Suggestion: change how Global Draw objects works

[JS999]

Imagine the following scenario:

You have a set of 4 charts open - a 240 minute, a 15 minute, a 3 minute, and a 1 minute. The 240 minute chart is showing the last 15 days. The 15 minute is showing the last day of data, the 3 minute is showing the past few hours, and the 1 minute is showing the past hour. (This is the visible area that is shown, not how many bars back the data series is looking.)

If you have the 3 smaller charts set to "Show global draw objects = true", and the 240 minute has that setting at "False", then when you draw a line on the 15 minute chart, it will also appear on the 3 minute and the 1 minute, but not the 240 minute. This is fine.

In order to make the draw object show up in the proper spot on all three of the smaller time frame charts, you need to make sure that they have a sufficient number of bars in the data series, otherwise it won't plot properly. So for example, if you wanted to make sure that every line you drew on the 15 minute chart showed up in the correct spot on the 1 minute and the 3 minute, you would have to set the lookback period to 1440 bars on the 1 minute and 480 bars on the 3 minute, since that would be a full day's worth of data and the 15 minute is showing that much in its visible area. Even if the 3 and the 1 minute are only showing the past few hours of data, you still need that many bars in the series so the plot shows up correctly. So far, so good.

The problem arises with the 240 minute chart. Even though that chart has "Global draw objects" set to false, when you draw a line on it, it still tries to show up on the lower time frame charts. This is a problem because those charts are only looking over 1 day worth of data, whereas the 240 minute chart is looking back over 15 days. If you don't want to have lines showing up on the 15/3/1 minute charts in the wrong spot whenever you draw a line on the 240 minute chart, you therefore basically only have two options:

1. You can set the lookback period on the smaller time-frame charts to reach back over 15 days. This would draw the longer-term trendlines correctly from the 240 minute chart... but it consumes more computing resources, and is a waste of CPU cycles. It makes everything slower unnecessarily.

2. You could turn the global draw objects settings off on the smaller time frame charts and make every chart plot objects individually. This would also solve the problem, but unfortunately you now can't get a global drawing object to appear on the 15/3/1 minute charts, which is what you really wanted in the first place.

The solution is to change how the Global Draw settings works. When a chart has this setting to False, you should make sure that anything that is drawn ONLY shows up on that chart, and not any others. That way you could still have the 3 smaller time frame charts operate as a global group, and also draw longer-term lines on the 240 minute chart, without having those lines show up in the wrong spot on the smaller charts. There are other solutions you could think of, this is just an easy one that occurred to me. Any thoughts?

[NinjaTrader_CalebS]

JS999,

Thank you for posting. You can select the line on the 240 min chart, right-click > Properties > Attach to > 240 min chart only. This will make sure your line only plots on the one chart.

Please let me know if that helps.

[JS999]

Thanks - that does work, but is slightly inconvenient. You might want to consider making it default to drawing only on the given chart, when that chart has the global draw object setting as False, even if the default for the drawing object itself is to draw on all charts. But anyways, at least I can get the correct behavior for now... thx!

[NinjaTrader_CalebS]

JS999,

You can set the default for any type of drawing object by selecting it > Right click > Properties > make any adjustments you want > set default. So if you are making a Ray, and you Set Default for the Attach To as just that one chart, then all future Rays you draw will be just on one chart.

[JS999]

Originally Posted by NinjaTrader_CalebS

JS999,

You can set the default for any type of drawing object by selecting it > Right click > Properties > make any adjustments you want > set default. So if you are making a Ray, and you Set Default for the Attach To as just that one chart, then all future Rays you draw will be just on one chart.

Thanks, I was aware of that - but what if you want to draw a Ray on both the 240 minute chart in my example and also on the 15 minute chart? You want it to be attached to all charts (1/3/15) in the second case, and only the 240 minute chart in the first case. So either way you set it, on one chart you will have to manually change it.

What I was suggesting is that the code checks the properties of both the chart AND the drawing object. So for example:

CASE #1: Chart set to Global mode, drawing object set to All Charts: draw it everywhere, except for charts which have Global mode set to false. (This is already the case.)

CASE #2: Chart set to any mode (global either on OR off), drawing object set to only the chart in question: Draw it only on the selected chart. (This is already the case.)

CASE #3: Chart set to Global Mode OFF, drawing object set to ALL charts: Draw it only on the selected chart. (This is not how it currently works - instead, the object will be drawn on all charts that have global mode, PLUS the locally selected chart.)

I think that a case can be made for it to work either way for the third scenario, which is why I would suggest a toggle switch in either the indicator or the chart, which decides which setting should be the one that dominates. You can allow the chart setting to dominate (meaning that even a drawing object that has the "All" setting by default will act as though it works only on the locally selected chart), or you can allow the drawing object to dominate (which will mean that even a chart which has Global Mode off will still cause the object to be drawn globally on all charts that have that setting ON).

Anyways, the point is that your original solution doesn't completely work, since I still have to change the setting manually every time I draw a line on one of the charts. It's a minor point and not as important as bug fixes or critical issues, but perhaps something the team might want to consider for a future release.

[NinjaTrader_CalebS]

JS999,

Thank you for your contribution. I will forward it to development for consideration.

[Alfred]

Do agree that JS999's careful analysis below deserves positive consideration...

Here is another example in this area....looking at say 3 charts...9 tick, 1 second and 5 or 15 second ...the 5 tick and 1 second are set to show global objects...the 15 second not showing global objects as you do not need the clutter there of all the short term objects from the other charts....but if you want to place a longer term object from the 15 second chart globally on the other 2 charts ...then one must duplicate the object on the 15 second chart, then change one of them to show globally to get on all global charts and still have this object showing on the 15 second chart...a fairly cumbersome technique....screen shot below.....

Thanks....

[laredo78676]

ray i draw with ALL CHARTS slected is not transfering to my other charts

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello,

Are you sure both anchor points are within a viewable range of the chart? If you compress the time axis, are you able to see the draw object appear?

[laredo78676]

which anchor selection do I use for the ray and for the trend channel for this to work

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

From the Data tab of the drawing tools properties, you need to ensure that the Start time and End time are within a viewable range of the chart.

[laredo78676]

I dont knwo where either of these idems are located

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Can you please double click the drawing object to open its Properties menu. Subsequently select the Data-tab to view the start and end times.