Setting the “Enable3D” property of “ChartArea” in Code behind for StackedColumn charts

Question

I created a StackedColumn chart using the built in .NET 4.0 controls. The charts are coming out properly. I want to make it look 3-D though. I am able to do that by using XAML. But I am unable to do the same using code behind.

Please see my code behind. I have a Chart, and a ChartArea. I saw that the code to enable 3-D is as follows:

Chart1.ChartAreas["Default"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

But I get an error at Runtime as follows: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: index

I also tried using the following options (where cArea is the instance of ChartArea) :

cArea.Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Chart1.ChartAreas[0].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Is there any difference in where I set these properties. I tried all the 3 above statements before I add the Chart1 element.

The code behind I use is :

        Chart1.Series.Clear();
        Chart1.ChartAreas.Clear();

        ChartArea cArea = new ChartArea("Default");
        Chart1.ChartAreas.Add(cArea);

        // ABLE TO USE cArea to change properties.... !!!
        cArea.AxisX.LabelStyle.Angle = +80;
        cArea.AxisX.LabelStyle.Interval = 1;
        cArea.BackColor = Color.Beige;



        foreach (var g in groups)
        {
            Series s1 = new Series(g.Key);
            Chart1.Series.Add(s1);

            s1.ChartType = SeriesChartType.StackedColumn;
            s1["PointWidth"] = "0.7";
            foreach (var m in g)
            {
                s1.Points.AddXY(m.Category, m.Count);
            }
            s1.IsValueShownAsLabel = true;
            s1.ToolTip = "#VALY";
        }


        this.Controls.Add(Chart1);

The XAML is :

<asp:Chart ID="Chart1" runat="server" ImageLocation="~/FolderLoc/Chart_#SEQ(1000,0)"     ImageStorageMode="UseImageLocation" ImageType="Png" >
</asp:Chart>

I am however able to use the cArea to change other properties as part of my chart as shown in the code:

// ABLE TO USE cArea to change properties.... !!!
cArea.AxisX.LabelStyle.Angle = +80;
cArea.AxisX.LabelStyle.Interval = 1;
cArea.BackColor = Color.Beige;

When using Static data, I am able to set the "Enable3D" to TRUE with the XAML as :

   <chartareas>
       <asp:ChartArea Name="Default">
           <Area3DStyle Enable3D="True" />
       </asp:ChartArea>
   </chartareas>

Can you please tell me how to make the chart 3-D enabled?

Answer 1

Two things to try:

Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Chart1.ChartAreas[0].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Answer 2

You have empty data in the X axis. Use AlignDataPointsByAxis to fix this.