The Gantt pane

The activities included in the schedule shown in a Gantt pane. To view the Gantt pane, go to Display and click Gantt in the Panes group of the Home ribbon tab.

From the Gantt view it is possible to review the current schedule, as well as add new activities and edit existing activities.

Gantt charts are commonly used to visualize schedules. The Gantt chart shows the start and end times of schedule activities, and may also show the dependencies between the different elements of the schedule.

Double-clicking on the activity ID on the Gantt pane opens the appropriate Inspector (be this the Import, Export, or Configuration Inspector).

Work with the Gantt chart

Scroll

Scroll the Gantt chart by using the mouse scroll wheel. Scrolling the wheel moves the view up and down, allowing you to see different unit rows. Hold the Shift key while scrolling to move left and right (backwards and forwards in time).

Zoom

Change zoom levels using the zoom control in the toolbar, or use the mouse scroll wheel while holding the Ctrl key.

Select objects

Click an object on the Gantt chart to select it. A dashed line appears around the object.

You can select multiple objects in two ways:

• Click on each object you want to select while holding down the Ctrl key.

• Click and drag your mouse pointer. A rectangle is drawn on the Gantt chart. When you release the mouse button, all the objects fully or partially inside the rectangle are selected.

Search for values

Note: Search in the Gantt pane is available only if the Gantt View Searching in Toolbar optional feature is enabled. This is the default setting.

To do a search in the Gantt pane, follow these steps:

1. Type your search keywords in the text box next to the zoom level indicator on the Gantt pane toolbar.

2. Press Enter. The first label with matching text is highlighted.

3. Click the Find Previous and Find Next buttons to highlight any other matching labels.

   When the search box has focus you can also press Enter to move to the next match.

   When either the Find Previous or Find Next button has focus, you can press Enter to move to the previous or next match, respectively.

   

A list of previous searches is available in the search box. Click the downward arrow icon at the end of the search box to show previous searches. You can also remove a search term from the list by clicking the delete icon on the corresponding row.

Manage sources and destinations

Right-click on any item in the Gantt pane to enable or disable sources and destination for the corresponding asset. The Source Asset and Destination Asset submenus of the View menu list the available sources and destinations for the asset.

A check mark next to an entry means that the source or destination is enabled. Click an entry to switch between enabled and disabled status.

Show and hide objects

Click the Show button in the toolbar to open a menu where you can choose which elements to show in the Gantt chart. The following element types are available:

• Alerts: Periods when an asset is in an alert state. The color of the alert is indicated in the Gantt view.

• Conditions: Conditional linkages between activities. Activities with conditions are shown with a condition icon and the linkage is shown in the Gantt view.

• Custom Colors: Any user-defined colors applied to Gantt items.

• Custom Tank Statuses: Any user-defined statuses applied to tanks.

• Overrides: Reconciliation points as blue bars.

• Draw/Fill Links: Links as dashed lines between each draw activity and its matching fill activity.

• Links: Links between related items. Links are shown as small arrows at one end of the item.

• Time Markers: The selected time interval in the Gantt chart. You can select a time interval by clicking, or clicking and dragging, over column headers in the Gantt chart.

• Blend Times: Time restrictions on product blends.

• Event Times: Start and end times of selected objects.

Format labels

Click the Format Labels button in the toolbar to open the Format Labels dialog box, from which you can configure text labels for items shown on the Gantt chart. Labels are configured using field codes. Click the button to access a list of field codes you can choose from.

For each item type, you can see an example of the label format you have chosen just below the label definition. For example, a definition like [ActivityType] [Name] ([FlowRate] [FlowRateUoM]) for activities results in labels such as #2000 (250.00 t/h).

Copy to clipboard

Click the icon in the toolbar to copy an image of the Gantt chart to the Clipboard. This is useful if you want to share the status of the schedule with someone who does not have access to your model in AVEVA Unified Supply Chain. You can then paste the image into a document or an email.

The generated image includes the whole Gantt chart, not just the portion shown on the screen. Each row of the Gantt chart is expanded or collapsed in the image as it is on screen.

Customize colors

You can customize the color of an item, and optionally of its parent and children, by right-clicking on the item and choosing Appearance from the context menu. The following sections describe the available options.

Choose Custom Colors from the Show toolbar menu to enable or disable any custom colors you have defined.

Change the color of an item

To change the background color of an item, right click on the item and choose Appearance from the context menu. In the submenu that appears, click on the color box next to Background Color. A color picker appears, with the following three tabs:

• Custom: Choose a custom color among those displayed on the tab, or click More Colors to open the Select Color dialog box, where you can define every aspect of your custom color.

• Web: Choose among the list of web-safe colors.

• System: Choose among the list of system colors, that is, colors used for parts of the user interface.

Once you have selected the color, this is applied to the item.

Tip: The text color automatically adapts to the background color you choose, so that the text is always legible. For example, if you choose a dark color as background the text switches to a light color.

Reset the color of an item

To reset the color of an item to its default value, right-click on the item and choose Appearance and then Reset from the context menu.

Change the color of the parent item

If the selected item has a parent item, the parent name appears at the top of the Appearance submenu. For example, in the previous figure the parent of the selected item is shown as Import. This opens a further submenu, through which you can change and reset the color of the parent item, just like you would for the selected item.

Change the color of children items

If the selected item has children items, the Apply to children item appears in the Appearance submenu. Click this item to apply the background color of the selected item to all of its children items.

Change the color of weekday column headers

Right-click on a column header to change the text or background color of all column headers corresponding to that weekday. For example, if you right-click on a column header corresponding to a Tuesday, all column headers corresponding to Tuesdays in the Gantt pane will adopt the colors you choose.

Snap to grid and other objects

In the Settings contextual ribbon tab you can configure the behavior of the Gantt grid when dragging and resizing objects.

• Snap to other objects: When dragging or resizing objects along a row, their edges snap to the edges of other objects in the same row, so that there is no time gap between one object and the other. When dragging a group of objects, snapping applies to the outer edges of the group, that is, the earliest start time and the latest end time.

  Note that, when moving an item on a row, you may cause related items to move on other rows. These related items will also snap to other items on their rows. You may not see the related items, and the items they snap to, if the corresponding asset row is collapsed.

  

• Snap to grid: When dragging and resizing objects along a row, they move in steps equal to the interval defined in the Days, Hours and Minutes boxes. For example, if you define a spacing of four hours, you will only be able to move objects by steps of four hours.

These settings apply to all the Gantt panes in your Display.

Tip: You can have the Snap to grid and Snap to other objects options enabled at the same time. In this case an object will move in steps equal to the interval defined in the Days, Hours and Minutes boxes, but still snap to other objects on the same row.
Hold down the Shift key while dragging or resizing an object to temporarily disable the Snap to other objects and Snap to grid settings.