Software Siglo XXI

Frequent Asked Questions Page

We will publish here common and/or useful questions about our charting library: usage, deployment, tips, features, ... Feel free to contact us at support@softwaresigloxxi.com for any question not listed here.

Licensing and Activation Code

• I am considering purchase of your charting library. I would like to know what "1 year free updates" means exactly. Taking into account current version numbering scheme, what is the highest version number I would be entitled to get for free in the future?
  You may request a free update at any time following the 6 or 12 months after your purchase date (depending on the license purchased). Version is not important. If you purchased version 10 and version 12 is released in 6 months you can update to version 12 for free.
  

• Would I be able to install the library on my computer at work and at home?
  You can install freely our graph library in any number of computers. You only need to purchase a license if need support, updates, and to remove the "Trial Edition" message. Have in mind that support is granted to only one developer per license, so if you are a team of developers working with Super 2d/3d Graph Library consider purchasing at least 2 or 3 licenses so you don't have to bother the same guy to ask all the questions of your team!
  

• I have purchased a license but I have not received my activation code!
  Activation codes are issued in less than 24/48 hours from your purchase. Guaranteed. If you don't receive the email with the code, you should want to check your spam folders, antivirus, etc. Send us an activation code request to support@softwaresigloxxi.com from a different email account.
  

• I have received my activation code but it continues showing "Trial Version" over the charts!
  You must delete/uninstall trial edition and download/install retail version which recognizes activation codes. In the email with your activation code you will find the URL to download full version of the library.
  If Trial Version message continues, make sure you have indicated your activation code correctly, using LicenseeIdentifier property. Also make sure you don't have any previous/demo versions installed in the GAC and that you have deleted any DLL from a previous version in your hard disk.
  

• Can I use the chart control in Open Source projects?
  Due to privacy of the activation codes, only trial edition can be distributed along with your package. End users must purchase a license to avoid Trial Edition message in the charts. Feel free to suggest us an alternate way to distribute a licensed version.

• I purchased the library 14 months ago, can I continue using it? Can I update to recent versions?
  You can continue using and distributing your licensed copy for ever, of course. But after the first year, you must purchase a new license if you want to update to recent versions as well as to receive support.

Platforms/IDE/Compatibility

• Can I use your library in Visual Basic 6?

  No. Library is a 100% .Net user component that can only be used from a .Net environment (either .NET Winform application or ASP.NET website).

  Some users have reported they have created a proxy .NET library which deals with the .NET library and saves the chart to a GIF file, so it can be loaded in a PictureBox.

Image formats supported

• The charts which are generated, would I be able to save them in .BMP or GIF or JPG files?

  Yes. Charts may be saved in BPM, GIF, TIF, JPG, PNG, animated GIF as well as SVG (vector) and PDF formats in professional edition.

Support and feature requests

• Which support options do I have?

  All users interested in using our library have priority support from our tech guys (including licensed users, upgrading users, evaluating users, ...). 99% of our customers have one or two questions at most before they get working the chart control in their projects so we don't see the need for other support options than email, which would increase the price of the product
  So currently we only provide email support but we guarantee high quality answers during your maintenance period, including samples, code advising, error checking, ... our response time is less than 24 hours, usually a few hours. Try it now sending your question.

• Are you able to do make some customizations in the library? How much do you charge for them?

  Some users ask for minor customizations for their projects before purchasing the product. That's ok and we usually develop them without extra charge if they are good for the product (an update is then delivered in one or two weeks by email).
  Only if you are in a hurry or the customization is difficult or very specific, then we request a small fee in advance. If you are OK with the fee, we develop it, you try it, and if happy, you pay for it using PayPal.

Source code licensing

• Is Source Code for the library available?

  Yes. You can purchase an Enterprise License. This includes entire Source Code for the library as well as the compiled DLL. No support is granted for the source code and it will be provided as is. With source code of the library in your hands you can make free changes and fixes on your own and won't depend on our team to solve your problems for ever. Have in mind that our Source Code evolves, so apply your changes wisely if you want to receive future updates. Distributing source code is forbidden!

General control usage

• How can I improve the speed of the rendering?

  Make sure you set Autorefresh to False before setting properties or feeding data. Call RefreshChart at the end.
  Also, try with ShowVaues = False and Quality = HighSpeed.

• Chart control hangs with too many values!

  This can happen if you don't set ShowValues = False. Try also HotSpotsEnabled = False.
  With too many values, their labels collide with each other and the engine gets mad trying to avoid overlapping.

Axis, Values & Labels

• Is it possible to define X-axis labels independently of the legend, that is: is it possible to allocate X-axis labels to each X-axis position?

  Yes, you can achieve that. The key is the ItemsLegend property as well as ShowXAxis=true.

• How can I get this graph's Y axis values to start with 0?

  Try YAxisScaleMode = SCALEMODE.AUTOMATIC_MIN_ZERO.

• Which formats are allowed for numeric values (eg. ValuesFormat property)?

  ValuesFormat, YAxisNumericFormat and XAxisNumericFormat accept standard numeric format codes of Visual Studio .NET. You can browse Visual Studio .NET help for the list of format codes. For example: "0", "N", "p", ... Click here for more info.

Background Image

• How can I change background image?

  Use GridBackgroundImage or BackgroundImage properties.