Learning C# for a modeling GUI? 3D plotting extensions?

Question

Thanks for reading.

I am a chemical engineer with some background knowledge of Java and JavaScript. My supervisor wants me to develop a Windows GUI for a mathematical model which would output 2D graphs after user feeds experimental data (in Excel, CSV) and a few other parameters. I've been told that C# is one of the best alternatives for developing GUI's, so I'm about to start learning it. Are there better options for such an application?

It is likely that he'd want me to integrate a 3D plotting capability into the GUI (see one of the current MATLAB renders: http://postimage.org/image/7o868exs3/ ). I realize this may be an extremely complex routine to develop even on a basic level, but nonetheless, would knowing C# be sufficient to accomplish this?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Answer 1

• Yes, you can do it in C#.
• It's argumentative whether or not there are better alternatives.
• Yes C# is "sufficient" for 3D rendering (although your skill set probably isn't).

Answer 2

Yes. C# and the .NET framework are just fine for this kind of app. Though I would suggest buying a 3rd party package for the actual plotting. Don't reinvent a wheel that has been implemented very nicely by a number of vendors. (Visual Studio 2010 even comes with a built-in 2D graph control.)

But if you run this search you'll get a bunch of hits on reliable 3rd party tools. (I don't work for these companies but have used many of their controls over the years including charting components.)

If you have some programming background then implementing a charting/graphing solution with a 3rd party package will be pretty straightforward. Importing data to display in the graph would become your biggest challenge and even that isn't very difficult.

For "free", from-sratch coding options you could always start from any number of CodeProject examples .