Chart areas are chart components that are used to plot a chart's data. They are either 2D or 3D, and include the plotting area as well as tick marks and axis labels. A Chart control can have an unlimited number of ChartArea objects. Chart areas can also be overlayed on top of one another.

Chart Area Features

2D and 3D Chart Areas

Chart areas are either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional. This is set using the Area3DStyle property. The figure below shows the effect of enabling 3D on a bar chart.

2D Chart  3D Chart

Appearance Properties

Chart areas, like many other Chart elements, support a wide variety of appearances including the following:

Gradient Color

Automatic Positioning and Alignment

Chart areas by default are automatically positioned and sized within the chart picture. Also, multiple chart areas can be aligned with one another by setting which chart area to align to. The criteria used for the alignment can also be specified.

No Alignment  Aligned Chart Areas

Scrolling, Zooming, and Cursors

Chart area objects have X and Y axis cursors associated with them, and these cursors allow chart readers to zoom in and out of data views. Zooming and scrolling are enabled at the axis level. See the figure below for an example of scrolling on the X axis.

Zooming, Scrolling and Dataviews

 

Overlaying Chart Areas

Multiple chart areas can overlay one another. This allows for:

Overlaying Chart Areas