Crystal Reports Novice CR developer, need help with line charts

Message

   Hello, 

I work in analytical chemisty and I am trying to extract data and have Crystal Reports automatically generate line charts for the purposes of trending chemicals placed on long term stability studies.

Basically the chart is a simple one . . . the X axis is a time value (01 Months, 02 Months . . . 36 Months) and the Y axis is the testing result.

Generally we are looking to trend the degradation of these products by monitoring properties such as total moisture absorbtion, individual impurities (separated by HPLC), Assay value, etc. We used to do this with excel.

So I have the basic chart already. The details crystal pulls are a simple 4 column report, Lot Number, Time Point, Component Name (the property being trended), and entered value. 

I pass 4 parameters to the report that act as filters, so the user enters the lot numbers they want on the report, the component to be plotted, the storage condition, and Show Details (y/n). 

So. I get a line chart with a colored line for each lot number. Simple enough.

The only issue I have is that the X and Y axis are defined by Crystal based on the data being plotted. I would like to be able to pass a parameter somehow to define the Y axis. I would also like to be able to plot straight lines to denote upper and lower specification limits.

To illustrate what I mean;

If Lot A has Assay Values that range from 98% - 101%, this will be what the report defines the Y axis as. However the specification range is 95% - 105%. I would like the Y axis to reflect this, but don't know how.

Ideally, I would like the Y-axis to go a few points further in each direction, say 90%-110%, to be able to capture data that is out of specification. And I would like to be able to plot a straight line across the chart at y=95 and y=105 to denote where the specs fall.

I'm stumped. In excel, individual charts were generated separately for each component, so it was no problem to manually define the X and Y axis.

To handle the specification lines, I just added data where the lot number = UPPER SPEC and a record for each time point with the desired value.

Is it possible to insert user entered data into the details section to do this?

edit: sorry, forgot to include that I am using CR 10.

Edited by scottghelfi - 22 Dec 2009 at 9:15am