Smart Line Chart
The SDM Smart Line Chart renders multi-series line charts with advanced features including end-of-line labels, configurable markers, analytics overlays, and error bars.
Key Features
- Line styles: Solid, Dashed, Dotted
- Curve types: Linear, Monotone, Step
- Markers: Per-series shape, size, and color via the "Apply settings to" dropdown
- End-of-line labels: Automatic overlap prevention with lead lines
- Data labels: Per-series formatting with smart positioning
- Analytics pane: Reference lines, error bars, average curves
- Y Axis range: Manual min/max override with partial auto-completion
- Significance testing: Up to three statistical tests — including against an external reference — with icon, text, border, background or marker decorations
- Base row: Sample size per category displayed under the X axis
- Add. Table: Rows of extra values (a base, a mean, a logo…) above or under the chart, with per-row format and thresholds — see Add. Table
- Note: Caption box anchored to one of six positions, with formulas over the fields and an alert state — see Note
Data Wells
| Data Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Axis | Category axis (X axis). Several fields, or an expanded date hierarchy, give a multi-level axis |
| Values | Measure values (Y axis) |
| Legend | Split into multiple series. Combined with several Values, one line per legend value × measure |
| Series Color | Hex color per series |
| Logo | Base64 image per series |
| Error Bar Upper/Lower | Error bar bounds |
| Base (sample size) | Sample size per category — enables the base row and significance testing |
| Standard Deviation | Standard deviation per point — switches significance to a mean test |
| Significance reference | Reference of an External reference significance test, as JSON — not drawn |
| Add. Table | Rows of extra values above or under the chart — see Add. Table |
Multi-Level Axis
Place two or more fields in the Axis well, or a date hierarchy (Year > Quarter > Month…), and the chart draws one point per combination of levels, in the order Power BI sorts them:
- the ticks show the innermost level (e.g. the quarter: T1, T2…);
- each outer level is drawn below as a bracketed row, centred under the points it covers (e.g. 2023, 2024…);
- tooltips show the full label, e.g. 2023 T3.
With 2023 T3 to 2026 T2 on the axis, you get 12 points in chronological order: the quarters on the first row, the years under them.
Legend × Several Values
When a Legend field and two or more measures in Values are used together, the chart draws one line per legend value and per measure. With Gross Margin and Net Margin in Values and Market 1, Market 2, Market 3 in the Legend, you get six lines:
| Legend entry |
|---|
| Market 1 - Gross Margin |
| Market 2 - Gross Margin |
| Market 3 - Gross Margin |
| Market 1 - Net Margin |
| Market 2 - Net Margin |
| Market 3 - Net Margin |
Entries are named <legend value> - <measure> and listed measure by measure.
Each line is a series in its own right: it appears in the Apply settings to pickers of the Colors, Line Settings, Markers and Data Labels cards.
The Series Color and Logo roles still return one value per legend value, so the lines of the same market share its colour and logo. To tell the measures apart:
- give each measure its own Line Style (solid / dashed / dotted) or Line Thickness in Line Settings, or
- override a single line's colour in the Colors card — a per-series colour always wins over the Series Color role.
Error bars, the base and the standard deviation bound through the legend apply to every measure of their legend value.