Amazing 3D Charts in Dynamics CRM 2011

Roshan Mehta, 19 November 2012

Everything looks better in 3D! Your favourite movie or video game brings forward a whole new experience when things are displayed in 3D. This blog is targeted to the hard working CRM users around the world who don’t have time to watch movies or play video games by introducing three dimensional charts!

I am going to use the Case Mix by Origin chart to evaluate a 3D pyramid and doughnut chart (in that order). Firstly, let’s take a look at the chart as it exists in CRM.

The first example will modify this chart into a 3D pyramid chart with the “Fire” colour palette applied. Export the chart XML and replace the <Chart>, <Series>, and <Area3DStyle elements as shown below.

<Chart Palette="Fire">

<Series ChartType="Pyramid" ShadowOffset="0" IsValueShownAsLabel="true" Font="{0}, 9.5px" LabelForeColor="59, 59, 59">

<Area3DStyle Enable3D="True" />

Import the chart back into CRM and give it a meaningful name. It should look something like this:

Next we will do the same to create a 3D column chart. This time we will apply the “EarthTones” theme and apply some additional 3D effects to the chart. Replace the <Chart>, <Series>, and <Area3DStyle> as shown below.

<Chart Palette="EarthTones">

<Series ChartType="Column" ShadowOffset="0" IsValueShownAsLabel="true" Font="{0}, 9.5px" LabelForeColor="59, 59, 59">

<Area3DStyle Enable3D="True" Rotation="15" WallWidth="15" Inclination="30" Perspective="50" />

Once again, import the chart back into CRM and give the chart a meaningful name.

3D charts look awesome without a doubt but there are some cases where the charts may not portray information as well as they would in a 2D format.  For example, the chart above is difficult to analyse so it is important to put a lot of thought into your chart customizations before you apply them.