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amCharts 5

Drawing control

Drawing control allows using a number of tools to dynamically add annotations to the chart. They can be as simple as a rectangle or a free-draw doodle, or as complex as a Fibonacci indicator.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

Some of the drawing tools can be used on any chart.

Some will require main series to be set on the chart, while other will require main volume series, too.

Adding

Section titled “Adding”

Like any other control, it should be instantiated using new() syntax, and pushed into toolbar’s controls list:

let toolbar = am5stock.StockToolbar.new(root, {
  container: document.getElementById("chartcontrols"),
  stockChart: stockChart,
  controls: [
    am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
      stockChart: stockChart
    })
  ]
});
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Configuring

Section titled “Configuring”

Tool list

Section titled “Tool list”

By default, the tool selector in drawing mode will show all available drawing tools.

We can change that using drawing control’s setting tools.

It accepts an array of tool names, with default being this:

[
  "Arrows & Icons",
  "Average",
  "Callout",
  "Doodle",
  "Ellipse",
  "Fibonacci",
  "Fibonacci Timezone",
  "Horizontal Line",
  "Horizontal Ray",
  "Label",
  "Line",
  "Measure",
  "Parallel Channel",
  "Polyline",
  "Quadrant Line",
  "Rectangle",
  "Regression",
  "Trend Line",
  "Vertical Line"
]

The following will limit drawing tools to "Doodle", "Line", and "Rectangle":

let toolbar = am5stock.StockToolbar.new(root, {
  container: document.getElementById("chartcontrols"),
  stockChart: stockChart,
  controls: [
    am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
      stockChart: stockChart,
      tools: ["Doodle", "Line", "Rectangle"]
    })
  ]
});

Tool settings

Section titled “Tool settings”

We can also specify custom settings for each drawing tool using control’s toolSettings setting, which accepts an object where key is a name of the tool, and value is an object of settings.

let toolbar = am5stock.StockToolbar.new(root, {
  container: document.getElementById("chartcontrols"),
  stockChart: stockChart,
  controls: [
    am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
      stockChart: stockChart,
      toolSettings: {
        "Fibonacci": {
          sequence: [0, 3.618, 4.236],
          colors: [
            am5.color(0xff0000),
            am5.color(0x00ff00),
            am5.color(0x0000ff)
          ]
        }
      }
    })
  ]
});

Colors

Section titled “Colors”

Color pickers used by drawing control use a pre-defined default list of colors:

We can override the list using drawing control’s colors setting, which accepts an ColorSet object.

let toolbar = am5stock.StockToolbar.new(root, {
  container: document.getElementById("chartcontrols"),
  stockChart: stockChart,
  controls: [
    am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
      stockChart: stockChart,
      colors: ColorSet.new(this._root, {
        colors: [
          color(0x000000),
          color(0x464e56),
          color(0x5b636a),
          color(0x767d84),
          color(0xb9bdc5),
          color(0xe0e4e9),
          color(0xf7f8ff),
          color(0xffffff),
        ]
      })
    })
  ]
});

Custom icons

Section titled “Custom icons”

We can manipulate the list of icons offered by the “Arrows & Icons” drawing tool using drawing control’s drawingIcons setting.

It’s an array of object defining available icons.

Here’s a typical structure of an icon definition:

{
  svgPath: "M 5 35 L 5 15 L 26 15 L 26 5 L 45 25 L 26 45 L 26 35 L 5 35 Z",
  scale: 1,
  centerX: am5.percent(100),
  centerY: am5.percent(50)
}

The four items in it are as follows:

  • svgPath - an path defining shape of the icon (more details).
  • scale - a relative scale of the icon. The SVG path has its own internal size. If it’s too big or too small to be used in the chart, we may apply the scale here.
  • centerX - horizontal center of the icon.
  • centerY - vertical center of the icon.

The center settings are important for placement of the icon. The center of the icon will be placed exactly on the coordinate where user clicks in the chart.

To add additional icons, we can simply push icon objects into rawingIcons array:

let drawingControl = am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
  stockChart: stockChart
});


drawingControl.get("drawingIcons").push({
  svgPath: "M 3 3 L 47 3 L 47 39 L 31 39 L 25 45 L 19 39 L 3 39 L 3 3 M 11 12 L 39 12 M 11 20 L 39 20 M 11 28 L 39 28",
  scale: 1,
  centerX: am5.p50,
  centerY: am5.p100
}, {
  svgPath: "M 5 11 A 1 1 90 0 0 36 27 A 1 1 90 0 0 5 11 M 34 30 L 49 45 L 47 47 L 32 32",
  scale: 1,
  centerX: am5.p50,
  centerY: am5.p50
});

Or we can replace the list altogether with our own icons:

let drawingControl = am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
  stockChart: stockChart,
  drawingIcons: [
    // ...
  ]
});

Example:

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Other settings

Section titled “Other settings”

Please refer to drawing control’s setting reference for a complete list of its configuration options.

Standalone usage / API

Section titled “Standalone usage / API”

Instantiating object

Section titled “Instantiating object”

We can use drawing control’s drawing functionality without adding it to a stock toolbar or even without toolbar at all.

We’ll just need to instantiate a standalone object of the DrawingControl class.

let drawingControl = am5stock.DrawingControl.new(root, {
  stockChart: stockChart
});

Enabling draw mode

Section titled “Enabling draw mode”

To turn on the drawing mode we need to:

  • Set active setting to true.
  • Set tool setting to whatever tool we want it to use.
  • Optionally, set any additional settings like strokeColor, etc.

The following code will turn drawing mode on, and will select a “Doodle” tool with red color:

drawingControl.setAll({
  active: true,
  tool: "Doodle",
  strokeColor: am5.color(0xff0000)
});

Available tools

Section titled “Available tools”
  • "Average"
  • "Callout"
  • "Doodle"
  • "Ellipse"
  • "Fibonacci"
  • "Fibonacci Timezone"
  • "Horizontal Line"
  • "Horizontal Ray"
  • "Arrows & Icons"
  • "Label"
  • "Line"
  • "Measure"
  • "Parallel Channel"
  • "Polyline"
  • "Quadrant Line"
  • "Rectangle"
  • "Regression"
  • "Trend Line"
  • "Vertical Line"

Available settings

Section titled “Available settings”

Please refer to the class reference of the DrawingControl for a complete list of available settings.

Exiting draw mode

Section titled “Exiting draw mode”

To exit the draw mode, simply set active: false on your drawing control object:

drawingControl.set("active", false);

Clearing drawings

Section titled “Clearing drawings”

Use use clearDrawings() to clear all drawings.

drawingControl.clearDrawings();

Toggling eraser

Section titled “Toggling eraser”

To toggle eraser on and off use setEraser(true | false).

drawingControl.setEraser(true);

Example

Section titled “Example”
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Adding line drawings

Section titled “Adding line drawings”

Drawing control has a method addLine() which can be used to dynamically add line-type drawings (supported tools are: Horizontal Line, Vertical Line, and Ray) via API.

drawingControl.addLine("Horizontal Line", mainPanel, {
  x: 100,
  y: 100
});

It accepts 3 parameters:

  • Tool name ("Horizontal Line", "Horizontal Ray", "Vertical Line").
  • Panel reference to add the drawing to.
  • Local points to add it to.
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