Three Suggestions For Improvements

[meeshu]

I have recently purchased DPlot V2.1.3.8.

Unless I've missed something, I would like to see several improvements to the software.

1) An option to add fill to the graph background, bounded by the X and Y axes. At present, fill appears to be limited to between curves, and from curves to axis.

2) Options to modify grid lines style, color, and thickness. With separate options for major and minor (tick mark) grids.

3) Finally, option to modify axis labeling, based on mathematical relationship. For example. I have X axis data based on minutes. Instead of labeling X axis in minutes, I would like to label using hours. So, for every 60 minutes of X axis data, the X axis would be automatically labeled with hours (60 minutes/60). Does this make sense?

Thank you.

[DPlotAdmin]

1) An option to add fill to the graph background, bounded by the X and Y axes. At present, fill appears to be limited to between curves, and from curves to axis.

You can do this now with a bit of a trick. Create a new curve with 2 points with the Y value above the extents of the plot, one X at or left of the left extent and the other at or right of the right extent. Select Options>Fill Between Curves. In the 1st curve box select the curve you just created. In the 2nd curve box select Bottom. Fill patterns are drawn below all curves, so you won't need to rearrange the curves using View>Reorder.

2) Options to modify grid lines style, color, and thickness. With separate options for major and minor (tick mark) grids.

For XY plots the major and minor grid line style and width are controlled with Options>Symbol/Line Styles. For grid line color see Options>Colors>Edit, or click the Colors button.

3) Finally, option to modify axis labeling, based on mathematical relationship. For example. I have X axis data based on minutes. Instead of labeling X axis in minutes, I would like to label using hours. So, for every 60 minutes of X axis data, the X axis would be automatically labeled with hours (60 minutes/60). Does this make sense?

You can do this very easily with a second X axis (Options>Multiple axes). For the primary axis I'm not sure I see a lot of value in showing the data in one unit, when internally it is stored as some other unit, and I think this would lead to confusion. You can easily change your input X from minutes to hours with Edit>Operate on X, X=X/60.

[meeshu]

Thanks for your prompt and detailed response!

Regarding the background fill "trick", although the trick may work, it is not entirely convenient. It would be highly preferable to have a specific option for adding background fill without resorting to "tricks".

Is it likely that an option for background fill will become available in a future release?

Thanks for directing me to the appropriate options for modifying grid lines style, width and color! Now I know!

I thought that alternative (X axis) scaling would be a bit difficult. But adding a second axis seems to be the best solution, as I don't want to modify axis source data. Thanks for that!

[DPlotAdmin]

Is it likely that an option for background fill will become available in a future release?

Definitely not anytime soon. Another frequent request is for displaying bitmaps in the background - same deal. There are other applications (namely PowerPoint) much better suited to dealing with this sort of thing, and I'd rather concentrate on changes that have to do with graphing.