If I

1.  SmartTag to Chart Editor
2.  Chart Control | Settings | TransparentBackground = True
3.  Set BackColor = Transparent

This will appear to work as expected where the background is transparent.  However when I save the project, exit VS 2008, re-open the project and try to load the form in the VS designer I immediate get an error:

 Control does not support Transparent color.

More digging and it seems that I can't set the Chart background to transparent, even using Background dialog and setting FillEffect = solid color = transparent.  Also tried setting Transparency % = 100, stil no go.

Am I missing something or does the Chart 4.2 control have some problem with Transparency??

 Rob.

I found a solution to this design-time bug:

In the Form_Load event I manually set the following:

With WinChart1
   .Settings.TransparentBackground = True
   .BackColor = Color.Transparent
End With

This works fine.  I hope Xceed fix this for the next version of the Chart for .NET (4.x) control.  I'm guessing this property (TransparentBackground) is set to ReadOnly in the VS 2008 IDE (design time) when it should not be.