Creating a Merged Chart

Merged charts are created by merging up to a maximum of 3 pre-created individual charts, which are created in the way that you currently create charts e.g. select the chart type (Bar, Line etc) and add the data, please refer to pi documentation for more information. Once you’ve created the individual charts, you add them to the Merged chart in the following way.

On the ‘Edit, Chart’ screen, click the ‘Chart’ tab and choose ‘Merged' from the list of chart types.

Click the ‘Data’ tab and click the ‘Add’ icon.

The Chart Library will now be displayed but this will only show a list of charts that can be added to a Merged chart.

After selecting the first chart, click the ‘Add’ icon again and repeat the process to add up to the maximum of 3 charts.

On the ‘Data’ tab, you will see the individual charts that you’ve selected at the top of the screen and the bottom portion of the screen will show the result of the merged charts. The individual charts are only seen on the ‘Edit, Chart’ screen (unless you also want to display them on the dashboard) and this allows you to see the data from each chart separately along with the Merged chart.

The chart name and object name from each separate child chart will be displayed on the Y Axis of the Merged chart, which makes it easier to understand the data. We can see from the following screenshot that a Y Axis is displayed at either side of the Merged chart, each Axis containing the details from the relevant child chart.

Changing the order of the child charts

The order of how each individual chart is displayed in the merged chart is determined by the following rules:

Line charts are always displayed in front of Bar charts
Bar charts are always displayed in front of Area charts

If, however, you add two of the same chart type for example, 2 Area chart types you can change the order that they’re displayed by clicking the ‘Edit Chart’ menu on the merged chart and changing the order on the Data tab by clicking the relevant up or down arrow.

Changing the order of the child charts can make a difference in the way the data is amalgamated and being able to change the order allows users to be in control of which chart is prioritised.

Linking the Y Axis

The Y axis from each individual child chart can be linked to ensure that the Y Axis is at the same level when displayed on the Merged chart.

This screenshot shows a Merged chart without the ‘Link to Y Axis’ box ticked.

You can link the Y Axis by clicking the ‘Edit Chart’ menu on the Merged chart and ticking the ‘Link to Y Axis’ box on the Attributes tab.