button: the dialog's Offset button will be enabled if two or more rows are selected. Pressing the Offset button will activate the Offset Notes Dialog. This dialog prompts for delta-x and delta-y values that will be added to the locations of all selected notes.
11
Add Rows Button: pressing the Add Rows button will add rows to the bottom of the table control.
Editing a Graph Note

Pressing the Graph Notes dialog's Edit button or double-clicking the left mouse button on a row in the dialog's table control activates the Graph Note edit dialog. This dialog enables you to edit a graph note's attributes.

1
Note Text Control: displays the current note's text in the assigned font.
2
Note Location Controls: enables you to enter the x, y, and z coordinates of the note's text. The note's text is drawn with its center point at the given coordinates.
3
Rotation Angle Control: enables you to specify the angle at which the note's text will be drawn.
4
Transparent Control: enables you to specify if the note's text will be drawn with a solid colored or transparent background.
5
Font Button: activates the Font Dialog which enables you to specify the display attributes in which the note's text will be drawn.
6
Remainder Button: if values for two coordinates are entered into the location controls, pressing the Remainder button will calculate and insert the third coordinate in the remaining control.
Related Documentation
Topic Description
Triangular Graph Chapter document chapter that displays and manages triangular data and graph entities.
Creating Graphs discusses the procedure and several detailed examples of creating graphs of physical property values.