Quinn-Curtis Launches Mobile Developers Real-Time Graphics Software for .Net Compact Framework

Low cost real-time graphics toolkit for Windows CE and Pocket PC developers

For Immediate Release

 Boston, Mass. - Quinn-Curtis, Inc. announces a new version of its real-time graphics software, targeted specifically at .Net Compact Framework developers. The QCRTGraph CF  for .Net Compact Framework software targets developers who want to sophisticated real-time graphics on mobile computing devices running the Windows CE operating system. Typical users are software professionals creating real-time .Net CF based applications for financial markets, network monitoring, factory automation, process monitoring, R&D instruments, test systems and quality control. The feature rich toolkit includes more than thirty different types of real-time displays including scrolling graphs, bar indicators, dials, meters, clocks, annunciators and panel meter indicators. It also supports advanced, time/date coordinate systems required for real-time reporting in financial markets, process monitoring and automation. Users are able to interact with charts: adding annotations, defining custom tool-tips and zooming into a particular region of a real-time plot. There is no comparable product for .Net CF available at any price. The software, written in managed code using C#, works with all platforms and browsers compatible with the .Net Compact Framework. The software has been tested and been proven compatible with versions of C# and Visual Basic supplied with Microsoft Visual Studio for .Net 2003 and 2005. A single user Developer License for the software costs $250. Developers are entitled to free updates for two years. A 30-day trial version of the software is available from the Quinn-Curtis web site.

The .Net Compact Framework is a critically important component in the Microsoft's overall smart device and mobile computing strategy. According to Bill Gates,  “the .NET Framework and the .NET Compact Framework provide a consistent programming model across the full range of Windows platforms and expose that programming model through a single unified tool set, Visual Studio .NET 2003. Together, Visual Studio .NET 2003 and the .NET Compact Framework enable millions of desktop Visual Basic developers and the rapidly growing market of C# developers to begin building smart mobile applications."

 A brief summary of the major categories of classes appears below.

·        Based on the .Net Compact Framework Drawing API - Compatible with .Net CF components and applications.

·        Process Variable and Alarms - Real-time data is stored in RTProcessVar classes. The RTProcessVar class is designed to represent a single process variable, complete with limit values, an unlimited number of high and low alarms, historical data storage, and descriptive strings for use in displays.

·        Single Value Indicators - A single value indicator is a real-time display object that is attached to a single RTProcessVar object. This includes single channel bar indicators (which includes solid, segmented, custom and pointer bar indicators), meter indicators (which includes meter needles, meter arcs and meter symbol indicators), single channel annunciator indicators, panel meter indicators and scrolling graph plots based on a QCChart2D SimplePlot chart object.

·        Multiple Value Indicators - A multiple value indicator is a real-time display object that is attached to a group of RTProcessVar objects. This includes multiple channel bar indicators (which includes solid, segmented, custom and pointer bar indicators), multiple channel annunciator indicators, panel meter indicators organized in a grid, and scrolling graph plots based on a QCChart2D GroupPlot chart object.

·        Alarm Indicators - Alarm indicators are used to display alarm lines, symbols and fill areas for the RTProcessVar objects associated with the single value and multiple value indicator classes.

·        Panel Meter Indicators - The RTPanelMeter derived classes are special cases of the single value indicator classes that are used throughout the software to display real-time data in a text format. Panel meters are available for numeric values, string values, time/date values and alarm values.

·        Meter Axis Objects - Meter indicators needed new classes to support the drawing of meter axes, meter axis labels and meter alarm objects.

·        Form Control Classes - The .Net Button and TrackBar objects have been subclassed and enhanced for use in instrument panels. The RTControlButton class implements on/off colors and on/off text for momentary, toggle and radio button style buttons. The RTTrackBar class adds real-world scaling based on double values to the integer based TrackBar class. RTControlButton and RTTrackBar objects can be group together in a grid, organizing the control objects functionally and visually.

·        Scroll Frame -  A scroll frame manages constant rescaling of coordinate systems of plot objects that are displayed in a scrolling graph

·        Documentation and Demo/Example Programs - The software includes a comprehensive 300 page user manual with many programming examples, XML help for every class. Every programming example and example program is presented in C# and Visual Basic.

The QCRTGraph CF software has a few limitations due to the constraints of mobile devices and general restrictions of the .Net Compact Framework API. Lines can only have a solid line style, i.e. no dot, dash or custom line styles, and are limited to a line width of one pixel. The .Net Compact Framework color model does not support alpha blending, so transparent colors are not possible. Text and bitmap images used in charts cannot be rotated.  In addition, charts cannot be printed from a mobile device, or saved to an image file.

 

Quinn-Curtis, Inc. has been providing customers with innovative charting and real-time graphics technologies for 20 years.  For more information, contact Quinn-Curtis, Inc., 18 Hearthstone Dr., Medfield MA 02052 USA. Phone: 508-359-6639. Fax: 508-960-2729. E- mail: support@quinn-curtis.com. Internet: http://www.quinn-curtis.com.