# \[FEATURE\] Increase usability of the Perspective Power Chart component **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81, perspective\ **Created:** [September 29, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474 "2021-09-29T22:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/41 "2022-05-09T21:25:01Z")
> [@James\_Sample](#): > > When trending multiple variables with different orders of magnitude of values, the trend is nearly useless unless you put the variables in separate charts which somewhat defeats the purpose. You can always use multiple y axes for this. > [@James\_Sample](#): > > Need more options in terms of time retrieval such as custom ranges. I agree this would be useful. Things like last week, last 7 days, last month etc. It's almost there in the realtime selections, but what makes it a bit useless is that you then can't traverse backwards in time... You're stuck from now to x time period ago 😕 ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 6:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/42 "2022-05-10T06:41:25Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/7/9/79b9363125923683a813247ceb9dfabd2659d4ee.png) Selection of the interpolation method could also be improved upon. I have no idea what any of the options actually do, and the operators will think it’s in Swahili (assuming they’re not from a country that speaks Swahili). It would be awesome if there was an info popup or something that shows you a description and an example of all of the options. Secondly, changing the colour of the plot background isn’t _really_ supported, as when you do, you lose lots of niceties like the axes labels are butt right up against the very top of the plot and look dumb, ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/2/9/29a89bf9c4cea6ec159237d2944dddda2b7fb7e0.png) The x-trace legend text is non-readable (issue is more that the legend background box is a fixed size and doesn’t accommodate longer text) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/7/3/73ad49ceb61d66e868b089f1b55676cf85107825.png) Also, this gap between the plot and the x-axis has always bugged me. It looks like it’s disconnected from the plot and not part of it. Can this be removed? ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/0/d00dc05bf56fa28bb3776259cb3bb48e5f3f8a04.png) One more: I have this displayed in 4K and I still have a scrollbar for my pen legend. Can we have access to the basis/shrink/grow settings of this so that we can control the size? ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/f/9/f958f3f1d3794eea1f73870fa1450c325e55989b.png) Also the lack of gridlines, but I remember reading that they’re coming, or have come ---
**Author:** ![ASF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@ASF](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ASF)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 3:49am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/43 "2022-06-20T03:49:14Z")
Just adding my voice to the chorus: I too have a customer with a brand new Ignition system with which they are otherwise thoroughly impressed, but are disappointed with the inability to show data as stored, and pushing me for a solution. ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/44 "2022-06-20T09:33:34Z")
The doc says: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/e/de0cd3c6d26ae95a12770b491a58364ee4c9ec7b.png) HOWEVER, this only works for ONE tag. Only one tag will be displayed if you add more… Which is particularly frustrating as I thought we finally had a way to display `asStored` in the powerchart, only to find out it makes it practically unusable. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/45 "2022-06-20T11:17:05Z")
Try the table history provider with a transaction group and storage on intervals. (Possibly conditioned on motor running status.) Sometimes the convenience and data storage savings of the tag historian aren’t worth the hassles. ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/46 "2022-06-20T12:33:13Z")
> [@pturmel](#): > > Sometimes the convenience and data storage savings of the tag historian aren’t worth the hassles. Sounds like something to inherently fix though rather than have to bandaid 🤷 ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/47 "2022-06-20T16:11:56Z")
I’m not convinced there’s a fix. Any kind of recording that uses a deadband to save storage is inherently lossy, and if the deadband is zero, tall format wastes gobs of space compared to a wide table format. You have to pick your poison. There might be better defaults, though. Maybe someone who uses the historian a lot (that wouldn’t be me) could make suggestions to IA. Hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![ASF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@ASF](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ASF)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/48 "2022-06-23T23:39:19Z")
I see that v8.1.18 has been released…does this mean that the power chart will now display data from a tag history database as stored? Or is this related to the internal historian only? ![Screen Shot 2022-06-24 at 9.38.14 am](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/f/9/f9d7d827c3a5c2098805657697245cdf25fd5ec4.png) ---
**Author:** ![srb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@srb](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/srb)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/49 "2022-07-01T15:45:26Z")
I’m trying to add a custom pen name through a script but it gets overwritten and the chart always shows a tag path. Is there a work around available to achieve this or will this be supported in the future? ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/50 "2022-07-05T11:56:18Z")
Another example of the x-axis behaving badly (not to mention this gateway’s memory usage… but that’s another issue): ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/5/0/509acd98f75e5e5d2104dc1e098e3e10facaafb0.png) ---
**Author:** ![jacob.mann](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jacob.mann/32/35821_2.png) [@jacob.mann](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jacob.mann)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 7:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/51 "2022-07-24T07:39:34Z")
This is true for a lot of trends we use, but we also have many that will have 10+ trends of the same process value, and adding a single unit to the axis makes a lot more sense than to each of the pen names. However I find the limited ability to position/orient the axis label makes this even more confusing! ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/52 "2022-08-08T01:50:49Z")
I created another request for Vision but it equally applies to Power Chart: > [@\[FEATURE\] Render datetime values more intuitively in EasyChart](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-render-datetime-values-more-intuitively-in-easychart/62759): > > If you select a date range which spans multiple days, it’s very difficult to read the date/times from the time axis. Screenshot below demonstrates this. It’s difficult to find for example the 2nd of August as the time axis doesn’t have dates, only times. Graphs should make it easy to read the axes confused Also, the times that are shown are not intuitive. Times should be offset from 0, not from some arbitrary value as is shown. E.g. the times shown are 4 hours apart, but are offset from 0300 … ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 1:52am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/53 "2022-08-08T01:52:02Z")
Can we get an update from IA where dev is up to RE the requests in this post? ---
**Author:** ![Carl.Gould](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/carl.gould/32/7262_2.png) [@Carl.Gould](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Carl.Gould)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/54 "2022-08-08T18:16:39Z")
Just answering that question would probably take all day. Long forum threads like this are a really difficult mechanism for us to work with. Perhaps a collection of ideas forum links would be helpful. Or maybe we could hop on a call and build a google doc of actionable, precise requests that could be correlated with feature requests in our internal tracking system. ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2022, 3:28am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/55 "2022-09-12T03:28:04Z")
BTW, some of these issues also apply to the EasyChart in Vision. E.g. the issue of the timeline labels... You literally need to count from the left or right on this chart to work out what day is what along the timeline, which is super slow and painful (without using the x-trace, of course - but trends should be easily readable just by looking at them, not just interacting with them) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/e/6/e612d6a9cd36b67608f4749c066fad97951f580d.jpeg) This is a perfect example of how I believe this should be (I've also passed this onto IA, but added here for everyone else) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/7/a/7afbec57bdd542fffa5fc891c9801d69d044106c.jpeg) Full date/times should be displayed at the major gridlines; they should be based on midnight, and should be predictable at all zoom levels e.g. 2022-09-22 12:05:00 2022-09-22 12:10:00 2022-09-22 12:15:00 _not_ 2022-09-22 12: **40** 2022-09-22 12: **46** 2022-09-22 12: **53** (these aren't even evenly spaced without the seconds showing... see my post after this one for this exact example - this is _ **so** _ very hard to read) Minor gridlines should be shown as well which divide the major gridlines by logical and predictable values. e.g. something that divides into 60, not some random number that's the result of a simple calculation of `span/gridlines`. I would also like to see the realtime and historic modes disappear and merged into one - there's no need to separate these and it makes it more difficult to use the chart. In the screenshot above, the start, end, and time span can all be modified, with start/end changes modifying the time span, and time span changes modifying the start time. e.g. you change start time, and the time span is updated to reflect the new time span using the format 1y 12w 5d 9h 12m 45s. you change the time span, and the start time is updated to reflect the new time span. Add to that a toggle to turn on live time tracking + a button to get to "now", and you have realtime mode. Pan the view, and you have historical mode with or without live time tracking. ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 5:47am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/56 "2022-11-15T05:47:31Z")
Real-world demonstration of how difficult it is to use the Power Chart. Can someone please tell me how many seconds are between these two x-traces? Gridlines don't work (the plot background covers them up), and minor gridlines don't event exist, so the answer is a resounding "no" ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/6/b/6b8b9197b3b7f87ad2c0f3159957d8f0e523bca0.png) Or how many seconds are between these dips? ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/5/952f825eb08184a2d2850d35639460526788f92f.png) As an operator or maintenance personnel, looking at the Power Chart graphs requires far more work than it should!! Even an experienced integrator will struggle to read and interpret these graphs ---
**Author:** ![Simen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Simen)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 1:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/57 "2022-11-15T13:59:50Z")
I changed the x-trace date format to include seconds. Not ideal, but it kind of works. Sometimes you really need to zoom in so the xtrace isn't on top of each other. * * * If you have the combination: powerchart + historical deadband + a dodgy connection, be aware! I have a lot of 4G cellular connections, so a loss of communication is common for me. Had a lengthy chat with support about this and the conclusion was that this is the intended function. There was some talk about a future request, but i havent heard anything yet. Only way to "fix" this is to have a really small maximum time between samples. The problem isnt fixed either, its just limited to the maximum time. A picure says more than a 1000 words 🙂 If data integrity is 0, then powerchart uses the timestamp, but the not the value of that entry, to create a flat line on the chart. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/b/9/b98e5be1c6e4cbb2e9a581da82617eb4e5fb2fae.png) This is how the database for this trend would look like: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/0/90f7cec332b5f14045dc22a15bc6fa5a91eef17f.png) In my opinion the line should have been drawn up to the point of loss of communication. The data (value 3 in this case) is even in the database! Guess they deem the information to be inaccurate. But they still use the timestamp to draw a flat line, its weird. Stopping the line at the last entry of dataintegrity 192 would also be better, but not ideal. ---
**Author:** ![Vincent\_Hallmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@Vincent\_Hallmann](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Vincent_Hallmann)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/58 "2023-02-11T00:27:49Z")
Hey everyone - Few questions that my customers are struggling with right now in the power chart in Perspektive: 1. is there a way to disable the second (small) chart that shows up when you switch to historical view vs real-time ? 2. is there a way to manipulate the pens when they are added through the „add pen to chart“ button on the tag browser ? I would like to influence the default values/attribute as well as the axis they are supposed to go on , based on a category of which the tag would fit in 3. when I add y axis to the left of the chart they are displaying perfectly but if I add them to the right of the chart they don’t space out properly so the label overlaps and is unreadable for all but the left axis on the right ---
**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/59 "2023-02-14T18:24:51Z")
> [@Vincent\_Hallmann](#): > > is there a way to disable the second (small) chart that shows up when you switch to historical view vs real-time ? It can be removed via CSS. > [@\[FEATURE-1705\] Disabling parts of the Perspective Power Chart](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-1705-disabling-parts-of-the-perspective-power-chart/57596/5): > > Here is the CSS for removing the range selector: .ia\_powerChartComponent\_\_chart .range-selector-container{ display: none !important; } I do agree with this. > [@Vincent\_Hallmann](#): > > is there a way to manipulate the pens when they are added through the „add pen to chart“ button on the tag browser ? I would like to influence the default values/attribute as well as the axis they are supposed to go on , based on a category of which the tag would fit in The only way that I know of, would be to use a property change event on the pens prop, and effect the changes after they have been added. Currently there no way (that I am aware of) to hi-jack the actual js that is executed when the "add pen to chart" button is clicked. You can of course provide your own tag browse component, and then script the addition of pens the chart. > [@Vincent\_Hallmann](#): > > when I add y axis to the left of the chart they are displaying perfectly but if I add them to the right of the chart they don’t space out properly so the label overlaps and is unreadable for all but the left axis on the right I would say this is probably a bug. Contacting support is the official way to report bugs, and find out if IA is aware of them or not. ---
**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 5:02am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474/60 "2023-03-24T05:02:43Z")
Another user story. Can someone tell me the date/times of these red vertical lines (drawn in paint) on the chart? and consequently the time between the lines? It's impossible without drawing your own grid onto it. This is not how a SCADA trend should be.. (I know I can use the x-trace, but what if I wanted to screenshot this / print it and send it to someone to review? Regardless, the time axis is almost useless if you want to use it to help analyse a trend) It's been almost 2 years since I first raised all of my concerns with this integral SCADA tool ☹ ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/c/f/cff0d60b09a4d128a01f7ecbb0c7851580e9838c.jpeg) [Previous page](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474.md?page=2) [Next page](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-increase-usability-of-the-perspective-power-chart-component/51474.md?page=4)