Charting component comparison

[harris_cohen]

I am comparing many different charting components for use in my project
and am seeking feedback from current users. I have looked at Nevron,
Teechart, ComponentArt, SharpGraph and others. Some are clunky, some
are too limited, some are overkill, some are overpriced, and some are
just bloated. I can't decide..

I have used previous versions of TeeChart (ActiveX days) but now the
..NET GAC dll is huge at 2,472KB and wanted to look at other, smaller
charting components.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
HC

 

[Chris Lithgow]

Hi Harris,

Yes, you are right "Some are clunky, some are too limited, some are
overkill, some are overpriced, and some are just bloated."

We have evaluated a number of charting components for one of our major
projects and finally we have decided to use Nevron chart for .NET. The
thing that tipped the balance was the great functionality, the well
designed object model and the numerous features offered by Nevron
chart. Nevron Chart for .Net is clearly superior to every other product
we tried, particularly for 3D surface functionality..

We choose Nevron originally because of the display flexibility, and
wide range of options their charting products offered. We have come to
know them as a company that not only produces great products, but
offers outstanding support.

At the moment we are looking at the new features in v4.0 of Nevron
Chart for .NET and I am impatient for the official retail release.

In the end I must say that Nevron's charting tools have become an
essential element of our software.

Regards,
Chris Lithgow

 

[harris_cohen]

Thanks. In my testing I saw that Nevron increased my .exe file
substantially in size for every chart I added to the designer. If you
create a blank project in Visual Studio and drag 5 Nevron charts onto
the form the .exe will swell to 500KB. None of the other components
had this effect. Instead, some added thousands of lines to the
InitializeComponent section of the code which is a different sort of
problem I guess. They all had some trade-off that killed it for me. I
found that Teechart had the least impact on exe size and the least
impact on .resx as IntializeComponent size but has a huge GAC dll at
2724KB which has to be distributed with any projects.

 

[Chris Lithgow]

Hi Harris,
I think that this is caused because Nevron uses binary serialization.
As far as I know this can be removed and there won't be impact on the
..exe size.

Hope I helped.

Regards,
Chris