Support Board
Date/Time: Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:05:21 +0000
Dashed study lines appear solid when chart is compressed horizontally
View Count: 312
| [2026-09-11 14:30:08] |
| MarkusK - Posts: 126 |
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I am seeing an issue with dashed study lines when a chart is compressed horizontally. For example, I have several VWAP-related lines configured with a dashed line style. When the chart has a normal bar spacing, the dashed lines look as expected. However, when I compress the chart horizontally so that more bars are visible, the gaps between the dashes also become smaller. At some point, the dashed lines visually turn into completely solid lines. I attached two screenshots showing the difference: Screenshot 1: normal spacing - dashed lines are clearly visible. Screenshot 2: compressed chart - the same lines appear solid. This is not specific to the VWAP study. I see the same behavior with other studies as well. I am using OpenGL, and disabling OpenGL is unfortunately not a practical option for me because I use several transparent filled areas and the chart performance is significantly better with OpenGL enabled. I also tested different line widths. Width 1 does not solve the issue and actually makes the effect more noticeable in my case. Is there a recommended way to keep the dash length and the spacing between the dashes visually constant, independent of the horizontal chart compression / bar spacing? Ideally, I would like the dash pattern to be based on screen pixels rather than scaling with the bar spacing. If this is not possible with the standard study line styles, what would be the recommended solution? Would this require custom ACSIL drawing, or is there another supported approach? Thanks. |
Private File Private File |
| [2026-09-15 16:53:12] |
| Sierra_Chart Engineering - Posts: 25297 |
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What you see is normal behavior because every segment of the line is drawn independently between two chart bars. When the bar spacing is small, the line is very short and you no longer see the dashes. We will update the documentation about this. Although it might already be there. There is no solution to this. None at all. Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy: https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-09-15 16:57:09
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| [2026-09-16 05:50:28] |
| MarkusK - Posts: 126 |
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Thank you for the quick response and clarification. However, I am a little puzzled by the statement that there is "no solution to this. None at all." In less than 60 minutes, I was able to create an ACSIL custom study that redraws the selected source Subgraph using fixed-length solid segments in screen pixels. It produces exactly the requested behavior: the dash length and gaps remain visually constant even when the chart is heavily compressed horizontally. This also works with OpenGL enabled, as shown in the attached screenshot. It seems to work very well without any noticeable impact on performance. Could you please clarify what you meant when you said that no solution exists? Is there any limitation or potential problem with my approach that I am overlooking? |
 DashedLines Custom Study.png / V - Attached On 2026-09-16 05:48:44 UTC - Size: 299.55 KB - 56 views |
| [2026-09-16 13:53:10] |
| John - SC Support - Posts: 48342 |
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The way the "Dash" Draw Style works is that it draws a horizontal line at the value of the subgraph at each bar across the width of the bar. So when you compress the data together, it will mesh together to look like a single solid line. Additionally, Sierra Chart is never going to show data that is not a direct reflection of the actual data in the chart. So what you did with your fixed line segment is to show data across several bars for each segment. But then within those segments, the data for a particular bar may not be the actual value. It is these above items that will not change in Sierra Chart. We take pride in the fact that what you see in the system is the exact information and we make sure that is the case. We will never produce a situation where something is a general reflection, but not exact. Another option for what you are wanting would be to use a "Draw Style" of "Line" with a "Line Style" of "Dot". But again, once you get down to the spacing of 1 or 0 pixels, then this will also mesh together and look solid. For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2026-09-16 15:25:43] |
| MarkusK - Posts: 126 |
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Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and transparency. I understand the reasoning behind this approach and why Sierra Chart handles the draw styles this way. In my particular case, the visual appearance is more important to me, as I want to maintain a consistent chart layout. Fortunately, Sierra Chart provides the flexibility to implement something like this quite easily with ACSIL, so this works perfectly fine for my use case. Thanks again for clarifying. |
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