The NETDRAW Procedure

Computer Resource Requirements

There is no inherent limit on the size of the network that you can draw with the NETDRAW procedure. Naturally, a sufficient amount of core memory must be available in order to invoke and initialize the SAS system. Furthermore, the amount of memory that is required depends on the mode of invocation of the procedure. The procedure attempts to store all the data in core memory. However, if the problem is too large to fit in core memory, the procedure resorts to using utility data sets and swaps between core memory and utility data sets as necessary.

The storage requirement for the data area that the procedure requires is proportional to the number of nodes and arcs in the network. You can further increase the memory that is required by specifying the DP option in the ACTNET statement. Recall that the DP option requests the use of a dynamic programming algorithm to route the arcs between the nodes, and such algorithms tend to grow exponentially with the size of the problem being solved.