BEGIN_CHART

When charting external data, this command launches the chart window(s) for external data that has been entered so far and allows the template to continue running.

Syntax

BEGIN_CHART

Return value

This command returns the number 0.

Notes

When running a template in the SPC Charts and Reports module in order to access and chart external data, BEGIN_CHART launches the chart window(s) for external data that has been entered so far and allows the template to continue running. New data that continues to be entered by the template is added to the existing charts or to a new chart if data is entered for another standard or another template row.

If the standard has already been specified but no data has yet been entered by the template, the chart window will be generated with the message "no chart available".

If the standard has not yet been specified, no chart window will be generated.

Note: By default when charting external data, the data and statistics will be refreshed after each new data subgroup is entered, and there is no upper limit on the number of data subgroups that can be displayed on the chart and used to calculate statistics. If you want to change this refresh rate or limit the number of points displayed or used to calculate statistics, you must execute the DE_OPT 10, DE_OPT 11 or DE_OPT 12 commands before executing the BEGIN_CHART command.

Note: When the BEGIN_CHART command first launches a chart window for external data, that data is ordered by its date/time stamp. However, external data that is later added to an existing chart window will simply be appended to the chart in the order in which it was entered in the template.

After the BEGIN_CHART command has been executed, you may not close any of the chart windows generated from this template (or duplicated from the initial chart windows) until the template has been closed. If you try to close any of these windows, the message "Data is still being read for this chart" is displayed.

This command applies to the entire template, not only to the current row.

This command is only executed while charting external data in the SPC Charts and Reports module. When a template is run from the SPC Data Entry module, this command is ignored.