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Positioning Elements on a Gauge

The gauge panel is the top-level container that holds one or more gauges. You can view the Gauge Panel Properties dialog box by clicking just outside the gauge. Each gauge, in turn, contains several gauge elements: a gauge scale, a gauge range, and a gauge pointer. When you are using the gauge, you will need to understand how elements are measured in the gauge panel in order to modify the size and location of these elements.

Understanding Size and Position Measurements

All size and position measurements on the gauge are calculated as a percentage of their parent element. When parent elements have different width and height values, the size of the gauge element is calculated as a percentage of the smaller of the two values. For example, on a linear gauge, all pointer measurements are calculated as a percentage of the width or height of the linear gauge, whichever is smaller.

Position measurements are also calculated as a percentage of their parent element using a coordinate system. The origin of this coordinate system is in the upper-left corner with the X axis pointing to the right and the Y axis pointing down. Coordinate values should be between 0 and 100, and all measurements are represented as a percentage. For example, when the X and Y positions of the linear gauge are set to 50 and 50, the linear gauge is positioned in the middle of the gauge panel.

Positioning Multiple Gauges inside the Gauge Panel

There are two ways to add a new gauge to a gauge panel that already contains one gauge. You can add a gauge as a child of the first one or you can add another gauge adjacent to the first one.

When a new gauge is added to a gauge panel, it is sized and positioned in equal proportion to all other gauges in the gauge panel. For example, if a radial gauge is added to a gauge panel that already contains a radial gauge, the two gauges will automatically be resized to each fit half of the panel.

You can add a new gauge to a gauge panel that already contains a gauge. To do this, right-click anywhere on the gauge panel, hover over Add New Gauge and select Child. The Select Gauge Type dialog box will appear. When the new gauge is added as a child, it is added in one of two ways. In a radial gauge, the child gauge is positioned in the top-left corner of the first gauge. In a linear gauge, the child gauge is positioned in the middle of the first gauge. You can position the child gauge, relative to the parent gauge, by using the Position properties. As with all other elements, position measurements are calculated as a percentage of their parent element. For more information, see Radial Gauge Properties Dialog Box, General and Linear Gauge Properties Dialog Box, General.

Positioning Gauge Scale Labels and Gauge Ranges

There are two properties that determine the position of labels on a gauge scale. You can set the gauge scale's Placement property to specify whether the labels are displayed inside, outside or across the scale bar. You can also specify a numeric value for the Distance from scale property, which specifies the number of units that are added or subtracted from the placement to determine the label position. For example, if Placement is set to Outside and you have set Distance from scale to 10, the labels will be positioned 10 units from the outer edge of the gauge scale, where 1 unit is either:

  • 1% of the gauge diameter on a radial gauge, or

  • 1% of the smallest value of the gauge height or width on a linear gauge.

The Position and Distance from scale properties also apply to gauge ranges.

Maintaining Aspect Ratio on a Linear Gauge

The radial gauge assumes a circular form, so this gauge type usually maintains the same width and height values. However, on a linear gauge, which assumes a rectangular form, the proportion between the width and height is usually uneven. The aspect ratio of a gauge determines the proportion of width to height that should be maintained when the gauge is resized. For example, if this value is set to 2, the width of the gauge will always be twice the height of the gauge, no matter how the gauge is resized. To set the aspect ratio, you can set the AspectRatio property from the Linear Gauge Properties dialog box.