How to customize a Sierra Chart chartbook without losing the original layout or study settings

Customize a copy, never the original

To customize a Sierra Chart chartbook safely, open the original .Cht file, save it immediately under a new name with File >> Save Chartbook As, and make every change in that copy. Before you touch any study, export each chart's studies as a study collection so their settings can be restored independently of the chartbook. With those two backups in place, you can rearrange the chartbook layout, change symbols or edit study settings without risking the setup you started from.

This guide is for traders who already have a working chartbook, whether built themselves or premade, and want to adapt it to their own instruments and screen. If you still need to get the file into Sierra Chart, start with how to install a Sierra Chart chartbook first.

Why chartbooks are easy to overwrite

A chartbook is a single .Cht file that stores every chart window it contains, each chart's settings, its studies and their inputs, and window positions. The Sierra Chart chartbooks documentation covers the details. Because everything lives in one file, saving the chartbook saves everything at once. If you change the footprint row size on an ES chart, move three windows and then save, the original version is gone unless you kept a copy.

Sierra Chart may also offer to save open chartbooks when you close them or exit the program. Check how your installation behaves before experimenting, because accepting that prompt by reflex is the most common way an original layout gets overwritten.

Step 1: create two backups before changing anything

Back up the .Cht file itself

1. Open the chartbook you want to modify.
2. Go to File >> Save Chartbook As and give it a descriptive name, for example ES_NQ_orderflow_v2.Cht.
3. Confirm the title bar now shows the new name. From this point, every save goes to the copy.
4. Optionally, copy the original .Cht file to a separate backup folder in Windows Explorer. The default location is the Data Files Folder, which you can confirm in Global Settings >> General Settings.

A simple versioning habit helps: keep the original untouched, then save working copies as v2, v3 and so on. If a change breaks something, you reopen the previous version instead of trying to remember what you altered.

Export study settings as study collections

The chartbook copy protects the whole workspace, but a study collection protects the study settings of a single chart in a reusable form. Study collections use the .stdycllct extension and are stored in the Data Files Folder. The study collections documentation explains how to save and apply them.

For each important chart, open the Chart Studies window (Analysis >> Studies) and look for the option to save the chart's studies as a study collection. Name it after its role, such as ES_footprint_stack.stdycllct or NQ_volume_profile.stdycllct. If the exact button label differs in your version, check the study collections page linked above.

The practical benefit: if you later wreck a footprint configuration, you can reapply the study collection to the chart without reverting the whole chartbook and losing your layout work. For a full breakdown of what each file keeps, see study collection vs chartbook.

Step 2: change the chartbook layout

Layout changes are the safest to make first, because they do not alter how any study calculates.

• Resize and move windows to fit your monitor. A common scalping arrangement is a DOM on one side, a footprint in the middle and a higher timeframe context chart above or beside it.
• Add a chart by opening a new chart in the copy, then applying one of your saved study collections to it instead of rebuilding studies by hand.
• Remove a chart you do not use. Close it and save the copy. The original still has it if you change your mind.
• Link charts if you want several windows to follow the same symbol. Check the chart linking options in Chart Settings, described in the chart settings documentation, and test that switching ES to NQ in one window updates the others as expected.

Save after each logical group of changes, not after every click. That way your save points correspond to states you would actually want to return to.

Step 3: adjust chart settings per instrument

Chart Settings (Chart >> Chart Settings) control the symbol, the bar period and session times. When adapting a chartbook built for one market to another, these are the settings that usually need attention.

• Symbol: enter the exact symbol format your data feed expects. A chartbook built on one feed may use a different symbol format from yours, which shows up as a blank chart.
• Bar period: a 1-minute chart, a number of trades chart or a range chart behave very differently with order flow studies. Change one thing at a time.
• Session times: CL and ES have different trading hours. If studies reset daily, verify that the session start and end match the instrument you switched to.

If a chart goes blank or studies vanish after a symbol change, the troubleshooting in Sierra Chart chartbook not displaying correctly covers symbol mismatch and missing data.

Step 4: edit study settings without losing the originals

Study settings are where most customization happens and where mistakes cost the most time. Work through them in this order.

Match row size and price increments to the tick size

Price-based studies need to respect the instrument's tick size. Reference values:

If you copy an ES footprint to CL without changing the row grouping, the chart becomes unreadable. Footprints are built with the Numbers Bars study, so check its price increment and grouping inputs in the Numbers Bars documentation.

Change one input, then compare

Open the study's settings, change a single input such as the imbalance ratio or the volume threshold, apply it and look at the chart. If the result is worse, you know exactly which input caused it. Changing five inputs at once leaves you guessing.

Confirm the data still supports the study

Customizing does not change data requirements. Footprint studies need tick by tick data, which means Global Settings >> Data/Trade Service Settings >> Intraday Data Storage Time Unit set to 1 tick. DOM and heatmap windows need market depth data enabled in your feed. If you add one of these views to a chartbook that previously had only candlestick charts, check these settings before assuming the study is misconfigured.

Save the new state as a new study collection

Once a chart looks right, save its studies as a new study collection with a version suffix, for example ES_footprint_stack_v2.stdycllct. You then have both the original and the customized study settings available for any future chartbook.

Step 5: verify, then promote the copy

Before treating the customized chartbook as your main workspace, run a quick check:

1. Close Sierra Chart completely and reopen the new chartbook to confirm everything was saved.
2. Check each chart loads the right symbol and timeframe.
3. Open the studies list on each chart and confirm nothing is missing or duplicated.
4. Watch a live session, for example the ES or EURUSD futures open, to confirm studies update in real time, not just on historical bars.

Keep the original .Cht and the first study collections for at least a few weeks. They cost almost no disk space and give you a clean fallback.

If you would rather start customizing from a workspace that is already organized and tested, ready-to-use Sierra Chart chartbooks give you a baseline to copy and adapt instead of building every chart from scratch.

Conclusion

Customizing a Sierra Chart chartbook safely comes down to sequence: copy the .Cht with Save Chartbook As, export study settings as study collections, change the layout first, then chart settings, then study inputs one at a time, and verify after a full restart. Following that order means any change can be undone without rebuilding the setup you started from.

FAQ

Can I merge charts from two different chartbooks?

There is no simple one-click merge to rely on. A practical approach is to save the studies of the chart you want as a study collection, then open your target chartbook, create a new chart with matching chart settings and apply that study collection.

Does a study collection save the symbol and timeframe?

A study collection is designed to carry studies and their inputs, not the full chart configuration. Set the symbol, bar period and session times in Chart Settings separately, and check the study collections documentation for exactly what is included in your version.

Will customizing a premade chartbook stop future updates from the vendor working?

If you work on a renamed copy, a new version of the original file will not overwrite your customizations. You can then compare the updated original with your copy and move over only the changes you want.

Where should I store backup chartbooks?

Keeping one copy in the Data Files Folder and another in a separate folder or cloud drive is sensible. That protects you if you reinstall Sierra Chart or change computers.

To start from a tested workspace you can copy and customize safely, browse the Sierra Chart chartbooks available at SierraOnShop.