The Multiplot node in SAS^® Enterprise Miner™ might take a long time to run when submitted to a unix SAS Workspace Server. The time to process the node might be twenty times the time that is required on a different platform, such as Windows.

The problem occurs when the Multiplot node writes GIF images to the ProjectFolder/Workspaces/EMWS[n]/Plot[n]/GRAPH folder. The default action when creating the GIF is to use hardware fonts. Depending on the unix system, hardware fonts might not be available and SAS waits for a time-out before proceeding using SAS software fonts. SAS Note 001419 describes a similar situation in SAS^® Enterprise Guide^®.

To circumvent the problem, create a device driver for GIF and set the CHARACTERS parameter to N(no). CHARACTERS=N instructs the system to suppress the use of all hardware fonts.

The following sample program creates a new GIF device driver where CHARACTERS is set to N. The device is stored in a user-defined device catalog (GDEVICE0.DEVICES). The LIBNAME statement with the GDEVICE0 LIBREF should be included in either the project start-up code, or the server initialization code, so that the LIBNAME is active when the Multiplot node runs. You should not have to modify any settings in the SAS Enterprise Miner diagram, or in the Multiplot node.

1. Create a user-defined GIF driver and store it in a permanent library on the SAS Workspace Server. PROC GDEVICE copies the existing GIF driver from sashelp.devices, modifies it, and stores it in the GDEVICE0 library. This step should be executed only once to create the user-defined GIF driver.

   libname gdevice0 '/saswork/drivers';
   
   proc gdevice c=gdevice0.devices nofs;
     copy gif from=sashelp.devices;
     modify gif characters=N;
     run;
     quit;
   

2. Include the LIBNAME statement for GDEVICE0 in the project start-up code or server-initialization code for the Workspace Server. The libref must be GDEVICE0.

   libname gdevice0 '/saswork/drivers';
    

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