Overview
The NETDRAW procedure draws a network diagram of the activities
in a project. Boxes (or nodes) are used to represent the
activities, and lines (or arcs) are used to show the precedence
relationships among the activities. Though the description of
the procedure is written using project management terminology,
PROC NETDRAW can be used to draw any network like an organizational
chart or a software flow diagram. The only
information required by the procedure for drawing such a diagram
is the name of each activity in the project (or node in the
network) and a list of all its immediate successor activities
(or nodes connected to it by arcs). Note that project networks are
acyclic. However, the procedure can also be used to draw cyclic
networks by specifying explicitly the coordinates for the nodes or
by requesting the procedure to break the cycles in an arbitrary fashion.
The ACTNET statement in the NETDRAW
procedure is designed to
draw activity networks that represent a project in
Activity-On-Node (AON) format. All network information is contained
in SAS data sets. The input data sets
used by PROC NETDRAW and the output data set produced by the
procedure are as follows:
- The Network input data set
contains the precedence
information, namely, the activity-successor information for
all the nodes in the network. This data set can be
an Activity data set that is used as input to the
CPM procedure or a Schedule data set that is produced by the
CPM procedure, or it can even be a Layout
data set produced
by the NETDRAW procedure. The minimum amount of information
that is required by PROC NETDRAW is the activity-successor
information that can be obtained from any one of the preceding
three possible types of data sets. The additional information in
the input data set can
be used by the procedure to add detail to the nodes in the diagram,
and, in the case of the Layout data set, the procedure can use
the (_X_ , _Y_) variables to lay out the nodes and arcs of the
diagram.
- The Annotate input data set
contains the graphics and text
that are to be annotated on the network diagram. This data set is
used by the procedure via the Annotate facility in SAS/GRAPH
software.
- The Layout output data set
produced by PROC NETDRAW contains
all the information about the layout of the network.
For each node in the network, the procedure saves the (_X_, _Y_)
coordinates; for each arc between each pair of nodes, the procedure
saves the (_X_, _Y_) coordinates of each turning point of the arc
in a separate observation. Using these values, the procedure
can draw the network diagram without recomputing node placement
and arc routing.
There are two issues that arise in
drawing and displaying a network diagram: the layout of the
diagram and the format of the display. The layout of the diagram
consists of placing the nodes of the network and routing the
arcs of the network in an appropriate manner. The format of the
display includes the size of the nodes, the distance
between nodes, the color of the nodes and arcs, and
the information that is placed within each node. There are
several options available in the ACTNET statement that enable you
to control the format of the display and the layout of the
diagram; these options and their uses are explained in detail
later in this chapter.
Following is a list of some of the key aspects of the procedure:
- The Network input data set specifies the activities (or nodes) in
the network and their immediate successors. The amount of
information displayed within each node can be controlled by the
ID= option and by the use of default variables in the data set.
- The procedure uses the node-successor information to
determine the placement of the nodes and the layout of the arcs
connecting the nodes.
- By default, PROC NETDRAW uses the topological ordering
of the activity network to determine the X coordinates
of the nodes. In a time-based network diagram, the nodes
can be ordered according to any numeric, SAS date, time, or datetime
variable (the ALIGN= variable)
in the input data set.
- The network does not have to represent a project. You can
use PROC NETDRAW to draw any network. If the network has no
cycles, then the procedure bases the node placement and
arc routing on the precedence relationships. Alternately,
you can specify explicitly the node positions or use the ALIGN=
variable, and allow the procedure to determine the arc routing.
- To draw networks with cycles, use
the BREAKCYCLE option. Alternately, you can
use the ALIGN= option or specify the node positions so that the
procedure needs only to determine the arc routing.
See Example 5.12 later in the chapter
for an illustration of a cyclic network.
- The ZONE= option
enables you to divide the network into
horizontal bands or zones. This is useful in grouping the
activities of the project according to some appropriate
classification.
- The TREE option instructs PROC NETDRAW to
check if the network is indeed a tree, and, if so, to exploit the
tree structure in the node layout.
This feature is useful
for drawing organizational charts,
hierarchical charts, and work break-down structures.
- PROC NETDRAW gives you the option of displaying the
network diagram in one of three modes:
line-printer, full-screen, or graphics.
The default mode is line-printer mode. If you have
SAS/GRAPH software you can produce charts of high-resolution
quality by specifying the GRAPHICS option in the PROC
NETDRAW statement.
See the "Graphics Options" section for more information on producing
high-resolution quality
network diagrams. In
addition to sending the output to either a plotter or printer,
you can view the network diagram at the terminal in full-screen
mode by specifying the FULLSCREEN (FS)
option in the
PROC NETDRAW statement. See the "Full-Screen Options" section
for more information on viewing
network diagrams in full-screen mode.
- The full-screen version of the procedure enables you to move
the nodes around on the screen (subject to maintaining the
precedence order of the activities) and thus change the layout
of the network diagram.
- The graphics version of the procedure enables you to annotate
the network diagram using the Annotate
facility in SAS/GRAPH
software.
- The positions of the nodes and arcs of the layout determined
by PROC NETDRAW are saved in an output data set called the
Layout data set. This data set
can be used again as input to PROC NETDRAW; using such a data
set saves some processing time because the procedure does
not need to determine the node and arc placement.
- If necessary, the procedure draws the network across page
boundaries. The number of pages that are used depends on the
number of print positions that are available in the horizontal
and vertical directions.
- In graphics mode, the COMPRESS
and PCOMPRESS options enable
you to produce the network on one page. You can also control the number
of pages used to create the network diagram with the HPAGES= and
VPAGES= options.
Copyright © 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.