Rendering Electronic Chart Objects

• US 20090073187A1
• Filed: 03/15/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Markiewicz, Marcus Eduardo, Davis, Randall L., Verprauskus, Andrew John, Rampson, Benjamin Edward, Androski, Matthew John, Cory, Daniel Philip, Ruble, B. Scott, Allyn, Barry Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,786,628 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Rendering electronic chart objects is provided. A set of chart elements having a common set of properties is identified. Formatting attributes of the chart elements and the data point locations for each chart element are also identified. Path information is generated for the chart elements that includes the formatting attributes and the data point locations. The path information is provided to a rendering engine that renders a chart element. Each chart element in the set is displayed on a display screen. Chart elements having a common set of properties are only rendered once. Alternatively, chart objects are rendered by generating and storing an image of chart objects having a common geometry and common properties and by copying the stored image to each data point location. Dynamic selection of rendering engines based on property and performance criteria may be utilized to enhance rendering performance.

Claims

1. A method for rendering a single element view of an electronic chart object, the method comprising:

identifying a set of chart elements that have a common set of properties;

determining one or more data point locations for each chart element in the set of chart elements;

generating path information for the chart elements, the path information including a path that includes each of the one or more data point locations for each chart element;

providing the path information to a rendering engine selected for rendering the set of chart elements wherein the selected rendering engine is optimized relative to properties associated with the set of chart elements;

using the path information and the rendering engine to render a single chart element comprised of each chart element of the set of chart elements; and

displaying the single chart element wherein each chart element in the set of chart elements is visible on a display screen, but wherein a portion of the path between each chart element in the set of chart elements is not visible on the display screen.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying formatting attributes for the set of chart elements.

3. The method of claim 2, displaying the single chart element wherein each chart element in the set of chart elements is visible on a display screen includes applying the formatting attributes to each chart element in the set of chart elements visible on the display screen.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering engine is dynamically selected from a plurality of rendering engines based on a comparison of the common set of properties and the capabilities of the plurality of rendering engines.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the path information includes position coordinates for each chart element in the set of chart elements, wherein the position coordinates define a shape of each chart element.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the shape is formed by connecting position coordinates for each chart element.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a plurality of sets of chart elements, each of the plurality of sets of chart elements having a common set of properties, and rendering a plurality of chart elements, wherein chart elements having a common set of properties are only rendered once.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating path information for the chart elements, the path information including a path that includes each of the one or more data point locations for each chart element includes generating path information for each set of chart elements of the plurality of sets of chart elements.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising identifying formatting attributes for each of the plurality of sets of chart elements.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein displaying the single chart element wherein each chart element in the set of chart elements is visible on a display screen, but wherein a portion of the path between each chart element in the set of chart elements is not visible on the display screen includes displaying a single chart element for each of the plurality of sets of chart elements wherein each chart element in each of the plurality of sets of chart elements is visible on a display screen, but wherein a portion of the path between each chart element in each of the plurality of sets of chart elements is not visible on the display screen.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the rendering engine is dynamically selected from a plurality of rendering engines based on a comparison of the common set of properties and the capabilities of the plurality of rendering engines.

12. A method for rendering an electronic chart object, the method comprising:

identifying a set of chart elements with common geometry and common properties;

identifying data point locations for the chart elements;

passing geometry and property information to a rendering engine selected for rendering the set of chart elements wherein the selected rendering engine is optimized relative to properties associated with the set of chart elements;

rendering a chart element from the geometry and property information;

storing an image of the rendered chart element; and

copying the image of the rendered chart element to each data point location;

wherein chart elements having a common geometry and common properties are only rendered once.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the image is converted into a bitmap.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the bitmap is copied to each data point location.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying a set of chart elements with common geometry and common properties includes identifying a plurality of sets of chart elements wherein each of the plurality of sets of chart elements is associated with a different data set.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein chart elements comprising each set of chart elements in the plurality of sets of chart elements are rendered and displayed with a unique shape so that each set of chart elements are distinguished from each other set of chart elements of the plurality of sets of chart elements.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein a rendering engine is dynamically selected from a plurality of rendering engines based on a comparison of the data element properties and the capabilities of the plurality of rendering engines.

18. A method for dynamically selecting a rendering engine for rendering electronic chart objects, the method comprising:

receiving data to be rendered;

parsing the properties of the data to be rendered;

comparing the parsed properties with the capabilities of available rendering engines;

selecting an appropriate rendering engine based on the comparison of the parsed properties with the capabilities of the available rendering engines;

rendering a chart element with the selected rendering engine.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the selection of an appropriate rendering engine involves selecting a rendering engine with the lowest processing overhead that can render the chart element.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the capabilities of the available rendering engines include the ability to process properties from the group consisting of shadow, fill, effects and anti-aliasing.