Display Relative Time on Waveform Chart and Set the Origin to Zero

Updated Mar 16, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW Base
  • LabVIEW Full
  • LabVIEW Professional

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

I have a waveform chart in which I am displaying relative time on the X-axis. However, it currently shows the time elapsed at both ends of the axis. How do I set the left end of the axis to remain at zero?
 

Solution

To set the left end of the axis on your waveform chart set the X-axis to Autoscale and increase the chart history length.
 
By default, the waveform chart has a defined window to show for the X axis. When the X values reach the upper limit of this window, the chart begins to scroll to display the window of newest values. To prevent this, set the X-axis to autoscale by right clicking the chart and selecting X Scale » Autoscale X. This action will also increase the size of the window to show all values from 0 to the current x value.
 
Once the x-axis is set to Autoscale, the chart will continue to resize, with the minimum at 0, until the history buffer is full, at which point, it will begin to scroll again.  The history buffer saves the past n number of points displayed on the plot. To prevent the chart from scrolling, this buffer must be larger than the maximum number of points to be displayed on the chart.  To change the history length, right click the chart, select Chart History Length, and enter an appropriate length.