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Spoke chart

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MarnieB

New Member
I have been asked to produce a chart that looks like a spokes in a wheel. Lines for each data point that start from the same point in the middle and go out in different directions. The length of the line indicates the value of the data point. There are only 5 or 6 data points. I tried using the radar chart but it did not produce the desired results. Any ideas?
 
That seems like a fairly useless chart. With the lines going in different directions, it would be very hard to compare length/size. At that point, a simply table would be more effective for conveying data.


If the boss really wants it, here's Chandoo's attempt at creating a spoke chart:

http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/09/18/better-radar-charts-excel/


And Jon Peltier's take on improved charts (if you can convince the boss)

http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/spider-chart-alternatives/
 
Thanks for the reply. I agree but he is a high ranking executive. I did look at those links earlier and none of the examples show a true spoke chart with just a line for each data point. I will try to play around with the pedal chart. The chart data is very simple as shown below. He wants the line length to reflect the number of months.


Issue Months

Issue1 5

Issue2 6

Issue3 1

Issue4 10

Issue5 11

Issue6 15
 
Here's my idea


Select your data and create a regular radar chart. Select the series, remove line.

Select the chart, remove concentric "rings". You should now just have the 6 spokes with a dot on each one. Acceptable?
 
Still not exactly what he wants because the lines connect the dots to each other rather starting at the center and going out from there. I will play around with it some more. Thanks for your help!
 
Marnie


Firstly, Welcome to the Chandoo.org forums.


I would set this up as a Scatter chart with 6 series

Each series will have two points being 0,0 and Cos(Radians(60*n)*Value), Sin(Radians(60*n)*Value)


Plot the 6 series

Add data labels and set the axis to the same size


You can see a sample here using your data: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjsdjjipdqwloo2/Spoke%20Chart.xlsx
 
Hi MarnieB,


Sometimes it is really difficult to make people understand things, i my opinion a "A Bar Chart" could easily serve the purpose, it will be easier to plot and edit. However i donot think this busy executive is going to acknowlege this fact. :)


This chart seems to be a variation of Hui's Wind Chart! The basic idea is the same. So best of Luck!


Regards,
 
Hi,


Take a look here it may help?


http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2012/05/excel-formulas-can-make-a-graph.html
 
Hi,


Take a look here it may help?


http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2012/05/excel-formulas-can-make-a-graph.html
 
Thank you for your replies. Hui - The site in your link is blocked here at work. I will look at it when I get home tonight. But I tried to create a chart using your suggestion. In the formula Cos(Radians(60*n)*Value) I assume that n is the number to plot, in my case months. What is Value?
 
Marnie

n is the number of spokes, In your case 6

Value is an array from 0 to 360 degrees eg:{0;1;2;3;4; .... 359;360}

That is all handled in named formulas in the example file
 
:)


You can also manually select each spoke and the select the outer end

Ctrl 1 will bring up the format dialog

You can now change the shape of the end from Square, Circular or add a shape to the end, change the line color, size and style as well
 
MarnieB


I hope you saw: http://chandoo.org/wp/2012/07/02/how-to-make-a-spoke-chart/

and the Double Spoke version in the Comments you can download that version from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/flskczy46vje0zr/Spoke%20Chart2.xlsb
 
Hui

I see that! This is so helpful. Hopefully others can also benefit from your great work. I do have a small issue in that if I set all the values to the same length there are some lines that are longer than others. I ended up with 7 issues so I don't know if the odd number of issues has anything to do with it. This is something we can live with. I actually do have a Triple Spoke but I handled it by setting the radian length to the same for the 3 values. It works well.
 
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