Charts

Explore, trend, and analyze time series in Charts using no-code tools. Find data using contextualized engineering diagrams and create template charts with pre-selected time series and calculations to reuse when you or your colleagues troubleshoot or perform root cause analysis.

tip

Select Open in canvas under the three dots (...) to add charts to a canvas for visualizing and exploring data from various sources.

Get started

1. Navigate to Industrial tools > Charts.

2. Select + New chart to start a new chart, or toggle between My charts and Public charts to open existing charts.

   • My charts are only visible to you.
   • Public charts are the charts you or one of your colleagues have shared with everyone in your organization.
   tip

   Use a public chart to experiment and learn. Only the owner of a public chart can save changes to it, so you can't go wrong. To save changes to a chart you don't own, first make a copy of the chart with the Duplicate option on the Actions menu.

Work with charts

Add time series

To add time series data to your chart:

1. Select Add data -> Add time series.

2. Select a location to narrow down the result volume.

3. Select a time series. You'll see the time series you have added below the chart.

   tip

   For each time series and calculation, explore the different ways to set units and fine-tune the data display. For example, try to adjust the thickness and color of the diagram line. Use the 🛈 button to see more details.

Add calculations

Troubleshooting and working on root cause analysis often require calculations ranging from basic algebra to more advanced algorithms. You can apply calculations to one or more time series, and the results will be displayed directly in the chart.

To add a new calculation:

1. Select Add data -> Create calculation

2. Select Add node or right-click in the panel below the chart to add input sources.

   info

   By default, Automatic data alignment is enabled for all calculations. To use your own resampling and reindexing parameters, turn off Automatic data alignment and manually add resampling or reindexing function nodes to your calculation.

3. Right-click the panel to add constants or functions to the calculation. Select 🛈 to view the function details or hover over the parameters for more information.

4. Pipe the calculations in the correct order, including the final Output node, to complete the computational graph, trigger the calculation to run, and display the result on the chart plot.

If the time series, parameters, constants, or time frame changes, Charts reruns the calculation and refreshes the results.

tip

You can use one calculation as input to a new calculation to split the calculation into separate steps and view the output from each step.

Schedule calculations

Create a calculation schedule and save the result as a time series in CDF. You can view the results in tools like Power BI and Grafana. You can also monitor your scheduled calculation.

The calculation schedule looks only at the current time - window size, and if the data freshness is less than that, the scheduled calculation won't catch the data points.

1. On a calculation you have just created, select Save and Schedule.

2. Specify the sign-in credentials for the scheduling job.

   • CDF sign-in credentials are the credentials you use when you sign in to CDF.

   • CDF Client ID and Client secret are created by your existing identity provider (IdP), often Microsoft Entra ID. Contact your CDF Admin or internal IT if you don't know your Client ID and Client secret.

   • CDF sign-in credentials may expire and thus stop the scheduled calculations. CDF Client ID and Client secret don't expire and provide a more stable performance.

info

Calculations run on the selected time frame while scheduled calculations start at the set scheduled time and continue according to the schedule.

1. Select Next.
2. Name your schedule and select the necessary values.
3. Select Start schedule.

Trend data

To stack, overlay, and compare trends for time series, try using click+drag or hover+scroll to adjust and move each diagram axis.

Select a time frame to navigate between current and historical data or set a specific time and date in the calendar.

Use the Slider on the tools menu:

• To see the time series values in the chart at a point in time.
• To compare several points in time and find trend changes. Select the slider and select where you want to set it in the chart, select the line to remove it.

info

Charts uses the local time on your computer as the default setting.

Visualize data quality in a chart

Sometimes, data quality in a time series may be uncertain or bad, for instance if a sensor isn't sending data to CDF or similar issues. When you zoom in on aggregated data to view individual data points in the chart, the chart line is displayed as shaded if the quality is Uncertain and with a gap in the chart if the quality is considered Bad. An X marks the start and end point of the bad data quality.

Assess data quality with data profiling

Use data profiling to assess the quality of a time series and if it fits your purpose. Data profiling uses the values in the Industrial Data Science Library (InDSL) and defines gaps if the time deltas deviate by more than 1.5 times the interquartile range.

1. In the chart, select Data profiling () and then the time series you want to assess in the Source dropdown list.

2. In the panel, you can see the plot gaps and toggle between viewing a boxplot and a histogram of time deltas or density.

Set thresholds for historical data

1. In the chart, select Thresholds ().

2. In the panel, set the necessary threshold values for time series and calculations.

3. On the chart plot, you can see if a time series or calculation crosses any thresholds.

Add events

Events like a work order or a faulty shutdown can contain vital information to help analyze time series.

To add events to a chart:

1. Select Events from the sidebar.

2. In the panel, add a filter or select an existing filter to select the relevant events.

   You can see the matching events on the plot for the current time range.

Monitor time series

Create monitoring jobs to receive email alerts when a time series meets one or more conditions you've defined.

Create monitoring jobs

1. Select Monitoring from the sidebar.
2. Name the monitoring job and select the Time series or Scheduled calculation you want to monitor in the Source dropdown list.
3. Select the Threshold and the Minimum duration for the alert.

TIP

Alerts in the selected time frame shows you how many alerts your settings would have triggered within the active time frame in your chart.

4. Select a folder or Type the folder name to create the folder to store the alerts.

5. Select the users that will receive the email alerts. The chart must also be public if you want to add other subscribers than yourself.

6. Optional: Open Advanced options and specify the sign-in credentials for the monitoring job.

7. Select Start monitoring.

Edit monitoring jobs

1. Open the Monitoring panel to see the active monitoring jobs. Use Show dropdown to filter the active monitoring jobs on time series in All folders, the Current chart, or the monitoring jobs you subscribe to.
2. Select the monitoring job you want to edit, select More options > Edit.
3. Edit the fields.
4. Select Save.

tip

Select an active monitoring job to highlight the threshold line in the corresponding chart.

Subscribe to and resolve alerts

To subscribe to alerts:

1. In Charts, select Monitoring from the sidebar.
2. Find the alert you want to subscribe to and select the bell icon 🔔.

To investigate and resolve alerts:

1. Select the alert you want to investigate and select History to see active and resolved alerts.
2. Note the date and time of the alert and the name of the time series to find the incident and investigate the cause of the alert.
3. To resolve the issue, select Active > Mark as resolved.
4. You can also open the email for the alert and select Investigate, and the relevant time series opens in Charts.

About data aggregation

Charts aggregates data, meaning it combines multiple data points into summarized representations to make the data easier to view.

Aggregation is triggered when the chart contains more than 100,000 data points. This threshold ensures that even very large data sets are represented.

Aggregated data is visualized with shading that also displays the minimum and maximum values of the aggregated data range.

Despite the aggregation, you can zoom in on the chart to view individual data points. This gives you detailed analysis when necessary, even within a large dataset.

Data quality values

CDF only aggregates good data. Uncertain data is treated as bad by default. Thus, we only have 2 use cases:

• ( If uncertain + bad ) > = 40 % then it's displayed as bad.
• ( If uncertain + bad ) > = 15 % and < 40 % then it's displayed it as uncertain.

Troubleshooting

If you can't add users to receive email alerts, check with your internal help desk or CDF admin that user profiles are enabled for the CDF project.