GraphMaster - Data in 2D or 3D



Author: Stephen J. Kayner

Date: January, 1993

Keywords: GRAPH SOFTWARE PROGRAM GRAPHING UTILITY REVIEW

Text:
GraphMaster V1.33 From Visual Business Systems
GraphMaster is a specialty program for creating and printing custom
graphs. It is shipped on two 800K diskettes, one for the program, and
one for the examples and templates. The package includes only one
manual, which is a welcome change (to me) from the handful that now
seem to be packaged with most major applications. This manual covers
everything from installation and selecting the right kind of graph,
through printing, exporting, and design considerations.
GraphMaster has a good installer that decompresses the files on the
first disk and creates a folder in the location chosen by the user. I
installed GraphMaster to an external hard drive on another computer
over a LocalTalk network with an active database process underway, and
an anti-virus program watching the whole works. It worked without any
problems. The examples and templates were then dragged from the floppy
diskette to the new GraphMaster folder, and the installation was
complete.

The program is accessed through two window types for each set of data:
a Data Window and a Chart Window. The Data Window is linked to a Chart
Window, and if the Chart Window is closed, the associated Data Window
will also close. The two windows have buttons to navigate back and
forth between the associated chart and data. Icon buttons on the Data
window act as controls for moving the data to the Chart window, or
updating the graph. Each of the windows can contain more than one page,
and the Chart Window can also have a backdrop which allows the various
pages in a chart to share the same background.
The Data Window is in essence, a simple spreadsheet that has many of
the features one would expect from a low-end stand alone application.
It has sizable columns, number and text formatting, and allows data to
be sorted and transposed (swapped from rows to columns, or the
reverse). The number formatting would not cooperate when I copied a
column of dates from an Excel spreadsheet, converting the dates into
integers. The solution to this problem lies in importing the data,
rather than copying and pasting, from other applications.
Data can be imported in Excel 2.2 and 3.0, WKS, SYLK, and text formats
(tab and comma delimited), and exported in SYLK, and text formats.
Importing from Excel retains the number formatting, for dates and
currency. GraphMaster also supports Publish and Subscribe, offers
Balloon Help, and is capable of creating warm-links to Excel
spreadsheets.
To enter a formula in the Data Window, the user selects a cell, then
uses the Formula Language commands and a set of functions ranging from
trig operands, to log, square root, power, pi, min/max, floor/ceiling,
absolute value, mod, random, and row index. There are 18 predefined
formulas in the supplied library, and the user can define up to five
temporary formulas. Unless saved to the library, temporary formulas are
lost at the end of a GraphMaster session. The user can also define up
to 99 temporary variables that can be used in formulas.
There is a set of drawing tools for the Chart Window that has the usual
lines, shapes, text, and attributes (line types, fill colors, patterns,
borders, etc.) buttons. There is a ''hand'' tool for dragging around a
chart, which is an alternative to scrolling. Two other helpful features
are the zoom tool, and the Pop-up tool. The Pop-up tool is a small menu
that follows the cursor around, changing to display menu items relevant
to the object under the pointer. These ''mini-menus'' are not displayed
until the mouse button is pressed, so it's not annoying like Balloon
Help.
GraphMaster has most of the predefined chart types one would look for
in a dedicated graphing tool (over 40 in all), and allows the user to
define even more. The usual set of bar, column, pie, line, area,
histogram, scatter, XY, and combination charts are supplemented by
contour, Hi-Lo, polar, pictogram, 3D, and custom charts.
Graphs can be resized by dragging the select handles in the Chart
Window, and the Preference setting defaults to using the slower Show
Outlines mode. Changing this setting speeds up the action, and makes it
easier to see what the results will be, before the mouse button is
released.
 
3D charts are not resized by dragging. There is a menu item for 3D
chart resizing, which calls up a dialog box with easily understood
functions. There are also Perspective and Frame Width adjustments
available for 3D charts.
I copied a block of 32x82 cells from an Excel spreadsheet, for a 3D
surface chart, then I clicked the Plot button. GraphMaster chugged away
for a minute or so, then up popped a dialog warning that I was low on
memory, and should close some windows. I tried to close something, but
the computer was not responding, then GraphMaster crashed, and took out
the data set. To its credit, it did not crash any of the other
applications that were open, and I was able to close everything else
down. GraphMaster wouldn't restart until I rebooted the Mac. I then
increased the memory for GraphMaster from the 1200K default to 2MB, and
recopied the data set into the Data Window. Holding my breath, I once
again clicked the Plot button.
After about 90 seconds, a chart started to appear (I should point out
that although GraphMaster seemed slow at doing the redraws of this
relatively large data set, it was no slower than Excel at the same
task). GraphMaster didn't understand that the first column represented
the X axis categories, and plotted it as a surface. I then went back to
the Data Window, added a text character to the beginning of a cell in
the first column, and pressed the Plot button again. This time I almost
had the type of chart I wanted, but it was so cluttered with gridlines,
that the plotted surface was barely visible. I then went to the menus,
and eliminated the minor gridlines and changed the tickmarks to the
inside of the axes.
GraphMaster started to redraw, but then popped up a dialog warning that
memory was running low, and I should close some windows. I pressed OK,
but another dialog came up that said an internal error had occurred,
and that I should call Visual Business Systems (the publisher). I
pressed OK, and a third dialog came up that said in effect, that
GraphMaster was about to close, but would allow me to save before it
did. I was allowed to save, then GraphMaster shut down.
I then increased the memory for GraphMaster to 4MB, and repeated the
above procedure. This time I was allowed to change a number of things
about the graph. I removed the gridlines, and changed from a
combination of surface and wireframe to a wireframe only, and increased
the scale to go to zero on the Y axis. The surface was still difficult
to visualize, so I went to the 3D orientation controls, and rotated the
graph so that more of the surface could be seen. This was too much for
GraphMaster, however, and once again it flashed some warnings, and shut
down. This time I was not able to save, and was again forced to reboot
in order to restart GraphMaster.
All this took place on a Mac IIci with 8MB of memory, running System
7.0.1. The last sequence took place with GraphMaster and TeachText as
the only applications running. It seems that GraphMaster has trouble
with memory allocation, and that seems to be the reason it has a
tendency to shut down unexpectedly, or just flat out crash. The memory
used (as conveyed by the ''About this Macintosh'' dialog box) was never
the same as the amount allocated in the ''Get Info'' dialog box. I
don't know the reason for this, but did find it unnerving to have to be
so careful about memory use. 
On the positive side, there are loads of options available to change
the way a chart looks. It is this flexibility that gives GraphMaster
its edge over those spreadsheets that offer charting modules. I
particularly admired the way the 3D view orientation can be configured.
The program offers an intuitive graphical interface for this in the
form of a sphere with three axes of rotation that can simply be grabbed
and turned in any direction. The ghost of the chart axes are depicted
on screen and the user can see the effect of the rotation as it is
being done. There are also nine preset views that can be selected for
even faster reorientation of 3D charts.
GraphMaster has settings for the overlap and spacings of bar and column
charts, and data values can be applied to any series. It is very easy
to convert many types of two dimensional charts into 3D charts.
The Pop-up menu tool is very handy once the basic chart type has been
selected and plotted. Using this tool, changing the attributes of the
chart elements to jazz up the chart is a snap. Colors, shading, fonts,
and other fun stuff can be added or changed. It works fast, but there
are so many things that can be changed, I found myself clicking around
in this mode for extended periods, with the charts getting wilder with
every click.
The pictograms are also fun to play with. They consist of PICT or EPS
files, and the user can create pictures using any program that will
create PICT or EPS images. The GraphMaster Pictogram Editor is used to
paste in new images, and to set the image to be stretched, clipped,
stacked, or segmented.
GraphMaster does six different types of curve fitting for line and
scatter charts, and displays the selected curve formula in a dialog box
where it can be copied for use in other documents. This dialog box
allows the precision of the curve fitting calculation to be set between
1 and 10. The curves can be plotted as a regression line of Y on X, or
the reverse.
Error bars can be set to span a percent, a fixed number, a multiple of
the standard deviation, a variable for each column, or none at all.
They can be set for the X or Y direction, to display in only the
positive or negative direction, to show for only one or more series,
and to have different markers for each series, or different symbols for
the high and low marker.
Although GraphMaster has some slick technical graphing features, I
wouldn't consider it a high-level scientific graphing package, due to
slowness and memory problems with large data sets, and a lack of more
sophisticated predefined functions, formulas, and chart types.
Included with GraphMaster are five black and white, and six color
example graphs, ranging from the simple to the spectacular. The color
examples show some very good graphics capabilities, including excellent
shading and gradients. GraphMaster handles 8 and 24 bit color, and is
also adept at black and white chart preparation.
Finished charts can be exported as PICT, EPS, Illustrator, or scrapbook
files. Any chart can also be used as a template for other data sets,
making it easy to set up a custom chart, and to replace the data
without having to reproduce all the fancy work that goes into making
it.
The best of what GraphMaster offers is its great flexibility in
adjusting nearly every facet of the charts it creates. The
implementation of the many controls and dialogs is great, and takes
full advantage of the Mac's graphical environment.
There are apparently some problems with memory use, but this package
could be of great help in preparing charts for presentation, especially
if color printing or slide making is a possibility. For more
information about GraphMaster, contact Visual Business Systems at:
Visual Business Systems
380 Interstate North, Suite 190
Atlanta, GA  30339
(404)956-0325

Copyright © january, 1993 by Stephen J. Kayner