Combo Chart+

Overview

Combo Chart+ combines line, area, scatter, and bar traces with optional event, statistical, and summary information.

When to use it

Use this symbol when you need to:

• Plot data sources that require different trace types or value scales.
• Combine process trends, categorical states, events, and reference values.

Before you begin

• Prepare the PI Points, AF attributes, or event-frame search used by each trace.
• Confirm compatible units before assigning traces to a shared value scale.

Add and set up the symbol

1. Select the symbol in the PI Vision symbol gallery.
2. Add the required data sources or asset context to the display.
3. Right-click the symbol and open its configuration pane.
4. Configure the minimum data, range, and display settings for a useful result.
5. Confirm that the symbol shows the expected data.

Use the symbol

Hover, zoom, pan, or select a time region using the enabled chart tools. A configured time-range filter changes the shared display range.

Time bar

The time bar gives users independent control over the chart's time range without affecting the display time. To enable it:

The time bar lets users quickly shift or adjust the selected time range. The following configuration options are available:

• Enabled: Enables or disables the time bar.
• Ignore Display Time: When enabled, the chart's time range does not change when the display time changes - it ignores the display time entirely. This setting can also be toggled by clicking the lock icon in the toolbar.
• Duration: Configures preset time durations, which become available in a dropdown when the user clicks the duration display between the navigation arrows.
• Style: Sets the text color, background color, border color, and font size of the time bar.

Interactivity

In the Interactivity configuration section, the following options are available:

Enable Zoom: Whether the chart can be zoomed using the mouse wheel or the selected Mode.

Mode

Choose between Pan and Selection. Pan allows users to drag the chart left and right after zooming with the mouse wheel. Selection allows users to draw a selection area on the chart, and the chart zooms into that range.

Apply Zoom to Display Time

When enabled, the current interaction mode (zoom, select, or pan) is applied to the display time as well. When the user zooms in on a time range in the chart, that range is applied to the entire display.

Show Toolbar

Shows a toolbar at the top of the chart, allowing users to switch between interaction modes and zoom in or out.

Zoom In		Zooms in on the chart.
Zoom Out		Zooms out on the chart.
Zoom		Enables zoom mode. When the user selects an area, the chart zooms into that area.
Select		Enables selection mode. When the user selects an area, the chart creates a selection rectangle without zooming in.
Pan		Enables pan mode. Users can drag the chart left and right. Requires Apply Zoom to Display Time to be enabled.
Reset		Resets the current zoom level. Only works when Apply Zoom to Display Time is disabled.

Summary Table

When enabled, a Summary Table is displayed below the chart. By default, calculations use all data visible on the chart. If the user selects an area with the chart in Select mode, that time range is used for the summary calculations instead.

Configure the symbol

Overview and behavior

The Combo Chart+ symbol is a chart control that combines multiple chart types - line, area, scatter, and bar - into a single symbol. It supports all data types, including enumeration sets and strings, and lets you display event frames, configure multiple Y-axes, stack series, and build SPC/SQC charts.

Configure trend

Use the configuration pane to customize the symbol. From here you can adjust visual styles, columns, interactivity, and multi-state behavior.

1. Right-click the symbol and select Configure Combo Chart to open the configuration pane.
2. In the Title section, define the chart's title and subtitle.

• Title: The main title. When enabled, choose from three display modes:
• Text: Display a custom text string.
• Value: Display the current value of the first data source.
• Label: Display the currently selected label of the first data source.
• SubTitle: Mirrors the Title options, but appears below the main title.

1. In the Style section, configure colors and visual styles for the entire chart.

• Foreground: Sets the text color of the chart.
• Background: Sets the background color of the chart.
• Sparkline: Hides all axes and borders to render a sparkline-style chart.
• Border Width / Color: Enables or disables the border and sets its color and width.
• Shadow: Enables or disables the drop shadow for the chart.

1. In the Legend section, configure the chart legend. The legend displays all active traces with their respective colors and current values.

• Enabled: Enables or disables the legend.
• Size: Choose between Fit and Fixed. Fit sizes the legend to its content automatically; Fixed lets you set a specific size.
• Position: Sets the legend position: Top, Left, Bottom, or Right.
• Alignment: Sets the text alignment for legend trace labels.
• Font Size: Sets the font size of the legend text.
• Hide Errors: When enabled, hides any traces that are in an error state (such as No Data or Pt Created) from the legend.

1. In the Tooltip section, configure whether the current value is shown when the user hovers over a trace.

• Enabled: Enables or disables the hover tooltip.
• Shared: When enabled, the tooltip shows interpolated values for all traces regardless of whether an actual data point exists at that time. When disabled, the tooltip only shows traces that have a real data point at the cursor position.
• Name: Shows or hides the trace name in the tooltip.
• Value: Shows or hides the value in the tooltip.
• Fixed: When enabled, the tooltip remains at a fixed position rather than following the cursor.
• Alignment: Only available when the tooltip is fixed. Sets the position of the fixed tooltip.
• X Axis: Whether to show the current mouse position value on the X-axis.
• Y Axis: Whether to show the current mouse position value on the Y-axis.

Under the Data Labels section, define the appearance of data labels across the chart.

These settings apply globally to all data labels. To display labels for a specific trace, you must first enable them in that trace's options - see Configure Traces below.

Note: Data labels have a significant impact on performance. Use them only when the number of data points is low (fewer than 100), and consider using interpolated data retrieval.

1. Under the Stacked section, define the stack mode for the chart. Three modes are available:

None		Traces are not stacked.
Stacked		All traces that support stacking are stacked.
100%		Stacks all bars so their combined total equals 100%. Only available when all traces are of type Bar. Not compatible with line, scatter, or area traces.

• Stack bars only

When enabled, only Bar traces are stacked. Line, scatter, and area traces are plotted normally.

Stacking applies only to series of the same type on a per-axis basis. If there is a single value axis, stacking only takes effect when all series on the chart share the same series type.

To combine stacked and non-stacked series, use the Custom Value Scales option to assign separate scales to each group.

1. Under the Fill section, configure how bar and area traces are displayed.

Note: This section only appears when the chart contains at least one bar or area trace. Scatter and line traces are not affected by fill settings.

Configure value scales

In this section, configure the value scales and their ranges. Four scaling options are available. Note: these options are only available when the chart is not in stack mode.

• Single Scale

Displays all traces on a single Y-axis scale. Set a custom minimum and maximum, or use auto-scaling.

• Multi Scale

Creates a separate Y-axis scale for each data source.

The scale configuration for each data source is found in its individual trace settings. Go to Trace Options, select the relevant data source, and open the Axis-Y sub-section. The following options are available for each multi-scale trace:

• Enabled: Shows or hides the entire scale and its labels for this trace.
• Scale: Shows or hides the scale lines while keeping the axis label visible.
• Position: Sets the axis position to Left or Right.
• Scale Range: Sets the minimum and maximum values for this scale. Choose between manual configuration, auto-scale, or database settings.
• Separate Scale

Creates a separate sub-chart for each trace, all sharing a common time scale.

Scale configuration is found in the trace settings under the Y Axis sub-section.

• Custom Scale

Allows you to create any number of custom scales and assign traces to them independently. For example, you can assign traces 1 and 2 to Scale 1 and trace 3 to Scale 2.

Create a custom scale

To create a custom scale, click Add Scale. Each custom scale has the following configuration options:

• Show: Shows or hides the entire scale.
• Title: The display title for this scale.
• Color: Sets the color of the scale.
• Scale: Shows or hides the scale lines while keeping the title visible.
• Units: The unit of measure (UOM) to display alongside the scale values.
• Position: Sets the scale to the Left or Right side of the chart.
• Scale Range: Choose between Auto-range, Fit Data, and Custom Range.
• Ticks: The number of tick marks to display on the scale.
• Scale Distance: The distance between the scale and the chart area.

Assign trace to custom scale

Go to Trace Options, select the trace, and choose the target scale in the Axis Y sub-section. You can assign any number of traces to a single scale. A trace cannot be assigned to more than one scale at a time.

Scale Labels

Scale labels on the value axis can be positioned inside or outside the chart by selecting the corresponding option:

Outside Inside

Configure time scale

The time scale supports two display modes:

• Range: Creates a dynamic time scale where ticks and intervals are calculated automatically. When too many data points or bars are present, labels are hidden automatically to prevent overlap.
• Discrete: The chart creates a tick and label for every data point, and allows manual configuration of the timestamp format.

The difference between the two modes can be seen here:

Range Discrete

• Position: Places the X-axis at the top or bottom of the chart.
• Format: Determines how X-axis labels are displayed:
• Timestamps: Displays individual timestamps for each data point.

• Duration: Displays the start time, end time, and duration.

Configure data retrieval

Data retrieval configuration is critical for the Combo Chart+, especially when using bar chart traces. For bar charts to render correctly, all values must have equal time intervals between them. Use interpolated or summary data retrieval to ensure consistent spacing between timestamps.

If your chart looks like the example below, the timestamps do not have equal intervals, or too much data is being loaded.

After switching the data retrieval mode to Summary, the chart displays correctly:

• Mode

Defines how data is loaded from the PI system. The following modes are available:

Use Default mode for line, scatter, and area charts, and Summary or Interpolated mode for bar charts. Avoid Analytic mode unless necessary: it loads every archived data point and can significantly slow the chart depending on the time range and tag density.

• Start- and End times

Configure the chart's time range. The following modes are available:

Configure traces

In the Trace Options section, configure each data source and its associated trace.

• Label: Sets the label displayed in the legend and tooltip. Choose from the attribute name, asset name, or PI point name.
• Color: Sets the trace color. For advanced coloring options for bar and area traces, see the Fill sub-section under General.
• Type: Sets the trace type. Choose from: Scatter, Line, Area, Range Area, or Bar.

The following settings apply only to specific trace types:

• Curve (Line, Area)::

Straight		Connects data points with straight line segments.
Smooth		Smooths the curve between data points.
Stepped		Renders the trace as discrete step transitions.

Width (Area, Line): Sets the line width. Applies to area and line traces.

Small Width Large Width

Dash (Area, Line, Bar): Creates dashed or dotted lines. For bar traces, this affects the bar border. The value controls the width and spacing of the dashes - larger values produce larger dashes. Set to zero for a solid line.

Stroke (Bar): Sets the border width of each bar.

Show Markers (Line, Area): Shows or hides individual data point markers.

Marker Shape (Scatter, Line, Area): Choose from a variety of marker shapes.

Marker Size (Line, Area, Scatter): Determines the size of data point markers.

Regression: Enables a regression line for this trace.

Moving Average: Enables a moving average overlay for this trace. The Count option sets how many data points are included in the average calculation.

Data Labels: Enables data labels for this trace. Overlapping labels are hidden automatically to preserve performance. Global label style is configured in the Data Labels sub-section under General.

Note: Data labels have a significant impact on performance. Enable them only when the number of data points is low.

Format: Sets the number format for displayed values.

Legend: Shows or hides this trace in the legend. You can also customize the legend tooltip here - for example, to display the full attribute path or the PI point name.

Hidden: When enabled, the trace is hidden by default when the display is opened. Users can toggle trace visibility using the legend or the Summary Table.

Enumeration values

The Combo Chart+ symbol can display enumeration values as a colored background, which is useful for visualizing states such as machine mode or equipment state. To show enumeration values, drag a data source of that type onto the display.

To configure the background colors, right-click the symbol and select Add multi-state. Enable multi-state for the relevant data source and choose the desired colors.

Strings

The Combo Chart+ symbol also supports string data sources. String values are displayed as vertical markers with the text label positioned alongside each marker:

Event frames

The Combo Chart+ symbol supports displaying event frames and creating new event frames directly on the chart.

Show event frames

In order to show event frames, follow these steps:

1. In the configuration pane, under Events → Display, set the Enabled checkbox to ON.
2. Right-click the symbol and select Events Search Criteria…
3. Configure the event search and click Apply
4. The event frames now appear as colored ranges on the chart. The arrows indicate the start and end times of each frame.

Configure event frame style

Configure how event frames are displayed in the Display sub-section. The following options are available:

• Start/End: Shows or hides the start and end time markers.
• Line: Shows or hides the vertical lines at the start and end times.
• Labels: Sets the style and text of the start and end time labels. Options include positioning, alignment, size, and text content. For example, setting the style to Name and orientation to Vertical displays the event frames as shown below:

• Region: Shows or hides the colored background region for each event frame.

Event frame details

Clicking the label of an event frame opens the event frame details window. This window shows all information about the event frame, including its attribute values and comments.

• Details

The Details view shows all relevant information about the event frame. Users can acknowledge or edit the event frame from this view.

• Comments

The Comments view displays all existing comments on the event frame and allows users to add new ones.

• Attributes

The Attributes view shows all relevant attributes of the event frame and their current values.

To view the trend of an attribute's value, click the chart icon next to that attribute.

Create event frames

To enable event frame creation on the chart, set the Enabled checkbox in the Creation sub-section to ON.

Next, select an event frame template from the drop-down menu and specify the asset the event frame should be created for.

Once configured, the chart's interactivity toolbar shows a new Create Event Frame button:

To create an event frame, follow these steps:

1. Select an area on the chart where the event frame should be created.

1. Click the Create Event Frame button in the interactivity toolbar..
2. In the event creation window, adjust the name, asset, start and end times, severity, and description as needed.

1. Click Save to create the event frame.
2. The event frame is now created

Multi-State

The Combo Chart+ symbol provides a comprehensive multi-state configuration. To enable multi-state, right-click the symbol and select Add multi-state. Then select the target trace and check Enable Multi-State.

Multi-State Properties

A range of multi-state properties can be enabled independently for each trace:

• Markers / Bars: When enabled, colors line markers and bars according to the multi-state color scheme. Only applicable when markers are enabled, or the trace type is Bar or Scatter.

Colored Markers Colored Bars

• Data Labels: Colors data labels according to the multi-state color scheme. Only available when data labels are enabled for the trace.

• Lines: Shows or hides the multi-state limit lines. To hide the labels, uncheck the Labels checkbox.

• Target: When the multi-state limits are configured in Asset Framework and a Target attribute is set, enable this option to display the target line on the chart.

• Bands: When enabled, colors the chart background according to the configured multi-state limit ranges.

• Tooltip: When enabled, the tooltip color reflects the current multi-state color.

Configure SPC / SQC

This section describes how to set up the Combo Chart+ with Asset Framework to create an SPC/SQC chart.

1. Create an attribute for your process value. Then right-click the attribute and select Limits. In the Limits section, configure the following limits:

1. Go to the Analysis tab and create a new analysis for the Sigma calculation. Add the calculations shown below and map them to the previously created limits.

1. Open PI Vision and drag your data source onto the display using the Combo Chart+ symbol.
2. Go to the trace settings, set the trace type to Line and enable Markers
3. Right-click the symbol and select Add multi-state. Configure the multi-state settings as follows:

• Markers / Bars: On
• Lines: Off
• Target: On
• Bands: On
• States: Set the colors as desired. For best results, leave the middle range (the in-control region) with no color.

1. The result will look like this:

Summary table

The Combo Chart+ includes a built-in analytics table that supports data analysis without leaving the display. To enable the Summary Table and statistics, follow these steps:

1. In the Interactivity section, enable the Summary Table.
2. The chart now shows a table that includes all data sources. Statistics are calculated for the entire time range by default. To calculate statistics for a specific time range, set the chart mode to Selection in the interactivity toolbar:

1. Select an area on the chart. Statistics are recalculated for that selected time range.

1. In the configuration section Columns, choose which columns are visible in the table.

Use combo chart as a time range filter

The Combo Chart+ can act as a time range filter for the display. When configured this way, selecting an area on the chart applies that time range to the entire display - but not to the Combo Chart+ itself.

A typical use case is a master-detail view: dragging a selection in the master chart updates the time range of the detail chart.

To set up a master detail filter chart, follow these steps:

1. Create the master chart by dragging an attribute onto the display.
2. In the Data Retrieval section, set the Start and End times to Custom time range and enter the desired time range for the master chart. This step is important: once set, updating the display's time range will not affect the master chart, so the selection can move freely.
3. In the Scales section, disable the axis labels.
4. In the Interactivity section, enable Apply Zoom to Display time and Show Toolbar.
5. In the toolbar, enable the selection mode:

1. Create the detail chart by dragging the same or any other attribute onto the display. Ensure the detail chart's start and end times are set to Display time range.
2. Selecting any range on the master chart now updates the detail chart to show that time range.

Create a KPI chart using sparkline mode

Sparkline mode, found in the Style section, hides the X and Y axis labels and scales. Combined with a hidden legend and the title set to Value and subtitle set to Label, the Combo Chart+ becomes a KPI chart:

Show questionable and substituted data flags

When the chart's data retrieval mode is set to Analytic, the Data Flags option becomes available.

When enabled, all questionable and substituted data flags are shown for every trace directly on the chart:

Troubleshooting and limitations

• Check: If a trace is missing, check its data type, time range, scale assignment, and Hide errors setting.
• Check: Dense traces and very small retrieval intervals can reduce browser performance.

Performance consideration and max data points

If you are using Interpolated or Analytic data retrieval mode, review this section before deploying the chart.

Improve Performance

The following features have a significant impact on performance. If you are using Interpolated or Analytic mode with large datasets, consider disabling them:

• Disable data labels.
• Disable data markers.
• Set the trace type to Line.
• Avoid Bar chart traces.

Max Data Points

Depending on the trace type and settings, the chart enforces a data point limit to maintain acceptable performance. The current limits per series are:

• Bar traces: 500 data points.
• Line with markers: 5,000 data points.
• Line (without labels or markers): 15,000 data points.

If the limit is reached, the chart reverts to Default mode and shows compressed data instead. The following error message appears in the PI Vision log window: