Make graphs and data-driven art

This guide shows how to draw a graph from a table of numbers, change its type and options, and draw its columns and markers with your own art. It then covers the Variables panel, which binds text, images, graphs and visibility to variables so that one document can hold many versions of a design, one for each row of data.

Draw a graph

VectorCraft has nine graph tools. They share one group in the Tools panel. The default toolbar does not show them: choose Window → Toolbars → Advanced to show every tool, or press J to choose the Column Graph tool.

Tool	Key	What it draws
Column Graph	J	Vertical columns, one cluster for each category
Stacked Column Graph		Columns with each series stacked on the one before it
Bar Graph		Horizontal bars
Stacked Bar Graph		Horizontal bars with the series stacked
Line Graph		Points joined by lines, one line for each series
Area Graph		Lines with the area below them filled
Scatter Graph		Points placed by an x value and a y value
Pie Graph		A circle divided into wedges
Radar Graph		Values on spokes around a center

1. Choose a graph tool.
2. Drag on the canvas to draw the rectangle the graph fills. Hold Shift to make it square, or hold Alt (Option on macOS) to draw it out from the center. To type the size instead, click once: the Graph dialog opens with a Width of 200 and a Height of 150.
3. When you release the mouse button, the Graph Data window opens. Enter your data as the next section describes. A graph made with the Graph dialog opens without it: choose Object → Graph → Data… to enter its data.

A new graph starts with sample data, two series over four categories. VectorCraft draws the graph as a group named after its type, for example Column Graph. Double-click a graph tool in the Tools panel to open Graph Type for the selected graph.

Caution

A graph stays editable only while it is a graph group. If you ungroup it, the columns, labels and axes become ordinary objects, and the Object → Graph commands no longer work on them.

Enter and import graph data

Select a graph and choose Object → Graph → Data… to open the Graph Data window. The window shows the graph’s data as a sheet:

• The first row holds the series names, which the legend shows.
• The first column holds the category names, which label the columns or points.
• The top-left cell stays blank, and every other cell holds a value.

1. Click a cell to pick it. Its value appears in the entry box above the sheet.
2. Type the new value in the entry box. Press Tab to enter it and move to the next cell in the row, or Enter to move to the next cell in the column. Hold Shift with Tab or Enter to move the other way. The arrow keys also move between cells.
3. Click Apply to redraw the graph. The window stays open, so you can keep editing. Click Cancel to close it.

To fill many cells at once, pick the first cell and paste text copied from a spreadsheet. Tabs and line breaks in the text start new cells and new rows.

A blank cell has no value. To use a number as a label, for example a year as a category name, type it in straight quotes (“2026”). A | in a label starts a new line in that label.

Control	What it does
Import Data…	Replaces the sheet with a text file (.txt, .tsv or .csv). VectorCraft separates cells at tabs when the file has any, and at commas when it has none. Files can be UTF-8 or UTF-16 with a byte-order mark
Transpose	Swaps rows and columns, so the categories become series
Switch x/y	Swaps the x and y columns of each series in a scatter graph. It is unavailable for other graph types
Revert	Reads the graph’s data again and discards the edits you have not applied
Number of Decimals	Select the check box to show every value with the same number of decimal places, from 0 to 10
Column Width	Sets how wide the sheet’s columns are, in digits, from 0 to 20. The default is 7

A graph can hold up to 10,000 categories and 256 series.

Change the graph type and its options

Select a graph and choose Object → Graph → Type…. The Graph Type dialog lists the options for the graph’s type. Change them and click OK.

Option	What it does	Default
Type	Changes the graph to one of the nine types	The tool you drew with
Value Axis	Puts the value axis On Left Side, On Right Side or On Both Sides. Bar graphs keep it along the bottom	On Left Side
Column Width	The width of each column or bar, as a percentage of the space it has. Values above 100 make the columns overlap	90
Cluster Width	The width of each category’s group of columns, as a percentage of the space it has	80
Legend	Shows the legend	On
Legend Across Top	Puts the legend in rows above the graph	Off
Drop Shadow	Adds a dark shadow below and to the right of the columns, bars, lines and wedges	Off
First Row In Front, First Column In Front	Chooses which overlapping columns or bars are drawn on top	Off
Mark Points, Connect Points	Draws a marker at each data point, and lines between the points, in line, scatter and radar graphs	On
Edge To Edge	Runs the lines of a line graph across the whole width of the graph	Off
Ticks	The number of divisions on the value axis. 0 calculates them from the data	0
Axis Min, Axis Max	Set together, they fix the value axis to that range, in Ticks divisions (5 when Ticks is 0). A graph without a fixed range shows null in both rows and calculates the range from the data	Not set
Tick Length, Tick Marks	The length of the value-axis ticks (None, Short or Full Width) and the number of tick marks in each division	Short, 1
Category Tick Length, Category Tick Marks	The same settings for the category axis	None, 1
Ticks Between Labels	Puts the category ticks between the category labels	Off
Prefix, Suffix	Text shown before and after each number on the value axis, for example $ or %	Empty
Separate Scales, Right Ticks, Right Axis Min, Right Axis Max	With the value axis on both sides, Separate Scales gives the series on the right axis their own scale, set with Right Ticks, Right Axis Min and Right Axis Max like the left one	Off, 0, Not set
Right Tick Length, Right Tick Marks, Right Prefix, Right Suffix	The tick and number settings for the right value axis	Short, 1, Empty, Empty

The dialog has no box to type in while Axis Min and Axis Max show null. To fix the range of such a graph, run the graph.setType command on the graph with axisMin and axisMax. The command changes the graph that is selected, so select it first. Save the document and close it, then run vectorcraft-cli on its file, as Automate VectorCraft describes:

vectorcraft-cli run --in lantern-sales.vectorcraft --cmd select.all --cmd graph.setType --params '{"axisMin":0,"axisMax":100}' --export lantern-sales.vectorcraft

select.all selects the graph, and --export saves the result back to the .vectorcraft file. Open the file again in VectorCraft. To change a document that is open in VectorCraft instead, select the graph and run graph.setType from a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client connected to the app, as Drive VectorCraft from an MCP client describes.

Both rows then hold numbers that you can change in the dialog. To go back to a calculated range, run graph.setType with {"axisMin":null,"axisMax":null}. Right Axis Min and Right Axis Max work the same way with rightAxisMin and rightAxisMax.

In a pie graph, three pie options replace Legend. Pie Legend chooses No Legend, Standard Legend or Legends in Wedges. Pie Position sizes several pies by their totals (Ratio), at one size (Even) or stacked one on another (Stacked). Pie Sort orders the wedges largest first in each pie (All), in the first pie’s order (First) or in data order (None). Line, scatter and radar graphs also have Filled Lines, which draws each connecting line as a 3 pt band filled with the series color.

To change the color of a series, select one of its columns, bars or markers with the Group Selection tool and set its fill. The graph keeps that color when it is drawn again, for example after you apply new data. The same applies to the labels: a font, size or color change to all of a label’s text is kept.

To combine two graph types, for example columns with a line, select the series you want to change with the Group Selection tool, then choose Object → Graph → Type… and pick the type for those series. The Value Axis setting then puts those series on the left or right axis. Column, stacked column, line and area series can be mixed, and so can bar and stacked bar series.

Use your own art for columns and markers

A graph design is a piece of art that a graph draws in place of its plain columns or markers.

Make a design

1. Draw the art. To set the area the design fills, put a rectangle behind the art. That backmost object becomes the design’s frame.
2. Select the art and choose Object → Graph → Design….
3. Click New Design. The design appears in the list as New Design.
4. To rename it, type a name in Name and click Rename. Graphs that use the design keep using it.

Button	What it does
New Design	Makes the selected art a design
Rename	Gives the selected design the name typed in Name
Delete Design	Deletes the selected designs. Graphs that used them go back to their plain columns or markers
Paste Design	Puts a copy of the selected design’s art into the document, selected, so you can edit it and save it as a new design
Select Unused	Selects the designs that no graph uses

Draw columns with a design

1. Select the series to change with the Group Selection tool. To change every series, select the whole graph.
2. Choose Object → Graph → Column…. This works on column, stacked column, bar and stacked bar graphs.
3. Pick a design in the list, or None for plain columns. The box beside the list shows the picked design. Then choose a Column Type:

Column Type	How the design is drawn
Vertically Scaled	Stretched along the value axis to each column’s length, at the column’s width. This is the default
Uniformly Scaled	Scaled in both directions to each column’s length, centered on the column
Repeating	Copies stacked out from the zero line. Each Design Represents sets the value of one copy (10 by default). For Fractions chooses Chop Design to cut the last copy where the value ends, or Scale Design to scale it down to fit. These two rows are available only for Repeating
Sliding	The part of the design above a horizontal guide line is scaled with the column’s width, and the part below it stretches to fill the rest. In a bar graph, use a vertical guide line

4. Click OK.

To show each column’s value in the design, add type to the design that holds % followed by two digits, for example %31. The first digit is the smallest number of places before the decimal point, and the second is the number of places after it. The graph replaces the % and the two digits with the value.

Draw markers with a design

1. Select the series with the Group Selection tool, or select the whole graph.
2. Choose Object → Graph → Marker…. This works on line, scatter and radar graphs.
3. Pick a design, or None for the default square marker, and click OK. VectorCraft scales the design so that its backmost object fills the default marker’s square.

Bind objects to variables

A variable is a named value that VectorCraft puts into the objects bound to it. Each variable has one of four kinds:

Kind	What it changes
Text	The text of a type object
Image	The file a placed image shows
Graph	The data of a graph
Visibility	Whether objects are shown or hidden

Choose Window → Variables to open the Variables panel. The Data Set list is at the top, the Variables list in the middle shows each variable with the object bound to it, and the Data Sets list shows each data set with the number of values it holds.

1. Select the object to bind.
2. Click the button for its kind in the panel’s bottom bar: Make Text Dynamic (one type object), Make Image Dynamic (one placed image), Make Graph Dynamic (graphs only) or Make Visibility Dynamic (any selection).
3. VectorCraft defines a variable named after the object and binds the object to it. To rename the variable, double-click its row, or choose Variable Options… in the panel menu.

To define a variable that no object uses yet, click New Variable…, type a Name and choose its Kind.

Command	Where	What it does
Unbind Variable	Button and panel menu	Removes every variable from the selected objects. The variables stay in the list
Delete Variable	Button and panel menu	Deletes the highlighted variable with its bindings and its values in every data set
Lock Variables	Button and panel menu	Stops variables from being defined, deleted or renamed. While the variables are locked, the panel turns off New Variable…, Delete Variable, Variable Options…, Make Text Dynamic, Make Image Dynamic, Make Graph Dynamic and Make Visibility Dynamic, and Import Data Sets… does not import a file whose header names a new variable. Unbinding, capturing, updating and switching data sets still work. The lock is saved with the document. The button’s tooltip and the panel menu item then read Unlock Variables: click the button or choose that item to remove the lock
Select Bound Object	Panel menu	Selects the objects bound to the highlighted variable
Select All Bound Objects	Panel menu	Selects every object that has a variable

Click a variable’s row to highlight it and select the objects bound to it.

Make one design per row of data

A data set is one row of values, one value for each variable. When you choose a data set, VectorCraft puts its values into the bound objects: the text changes, the image is relinked, the graph is redrawn and objects are shown or hidden.

Make data sets in the panel

1. Set up the art the way the first version should look.
2. Click Capture Data Set. VectorCraft records what the bound objects hold now as a new data set, named Data Set 1, Data Set 2 and so on, and makes it the current one.
3. Change the text, image, graph data or visibility for the next version, and click Capture Data Set again.
4. To step through the data sets, use the arrows beside the Data Set list, choose a name from the list, or click a row in Data Sets. The arrows wrap around from the last data set to the first.

A data set name in italics holds values that differ from what the art shows now. To save your edits into the current data set, click Update Data Set. The panel menu also has New Data Set…, Edit Data Set…, Rename Data Set… and Delete Data Set, which deletes only the current data set.

Import and export data sets as CSV

Choose Import Data Sets… in the panel menu and pick a comma- or tab-separated file (.csv, .tsv or .txt). The import replaces every data set in the document.

• The first row names one variable in each column. Upper and lower case do not matter.
• Each following row becomes a data set, named Data Set 1, Data Set 2 and so on in file order.
• A column name that is not a variable yet defines a new, unbound variable. Start the name with # to make it a visibility variable, or with @ to make it an image variable. A name without either character makes a text variable.
• A visibility value is true or false. An image value is the path of the image file.

A file for the stall badge in the Variables panel image could look like this:

stallName,#stallIcon,@stallLogo
Noodle Nook,false,C:/Art/night-market/logos/stall-logo-amber.png
Tea Terrace,true,C:/Art/night-market/logos/stall-logo-teal.png
Lantern Lane,true,C:/Art/night-market/logos/stall-logo-coral.png

Export Data Sets… writes every data set to a CSV file in the same layout, with # and @ in front of visibility and image variable names. It does not write the data set names. A document can export up to 1,000 data sets and 256 variables.

Save one file per data set

To write every version to its own file, record an action, then play it once for each data set:

1. In the Actions panel, record the steps that each version needs, for example an export. Automate VectorCraft covers recording.
2. Select the action and choose Batch… in the Actions panel menu.
3. Set Play to Data Sets. The batch applies every data set of the open document in turn.
4. Choose a File Name. File + Number names the files after the document with 001, 002 and so on added, File + Data Set Name adds the data set name to the document name, and Data Set Name uses the data set name alone.
5. Set Destination to Folder, choose the Destination Folder and click OK. VectorCraft writes a copy for each data set and keeps the document open.

Save and load a variable library

A variable library is an XML file that holds a document’s text variables and its data sets, so that you can use them in another document.

• To save one, choose Save Variable Library… in the panel menu. The file holds the text variables and every data set’s values for them. Variables of other kinds are left out, and the command needs at least one text variable. Each variable name must start with a letter or _ and contain only letters, digits, -, _ and ..
• To load one, choose Load Variable Library… and pick the .xml file. The library replaces the document’s variables and data sets. A text variable that the library also defines keeps its bindings. Every other variable is deleted with its bindings, and the library’s variables are added unbound. VectorCraft reads text variables only and lists the others it skipped.

While the variables are locked, Load Variable Library… does not load a library that would add or delete a variable.

Related

• Add and style type
• Work with placed images
• Automate VectorCraft
• All VectorCraft workflows