RCA Event Map drawing

The Event Map screen is a powerful drawing tool which allows you to quickly draw an event map.  The elements that are used are called nodes. Some basic instructions are explained below:

Drawing

Dragging

Start dragging a node from the right side of the screen into the drawing screen.

Selecting

In order to perform an action on a node first select the node by clicking on it. The node is selected when there are red and white squares in and around the node.

Multi-select

Multiple nodes can be selected by dragging a selection square around the desired nodes. After selecting multiple nodes, it is possible to move them by dragging one of the nodes. (see below at moving). Or you can remove them by pressing the Delete button.

Moving

A node can be moved by selecting it (clicking with the mouse) and by clicking on the white square in the middle and holding your mouse button. The mouse-cursor will temporarily change into an arrows-cross as displayed below.

Snapping to grid

The RCA event map uses an underlying grid to help position the nodes on the drawing pane. By default, the grid is not shown, although active. There are two ways the grid may be visualized: by a square grid, and a point grid. You may activate one of the grid forms from a list. When placing or moving a node on the pane, it will automatically snap to a grid point.

Grid dimension

As soon as one of the visible grids is chosen (see Snapping to grid above), two more controls are displayed: a dimension slider to control the grid dimension, and a button to snap objects to the grid.

There are 5 grid dimensions to choose from, using the dimension slider. Each step up will double the dimension, so a suitable granularity can be chosen.

Moving groups and snap to grid

As soon as one of the visible grids is chosen (see Snapping to grid above), two more controls are displayed: a dimension slider to control the grid dimension, and a button to snap objects to the grid.

When changing the grid dimension, a group of nodes may no longer be aligned to the chosen grid points. When moving the group as a whole, it may be possible that the group refuses to snap to a grid point. In that case, the user may press the Snap to Grid button, which will snap the nodes to the grid.

Free object placement

When connecting nodes with connectors, Asset Strategy Optimization will 'smart-connect' the nodes. This means it will move the lower node to align with the upper node automatically. This greatly speeds up the drawing process. However, in some cases, the user may want to place a node elsewhere. To overrule the 'smart-connect' function, activate the Free object placement tick mark. With the Free object placement function active, nodes will no longer be automatically align with other nodes. However, they will still snap to the grid (see above).

Adjusting height

The height of a node can be easily adjusted by dragging one of the white squares on the edges by using the mouse button.

Linking

Two nodes can be linked by clicking somewhere on one of the nodes and dragging an arrow to the other node.

Nodes will automatically know how a connection can be made between them. When you start drawing the arrow to a different node the squares where the arrow will start from on the edge of the node will show up. By dragging towards a different node there will also automatically be an indication where the arrow will be linked.

When linking nodes, the auto correction functionality of the RCA module makes sure that nodes do not overlap each other and that the nodes are ordered in a logical way.

Note: A node can only have one outgoing arrow, but several arrows can refer or point to one node.

Deleting a link

If you want to remove a link, you must select the link and press the Delete button on your keyboard.

Press DEL to remove the arrow.

Hiding underlying objects

Underlying nodes from a node can be hidden by clicking on the minus-symbol from the overlying node. the minus-symbol changes into a plus-symbol. In order to show the underlying objects again you will have to click on the plus-symbol. The plus-symbol will change back into a minus-symbol.

After clicking on the minus-symbol the underlying node will disappear; the minus-symbol changes into a plus-symbol

Modifying node properties

To change the properties of a node you will need to double click on the node. This will allow you to for example change the name of the node.

The name of the node can be entered in the field Description

More about properties

• Status type of a node:

  Every node has a status which determines the phase of the research and how the node should be interpreted in relation to the other nodes. Nodes will change in color after changing the status of the node in order to recognize this status of the node.

  • Reflect : In case it is a known operation

  • Analyze: In case it is an unknown operation

  • Target: In case it is a possible operation

  • Implement: In case it is an operation that has to be implemented

  • Observe: In case it is an operation that needs to be observed

The types Analyze and Target can be made Final by clicking on the tick box to turn the field on Definite. This means that an unknown operation is proven and that a possible operation always has to be executed.

Naming a node can be done in two ways:

1. Default node description
   By ticking the box 'Use default node description style in worksheet' in the node properties window (often used for operations that are still unclear).

2. Your own node description
   Write your own name for the node in the text field "description" in the node properties window.

• The owner of the node:

  All persons in the Info tab that are defined can be selected as the owner of that node. This simplifies the analysis process because you have quicker access to the responsible person and can assign follow-up actions to that person.

• Evidence of the node:

  This text area is a comments field to support nodes which require additional explanation or evidence.

• Tab page Extra:

  In the Extra tab of the node properties you can add documents and/or hyper links and comments to support the nodes that require a more extensive explanation. For other statuses, the tab may show different fields.

  

  Linking documents or adding (hyper)links are explained in RCA Conclusions and recommendations.