The NETDRAW Procedure

Full-Screen Version

You can invoke PROC NETDRAW in full-screen mode by specifying FS (or FULLSCREEN) in the PROC NETDRAW statement. The statement specifications are the same as for the line-printer mode. The full-screen mode offers you a convenient way to browse the network diagram of the project and change the layout of the network by moving the nodes of the network to desired locations. However, you cannot move a node to any position that violates the precedence constraints that must be satisfied by the node. In other words, you cannot move a node to the left of any of its predecessors or to the right of any of its successors. For time-scaled network diagrams, you cannot move a node out of the column corresponding to the value of the ALIGN= variable. For zoned network diagrams you cannot move a node out of its zone.

The format control options are treated in the same way as for the line-printer version, with some minor changes. It is assumed that the main purpose of invoking the procedure is to gain a general picture of the layout of the entire network and to modify it to some extent. In an effort to display as much of the network as possible, the initial display on the screen is drawn with only one row and three columns for each node. In other words, the BOXHT=, BOXWIDTH=, XBETWEEN=, and YBETWEEN= options are ignored by the procedure in drawing the initial display. However, the full-screen commands supported by PROC NETDRAW enable you to change the scale of the diagram. You can display as much or as little information within each node by invoking the SCALE ROW or the SCALE COL command or both. The SCALE MAX command causes the procedure to display the diagram using the values specified in the ACTNET statement or the dimensions that would be required to display all the ID information, whichever is larger. The SCALE RESET command returns the scaling to the initial values used for display.

The nodes of the network are color coded on the basis of the PATTERN variable. If there is no PATTERN variable, then the nodes are color coded depending on whether the activities are normal, critical, or supercritical. The nodes are drawn in reverse video. By default, the nodes are drawn without an outline; however, there is an OUTLINE command that lets you toggle back and forth between an outlined or non-outlined node. Using an outline for the node is useful if you want to obtain a printout of the screen display using SPRINT; it helps mark the boundary of each node clearly.

Commands

Table 9.6 lists the commands that can be invoked from the command line in the full-screen version of PROC NETDRAW. These commands are explained in greater detail in this section.

Table 9.6: Full-Screen Commands and Their Purposes

 

Controlling

Changing Network

 

Scrolling

Display

Layout

Exiting

BACKWARD

OUTLINE

CLEAR

GEND

FORWARD

SCALE

MOVE

END

LEFT

   

CANCEL

RIGHT

     

TOP

     

BOTTOM

     

VSCROLL

     

HSCROLL

     


BACKWARD

scrolls toward the top of the network by the VSCROLL amount. BACKWARD MAX scrolls to the top of the network. You can specify the vertical scroll amount for the current command as BACKWARD PAGE | HALF | n.

BOTTOM

scrolls to the bottom of the network.

CANCEL

ends the current invocation of the procedure.

CLEAR

clears any outstanding move commands.

GEND

ends the current invocation of the procedure after drawing the network in graphics mode with the compress option.

END

ends the current invocation of the procedure.

FORWARD

scrolls toward the bottom of the network by the VSCROLL amount. FORWARD MAX scrolls to the bottom of the network. You can also specify the vertical scroll amount for the current command as FORWARD PAGE | HALF | n.

HELP

displays a help screen listing all the full-screen commands specific to PROC NETDRAW.

HOME

moves the cursor to the command line.

HSCROLL

sets the amount that information scrolls horizontally when you execute the LEFT or RIGHT command. The format is HSCROLL PAGE | HALF | n. The specification is assumed to be in number of horizontal levels. HSCROLL PAGE sets the scroll amount to be the number of horizontal levels that fit on one screen; HSCROLL HALF is half that amount; HSCROLL n sets the horizontal scroll amount to n levels.

KEYS

displays current function key settings for the NETDRAW procedure.

LEFT

scrolls toward the left boundary of the network by the HSCROLL amount. LEFT MAX scrolls to the left boundary. You can specify the horizontal scroll amount for the current command as LEFT PAGE | HALF | n.

MOVE

specifies a node to be moved or a place to move a node to. You can specify these in any order. Thus, you can first position the cursor on the node that you want to move, issue the MOVE command, and then position the cursor at a target position and issue the MOVE command again. If the target position is valid, the node is moved. You can also first specify the target position and then indicate the node that is to be moved.

Note: For a standard network, a node cannot be moved to any position that violates the topological ordering of the nodes in the network. For time-scaled network diagrams, you cannot move a node to a level corresponding to a different tick mark. For zoned network diagrams, you cannot move a node out of its zone.

OUTLINE

causes an outline to be drawn around each node in the network. This is useful if you want to print a copy of the screen by using the SPRINT command. The OUTLINE command works like an on/off switch: you can turn it off by entering the command again.

RIGHT

scrolls toward the right boundary of the network by the HSCROLL amount. RIGHT MAX scrolls to the right boundary. You can also specify the horizontal scroll amount for the current command as RIGHT PAGE | HALF | n.

SCALE

controls the scaling of the nodes and the space between nodes. The format of this command is SCALE MAX | MIN | RESET | ROW MAX | COL MAX | ROW MIN | COL MIN | ROW n | COL n | +n | -n. The number n denotes the number of character positions. SCALE MIN displays as many nodes on the screen as can fit. SCALE MAX enables as many rows and columns per node as is required to display all the information that pertains to it. SCALE ROW MAX displays the maximum number of rows per node. SCALE COL MAX displays the maximum number of columns per node. SCALE ROW n sets the number of rows per node to n. SCALE ROW $+$n increases the number of rows per node by n. SCALE COL n sets the number of columns per node to n. SCALE COL $+$n increases the number of columns per node by n. SCALE RESET sets the values to be the same as for the initial display. Note that none of these values can be greater than the dimensions of the screen.

TOP

scrolls to the top of the network.

VSCROLL

sets the amount by which information scrolls vertically when you execute the BACKWARD or FORWARD command. The format is VSCROLL PAGE | HALF | n. The specification is assumed to be in number of vertical levels. VSCROLL PAGE sets the scroll amount to be the number of vertical levels that fit on one screen; VSCROLL HALF is half that amount; VSCROLL n sets the vertical scroll amount to n levels.

Full-Screen Global Commands

Most of the global commands used in SAS/FSP software are also valid with PROC NETDRAW. Some of the commands used for printing screens are described in the section Global Commands in Chapter 8: The GANTT Procedure.