Locking Relative Positions

[anchor]Locking[/anchor] is a way to freeze an object relative to other objects. For example, if you have activity A locked on grid 1, B locked on grid 10, and C locked on grid 20, then A will be above B, and B will be above C, but not necessarily on the same gridlines. If lanes are used and an activity is both locked and assigned to a lane, the lane assignment will override the locking. By default, actualized objects are locked, but this can be deselected.

‏Locking can be done on an activity-by-activity basis, or it can be done automatically by entering a threshold and locking all of the activities whose activity scores fall below that threshold. All activities and planning objects will be rearranged unless they have been assigned to a lane or locked on their grids. Instructions for locking individual activities and for locking multiple activities are provided below. For more info on lanes, see [bookmark postid=”11476″ anchor=”lanes”]Setting Up Swimlanes[/bookmark].

Steps

Individual Objects

1. Click Schedule > Open Layout Manager from the menu bar.
2. Click the arrow to the right of the Structure view, and choose Locking.
3. Check the box next to On. NOTE: If the box is un-checked, the most recent locking setup will be stored internally for future use.
4. To lock an object, check the box next to it under the Lock column.
5. To apply immediately, see [bookmark postid=”12646″ anchor=”run”]Running the Engine[/bookmark]. Otherwise, click Save to store the changes.

Multiple Activities

1. Click Schedule > Open Layout Manager from the menu bar.
2. Click the arrow to the right of the Structure view, and choose Locking.
3. Check the box next to On. NOTE: If the box is un-checked, the most recent locking setup will be stored internally for future use.
4. Check the box next to Lock All.
5. Type a number and press the TAB key on your keyboard (or click the up and down arrows with the mouse). All activities whose score is less than this value will be locked (milestone and benchmarks will not be included with this option). NOTE: If any objects were locked individually, they will be combined with the activities locked here.
6. To apply immediately, see [bookmark postid=”12646″ anchor=”run”]Running the Engine[/bookmark]. Otherwise, click Save to store the changes.

Notes

Locking View

The locking view consists of two list boxes.

Upper List

The main list on top shows all activities, delays, milestones, benchmarks, and hammocks in the schedule. As you click through the list on the top, the canvas will scroll to their location and they will spotlighted in yellow. As any of the objects from the list above are locked, they are copied to the list below.

Lower List

As you click through the list on the bottom, the canvas will scroll to their location and they will spotlighted in yellow.