I needed three data points for the series graph. They were the values from the weight and balance calculation for weight and cg at Empty, Landing and Takeoff. For some reason the values for landing and takeoff worked, but when I added the empty weight the line disappeared. If I put in a fixed value for empty weight cg, it worked, but the line was only accurate for one condition that way, any value of cg that did not agree with the empty weight cg that I chose would be wrong and the graph was wrong too.
The various empty weights were dependent on the airplane configuration, and those configurations were vastly different, depending on the equipment carried at the time. I have a Choose or If function to decide what the actual empty weight and balance would be, and the actual weight and balance calculations work well, giving good values. My problem is displaying the result on a chart.
I figured it was something to do with the way the calculation was done, and the result was not clean enough to use. I tried remoting the result, and using a copycat cell to make the graph but it did not work. I needed a way to simplify the calculation. I tried putting the actual Choose or If calculation in the cells used for the series graph, copying the original cell, but that only partly worked. It satisfied the Y axis but not the X axis.
I finally got something of a workaround. I made up a calculation by referring the cell that had the data with a mythical calc. In this case the cells that had the calculated data were C31 and D31. So I told the data set that needed to know the value of C31 (and D31 in its turn) that it was to use C31 with a calculation included. Thus the cell I was using to make the data set had the function "=C31+0". And it worked. Now the graph displays properly. Don't have any idea why.
It has worked so far on several computers using Excel 2003 and 2007 and 2010. I will need to see if it works with Open Office. Should be fun.
Until the next problem.