Allow Option to Include Plot Cursor positions when autoscaling

[TurboPhil]

It would be nice to add a property to XY Graphs like "AutoScale.IncludeCursors?" that would take into consideration the cursor position when autoscaling X and Y axes.

For example, say you want to display limit lines for a channel you are monitoring:

In this example, we're watching a channel that is at a constant value of 3, and it has a limit of 3.2 (displayed as a cursor). Now, let's say the value makes a step change to 5, and you didn't see the transition (or maybe you switched to a different device in the plot,so the whole thing redrew):

Where'd my limit line go? The y-axis autoscaled, but didn't take the cursor into consideration, so it's out of the visible range now. 

[X.]

Is there an example of graphing software that does that? It seems to me that this would be best handled programmatically...

[TurboPhil]

Doing your own "autoscaling" programmatically is not a good idea.

You could do something like make the cursors into actual plot lines--that is, create data points to draw the lines as plots within the graph--which would be accounted for by the native autoscaling. But that gets messy if you want to show/hide these pseudo-cursors, and your plot properties start "changing" (because the properties follow the index, not the name/data)....

There are definitely ways to get around the problem programmatically, to be sure, but it seems like it would be a trivial addition to the (already optimized) native behavior.

[X.]

My point is that I am not sure how "natural" it would be, as far a UI is concerned. I personally am not used to such a behavior of graphs with respect to cursors, and I don't think I would like/need it. So the question is, do you want to clutter and make the plot UI more complexx with an additional option/button, which, if turned on accidentally might get people bezerk?

Let's wait for the votes anyhow (although remember that the NI Supreme Court will have the last word).

[TurboPhil]

I don't think the option should be a discrete button on the FP. I would like to see it available as a property--accessible either by property node on the BD, as an option in the Plot Properties dialog (on the "Cursors" page), or the native right-click menu on the plot (under the "Cursors" heading).

[fabric]

I currently have a project where this would have saved a lot of effort. In the end I had to implement my own autoscale methods to include cursors... It turned out to be a fairly complex task in the end!

[X.]

BTW, you could have a dummy (and invisible) plot with two points. One to fix the upper (or lower value) of the scale and the other onto which your cursor would be locked.