Re: pie chart areas reflect magnitude

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Here is a typical application with real data.

Consider a system of conveyors to haul dirt out of a mine. The hourly
operating cost of each conveyor is a sum of:
power used
operator labor
maintenance labor
parts consumed

The system in question has 16 seperate conveyors; for simplicity, i will
only include 3 of them here. Costs are per operating hour.

CONVEYOR 1:
power: $343.56
operator: $9.62
maintenance: $0.48
parts: $31.96
total: $385.62

CONVEYOR 2:
power: $1062.04
operator: $9.62
maintenance: $0.48
parts: $40.22
total: $1112.36

CONVEYOR 3:
power: $434.84
operator: $9.62
maintenance: $0.48
parts: $30.28
total: $475.22

The result I am expect would show 3 pie charts, with #1 being the smallest
in total area, #3 being a little larger, and #2 being the largest by far.

You would see that the power is the vast majority of the cost for #2. Power
is large on #1 and #3, but the parts as a percentage show more influence on
#1 and #3 than they do on #2.

Excel will give me the actual percentages of each cost component, but I want
the 3 charts areas to be proportional to their totals. Short of saving all
the graphs as jpegs and manipulating them in photoshop, measuring the
diameters with a ruler and compressing/expanding them, etc.,..... is there a
way to make Excel do that operation for me?

Or think of it this way: a single discrete area of any one chart in any
section of a chart repesents $1. By having the area of #2 shown as much
larger than the other two, it is intuitively apparent that #2 is the largest
cost machine, and power is the largest cost part of that largest machine.

Quantitatve I can get from the numbers; qualitative is what I want to show
in a quick intuitive format to the client.

Thanks in advance for your comments.


"Jon Peltier" wrote:

At best this will produce a set of cartoons which is semi-qualitative
and non-quantitative.

If you post some typical data, perhaps someone could attempt a better
chart type.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://peltiertech.com/



twagner wrote:
I want to show several pie charts all on the same scale.

Example: chart 1 values total to 10, chart 2 values total to 100. So chart
1 is scaled so its area=10, and chart 2 is scaled beside it so its area=100.
That would show not only the values of the parts in each pie chart, but the
comparison in magnitude between charts 1 and 2. In this example, chart 2 is
a much greater value, and therefore bigger pie chart.

How can I do that?

I tried it with bar charts, could not find what I wanted there, either.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: pie chart areas reflect magnitude
    ... You are right about the power and its influence on costs. ... Perhaps a stacked bar chart would be even more intuitive, ... If you want to display percentages and totals, ... constant or nearly constant costs plus a huge cost of power. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.charting)
  • Re: pie chart areas reflect magnitude
    ... I've put total dollars on the Total bars, and percentages on the others in this chart: ... While Conveyors 1 and 3 have a greater influence of parts and operator costs, power still makes up 89% and 92% of the total, compared to 96% for Conveyor 2. ... It's more a case of all conveyors having small constant or nearly constant costs plus a huge cost of power. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.charting)
  • Re: pie chart areas reflect magnitude
    ... A stacked bar chart is nearly as ineffective as a pie. ... While Conveyors 1 and 3 have a greater influence of parts and operator costs, power still makes up 89% and 92% of the total, compared to 96% for Conveyor 2. ... It's more a case of all conveyors having small constant or nearly constant costs plus a huge cost of power. ... Excel will give me the actual percentages of each cost component, but I want the 3 charts areas to be proportional to their totals. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.charting)
  • Re: Multiple Pieces of Information
    ... Because the range of the three sets of data (number, total cost, average ... On the chart, right click on the Total series, select Chart Type from ... On the chart, right click on the Total series, select Format Data Series ... open Axis tab and check Secondary Axis ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.charting)