Plotting data

With the Plot object, you can position movie clip and graphic symbols within a rectangular region on the Stage based on variable values defined in a data source.

The Plot command uses its own data source. The data source must have three columns: Clip, X, and Y. In the Clip column, specify the movie clip or graphic symbol to plot. In the X and Y columns, specify the X and Y plotting positions, respectively, for the symbols. The top left corner of the Plot object represents the (0, 0) X, Y coordinate of the Plot command. All X and Y coordinates in the data source are relative to this (0, 0) coordinate.

Optionally, you can specify Xscale, Yscale, and Rotate columns. Xscale and Yscale allow you to specify the scale of the movie clip. If you do not specify scales for movie clips, their original size is used. Rotate allows you to rotate the clip. If you do not specify it, the clip is not rotated. You can create additional columns to specify variables for the movie clip.

The Instance Name column specifies instance name values for plotted symbols within the parent clip; the plot targets individual plotted instances instead of the parent plot.

When authoring movies for Flash 2 export that use the Plot command, make sure that the main timeline and any clips that are being plotted have the same number of frames.

Plots have the following properties in the Generator inspector:

Data Source specifies the data source that contains the plotting information.

Min X-Pos and Max X-Pos specify the minimum and maximum values assigned to the left and right edge, respectively, of the object box.

Min Y-Pos and Max Y-Pos specify the minimum and maximum values assigned to the top and bottom edge, respectively, of the object box.

Border, Border Color, and Border Thickness determine whether or not lines are drawn around pie slices, set the line color, and set the line thickness, respectively.

Instance Name identifies the instance of the object so that it can be used with actions such as Tell Target and Set Property. See Using variables as parameters for Flash actions for more information on using this parameter.

X Column is the heading for X column in the data source, if it is not X.

Y Column is the heading for Y column in the data source, if it is not Y.

X-Scale Column is the heading for X-Scale column in the data source, if it is not X-Scale.

Y-Scale Column is the heading for Y-Scale column in the data source, if it is not Y-Scale.

Rotate Column is the heading for Rotate column in the data source, if it is not Rotate.

Symbol Name Column is the heading for Symbol Name column in the data source, if it is not Symbol Name.

Instance Column is the heading for Instance column in the data source, if it is not Instance.