Gantt View
In the Gantt View, activity schedules are pictorially depicted by
horizontal bars. There is one bar for each of the early,
resource, actual, and baseline schedules. For the Early Schedule
bar, critical activities are marked
in different colors than the noncritical activities. Weekends are
marked by shaded vertical rectangles running through the chart.
Supertasks are differentiated from leaf activities by anchoring
vertical cones
at the ends of their Early Schedule bars.
The Gantt View is displayed with a rectangular grid
that can be turned on or off by selecting "Grid" from the pop-up
menu (see Figure 6.11) that is displayed by clicking anywhere in the
Gantt View with the right mouse button.
Figure 6.11: Gantt View Pop-up Menu
The pop-up menu in the Gantt View also enables you to toggle the
display of the Actual, Resource, or Baseline Schedule bars. Note that
these bars can be displayed in the Gantt View only if the project data
contain the actual, resource-constrained, or baseline schedules,
respectively.
In addition to displaying the
activity schedules in an easy-to-view format, the Gantt View in the
PM Window can also be used to change the durations of the activities,
add or delete precedence constraints, set activity alignment constraints,
or set progress information.
You can also change several of the display attributes of the Gantt
View by using the Time Axis pop-up menu (see Figure 6.12)
to set the scale of the axis, format the time axis labels,
set the units of display, and so forth. All of these tasks are described in
the following sections.
Figure 6.12: Time Axis Pop-up Menu
The format of the major axis can be changed by clicking with the
right mouse button on the header row of the Gantt View and choosing
"Format" for the major axis. For the minor axis, choose
"Format Minor."
The selections available for the formats are shown in Figure 6.13
and Figure 6.14. In addition to the formats explicitly listed for
the major axis, you can specify any valid numeric format by selecting
"Other..." and filling in the appropriate fields in the dialog box
that is opened as a result.
Figure 6.13: Major Axis Format Pop-up Menu
Figure 6.14: Minor Axis Format Pop-up Menu
Increments in the Gantt View define the number of tick marks on the
minor axis per tick mark on the major axis. They can be changed by
clicking with the right mouse button on the header area and choosing
"Increment" from the pop-up menu. The available selections are shown
in Figure 6.15.
Figure 6.15: Increment Pop-up Menu
Point the mouse to a tick mark on the major axis in Gantt View. The cursor
changes to a double arrow. Drag the tick mark horizontally to change
the scale. You can also change the scale using the "Scale" pop-up menu
(see Figure 6.16) from the Time Axis pop-up menu.
Figure 6.16: Scale Pop-up Menu
The Time Axis Units in the Gantt View can be changed by clicking with
the right mouse button on the header bar in the Gantt View and
selecting "Units" (see Figure 6.17). The default value of the units
used for display is based on the specification of the
INTERVAL= parameter in the invocation of the PM procedure.
Figure 6.17: Units Pop-up Menu
A display/hide switch for a given schedule can be toggled by clicking
with the right mouse button in the main panel of the Gantt View and
choosing the desired schedule (see Figure 6.18).
Figure 6.18: Gantt View Pop-up Menu
An activity's Early Schedule bar can be moved using the left mouse
button. When the mouse is positioned over the activity bar,
the cursor changes to a cross hair type. You can then drag the bar
horizontally and move it to a new position. This sets an alignment
constraint of type `SGE' for the selected activity with the align date
corresponding to the one at the left edge of the bar's new position.
Other types of alignment constraints can be entered by editing the
Target Date and Target Type columns as described in the "Edit Alignment Constraints" section.
To change the duration of an activity, point to the right edge of the
activity's Early Schedule bar with the left mouse button, and drag
to the left or the right depending on whether you want to decrease or
increase the duration. You can also edit activity durations in the
Table View.
You can add precedence constraints by depressing the left mouse button
at either end of the predecessor activity bar and releasing it at
either end of the successor
activity bar. The type of constraint (FS, FF, SS, SF) depends on which
end of the bars the constraints are drawn from.
You can delete precedence constraints by clicking on the arc with the
right mouse button and selecting "Delete" (see Figure 6.19).
Figure 6.19: Arc Pop-up Menu
You can modify the type of the precedence constraint or the lag value
associated with the precedence constraint by clicking on the arc
with the right mouse button and selecting "Edit Lag." The ensuing dialog
box is shown in Figure 6.20. Enter the value of the lag duration in the first
field and the type of the lag in the second field. Valid values of lag are
Finish-to-Start (FS), Start-to-Start (SS), Start-to-Finish (SF), and
Finish-to-Finish (FF).
Figure 6.20: Edit Lag Dialog Box
If calendars are defined in the project, the "Edit Lag" dialog
includes the lag calendar associated with the selected precedence
constraint. You can change the lag calendar by selecting from the list of
available calendars that is displayed within the Edit Lag dialog
shown in Figure 6.21.
Figure 6.21: Edit Lag Dialog Box (Multiple Calendars)
To modify the Progress using the Gantt View, you must include the Actual
Schedule in the view. You can drag the actual schedule bar
for the activity to change the amount of progress on the activity; you
can also move the activity's actual bar to change the Actual Start of
the activity.
When the project contains progress information, a Timenow line is drawn
in the Gantt View, indicating the TIMENOW date. You can move the
Timenow line by dragging it. When you change the value of TIMENOW,
the progress information changes for all the activities. A
confirmation window requires you to confirm that you do want to
change the progress information for all the activities. (See also
the "TIMENOW Macro Variable" section.)
You can also edit the progress columns in the
Table View.
Copyright © 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.
