Training Course
January 2008
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The content of this manual is provided for information only, is subject to change without
notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Actix. Actix assumes no
responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that appear in this documentation.
Copyright Actix 2008. All rights reserved. All trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
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Contents
1 ANALYZER ................................................................................................5
1.1 INTRODUCING ANALYZER ..................................................................................... 5
1.2 LEARNING ABOUT ANALYZER ................................................................................. 6
1.3 USE THE ONLINE HELP ........................................................................................ 6
1.3.1 The context-sensitive attribute reference help ............................................ 7
1.4 CUSTOMER SUPPORT .......................................................................................... 7
1.4.1 Getting started with MyActix .................................................................... 7
1.4.2 Case life cycle ........................................................................................ 8
1.4.3 Actix support hours ................................................................................ 8
1.4.4 More information .................................................................................... 8
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4.5.7 About synchronized data windows .......................................................... 40
9 PRINTING DATA........................................................................................ 53
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Analyzer 5
1 Analyzer
1.1 Introducing Analyzer
Actix Solutions, a series of tools for post-processing cellular network data, running under
Microsoft Windows on a PC, are designed to address applications such as:
Feature testing
Service validation
Network bench-marking
Competitive analysis
Analyzer can load network performance data from many different sources:
These data sources could include field-test equipment and switch call traces, and could be
from a one-off test, or part of a planned series of samples to build up an image of overall
network performance.
Once the data is loaded, a variety of analysis tools and displays provide a clear view of
network performance for engineers, technicians or operations management staff.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Analyzer 6
The following features of the online help will assist you in finding an answer to your
problem.
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You can use MyActix to report new cases, monitor progress and submit requested
information. You will be sent an email on days when any of your support cases have been
updated.
When reporting a case, please include as much information as possible, including a
description of the problem, any screenshots of error messages, and any small sample files
that have a problem, so we can investigate the reported problems faster.
All users within a customer of Actix products are encouraged to register, and any user can
submit a case. All cases submitted by users at the same customer are visible to each
other. A customer cannot see other customers cases.
Help is available on how to use MyActix when you log on. There is an RSS feed available to
keep up to date with new resources being posted to the portal.
It is also possible to access the Actix Support Service by other means such as email and
telephone, but these methods are not preferred. It is more efficient and effective to submit
a case via www.myactix.com to provide all necessary information to recreate the
Customers case which can then be investigated.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Starting your solution 9
After a short pause you will see the Actix loading screen.
Most engineering processes guide you through a series of predefined analyses and reports
that encapsulate sophisticated radio engineering decision-making knowledge; however,
Analyzer Classic lets you use Analyzer in free analysis mode that is, you can use
Analyzers comprehensive set of data-analysis tools to investigate any message or
attribute of interest within your logged data.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Starting your solution 10
This guide is concerned with how to use these tools, on the principle that once you
understand how these tools work, the use of the other engineering processes will appear
very straightforward.
Checking the box at the bottom of the screen also lets you bypass this screen and go
straight to your selected engineering process. If in future you want to display this screen,
from the File menu select Start New Engineering Process.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Configuring your solution 11
;#NetworkData datafile
If you import the file using the Network Explorer, this line
is added automatically.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Configuring your solution 12
The Network Explorer display consists of two panels. The left panel contains a tree view of
the network element data. The right panel shows details about relevant parameters for the
current selection.
2 On the toolbar, select Import, then Import From New Template to open the Import
dialog.
Select the appropriate export data file from your planning tool and click Open to display
the Custom Import Wizard.
The Import Settings page of the Custom Import Wizard is now displayed:
3 Give the Template a meaningful Template Name ('UMTS example' in this example).
4 Check the appropriate Delimiter that separates the data from the file into different
columns.
For example, under Delimiters, check the Tab box. Under General Settings, for Ignore
header rows enter 1. For Array (list) Separator enter ;. If your file has more than one
header or uses a different array list separator, set these options accordingly.
If you choose the wrong delimiter, you will see the effect in the Data Preview window at
the bottom of the dialog.
5 In most cases, the default information under General Settings and Coordinate
Information will apply. If your file has more than one header or uses a different array list
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Configuring your solution 13
separator (the character used to separate the array values under the 'Neighbors' column in
the example for step 1), adjust these settings as necessary.
6 Click Next.
The Column Settings page of the Custom Import Wizard is now displayed. This allows you
to associate a network parameter with a column of data in the text file.
Key fields You must select a field type for this field, but you cannot set a
default value.
These must be either bound to a particular type or have a default
Required fields
value set.
Other fields Binding particular field types or setting default values is not
strictly necessary for this field.
7 Open up the Site node. Click on the adjacent field under Column and select the
parameter name from your site database that corresponds to the Site_Name parameter.
Repeat for each of the fields in the Site node.
8 Open the Cell node. Click in the Column field next to Sector_ID. Select the
parameter name from your site database that corresponds to the Sector_ID parameter.
You can enter a default value that takes effect if the actual
value is unknown. For example, all Beamwidths could be
set to 65 degrees.
9 Repeat for each of the fields in the Cell node. A description of each of these
parameters and their use is given in the appropriate technology table in the Cell site
parameters chapter .
10 Click Finish when all the columns have been assigned. The new cell information will
be added at the bottom of the existing list in the Network Element editor.
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16 After closing the Network Explorer, view a new map by selecting View, Display New
Map.
17 If cell icons do not appear on the map, right click on the map and select Zoom, Go
to Layer, <tech>_Site to zoom the map to the appropriate location.
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18 Set the cells to be labeled by an appropriate parameter for the technology (for
example, SC for UMTS).
2 Click on File Location to select the text file containing network element data. This
file must be in the Actix 'cellrefs' format. The information from this cellrefs file takes effect
from the next time a new workspace is created.
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The diagram above looks at a one-second bin. The speed of travel during logging will affect
how many log files you see in a certain area.
Distance binning combines data into bins corresponding to the distance traveled by the
test mobile.
This mode is commonly used for drive-test analyses when viewing on a map to ensure plot
points are evenly spaced.
Message binning - If the number of messages to be averaged is set to 1, each message is
placed into its own bin with the net result of no averaging of the data. Note that message
binning should be usually only set to 1.
Location binning is like overlaying a spatial grid on top of the data with a user-definable
granularity. This can be used when examining several drive files crossing over the same
geographic area. This method is often used for superstreams (see the online help for more
information).
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Create, delete
or export layers
if the layer can be annotated (to 'lock' the Annotations layer from having
any further annotations added, click on the box again to clear it)
4 In the Layers box, click Add to open the Open Layer dialog.
5 Select one or more MapInfo Map (.tab) files.
MapInfo layers are named according to the geographic location of the data (for example,
the abbreviated US state name and/or county name), and by the type of data contained in
the file. Here are some of the common abbreviations used for MapInfo data types:
Suffix Layer Type
Y1 RtHwy010_Top
Y2 RtHwy010_Bot
X1 IntShld010
X2 IntShld1040
Pc Cultural Points
Pn Natural Points
Pm Municipal Points
R Railroads
H Highways
S Streets
Wr Water (rivers)
Wb Water (bodies of water)
Lm Landmarks
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Cb City Boundary
Mc Minor Civic Division
Cy County
The top of the layer list represents the uppermost layer in this map window.
7 Click Up and Down to move 'examplemap' to the bottom and 'Annotations' to the
top.
8 Click Close and return to the map view.
In a new Actix installation, the map location defaults to 0longitude, 0latitude, so you will need
to arrange the map view to display the new map.
9 Pan the map viewing area by right-clicking in the map area, then choosing Zoom,
Go to Layer and selecting the new map layer.
10 Use the Zoom and Pan controls to arrange the map as required. To zoom in to an
area, click Zoom In, then click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest.
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To use Do this
Formatted Field Set the formatted field to use as the label displayed,
depending on the layer selected in the Layer Control dialog.
Show Check the box to show labels on the map (which are
otherwise hidden this is recommended to improve map load
times).
Hide adjacent duplicate Uncheck the box to allow the same text to appear for
text adjacent data points.
Display within range Check the box to display labels only within the maximum and
minimum zoom levels. A zoom level is the width of the map
area displayed, in the current map units.
Min Zoom Set the lowest zoom level at which labels will be displayed.
Max Zoom Set the highest zoom level at which labels will be displayed.
Max # of labels Set the maximum number of labels that can be shown on the
map.
Position Select the position of the label relative to the data point.
Label X/Y offset (points) Set the offset of the label in the X or Y direction. The offset is
measured in points (as used for fonts).
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Configuring your solution 21
To use Do this
Label Style Defines the appearance of the label text in terms of color,
font, size and other effects.
4 Check Display within Zoom range and enter '0' for Min Zoom and '10' for Max
Zoom.
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Technology Attribute
CDMA PN_1stBestEcIo
GSM ServBCCH
iDEN Channel
IS_136 FACCH_CurChannel
UMTS Uu_ActiveSet_SC
6 Check that the Disable box is empty, and click OK, then Yes.
7 Click OK to close the Layer Control dialog.
8 Zoom In on data points near a cell site, and use Select to pick a data point.
A solid line is drawn to the serving cell site, with dotted lines drawn to neighboring cells.
If 'All datapoints' was selected in the Lines Configuration dialog, you would not need to
select a data pointall data points would have a line to their neighbor cells. This can be
useful in some situations.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Configuring your solution 23
4 Expand the new layer to show one item in the range, called 'Unspecified'.
5 Right-click on this item and choose Selected range's style to open the Style
chooser dialog.
6 Set the new font size as required and click OK. The cell site sectors will now
change size to reflect your selection.
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The arrangement of loaded help files and data display windows is called the current
workspace. You can save and reuse workspaces as necessary.
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Click on the symbols to open out and explore the data in your logfile. See how your data
relates to the structure shown above.
The only objects that you actually need to recognize are filenames, data streams and data
attributes.
In the example above, the file 'MyFile1' contains a data stream called 'Qualcomm MDM
1900' (the number is the data stream number within the file, starting from zero).
The 'CDMA' group contains the 'Pilot Sets' set, which contains the 'SearcherMaxEnergy'
data attribute.
The logical tree-view layout of the Attribute Explorer allows you to drill down and identify
all logged data. Once you have located the appropriate data attribute, you can open it in a
data windowfor example, a map, chart, table or spreadsheetto examine the data in
detail. You can examine data streams using the Message Browser tool.
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Enter search criteria about the required attributes into this panel.
Find What: Enter some text which is part of the required attribute name.
Stream: Select which stream of data should be searched. <All Streams> is set by
default.
Settings:
Whole Word: Check this to search only for attributes where the search text
exactly matches the whole attribute name. Otherwise, search for attributes
where the search text is contained within the attribute name.
Case Sensitive: Check this to search only for attributes where the case of
the search string exactly matches the case of the attribute.
Direction: When down is selected, only search for attributes further down in the
attribute tree from the currently selected attribute. When up is selected, only
search for attributes further up in the attribute tree from the currently selected
attribute.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 27
Find Next: Based on the current search criteria, find the next matching attribute.
This attribute is highlighted in the All tab at the bottom of the Attribute Explorer.
Find All: Based on the current search criteria, find all matching attributes in the
tree-view. The matching attributes are listed in the Search Results tab at the
bottom of the Attribute Explorer.
Done: The search for attribute panel is closed. Search results remain visible in the
Search Results tab.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 28
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2 From the Analysis menu, select an application pack (in this example, 'CDMA
Distant Server Analysis').
Once you select an application pack, this window opens:
The top pane shows a tree-view of the network structure against various statistics
produced by the application pack.
3 Use the top pane as necessary to narrow down the data in your selection.
All reports appropriate to your selection are displayed under the Suggested tab. If you
want to use another report, look under the All tab to view all reports available within the
current application pack.
A description of the reports contained within each application pack is also provided in this
window.
4 Double-click on a report icon to open the report window. This will report on all data
selected in the upper tree-view panel.
5 As required, use the buttons at the bottom of the window to Save the report as a
web-compatible HTML file set, Print the report to your printer or open the report in Excel
using Show Excel Report.
To reset thresholds for a new analysis
A number of the application pack reports use Custom Attributes. To change the thresholds
for a new analysis, you need to re-run these Custom Attributes directly from the Custom
Attribute Manager:
Distance_Input
EcIo_Threshold_Input
You can now re-run the application pack.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 31
From the Attribute Explorer, right-click on a data stream and select Display
Message Browser.
The Message Browser combines an event panel (sequentially listing call events) with a
panel of Layer 3 messaging, allowing you to pinpoint the root causes of problems.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 32
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Select one of the display methods to opens the appropriate data display window.
If there are no other attribute layers on this map, the new attribute layer will be beneath
the lowest site or cell layer. See the chapter Configuring your solution for more information
on map layers.
2 Click on the Pan button.
3 Click and drag the data around the map window.
4 Experiment with the Zoom buttons.
5 In the Attribute Explorer, open up the 'Event Data' set and drag an event (in this
example the 'WeakPilotWarning' event) onto the map, which should then look similar to
this:
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 34
Adding events (for example 'CallDropped') to the mapped data can help you see where
problems are occurring.
6 Drag another data attribute onto the map.
The attribute information is displayed on a new map layer directly above the previous
attribute layer.
You can also change the size, symbol or color of the data, apply offsets to an attribute or
merge attributes for a multidimensional display. See the online help for further details.
The map legend defines histogram ranges for charts.
7 To hide a data series, in the legend pane, click in the check box beside the series
name.
Click on the Step buttons to move forwards and backwards by one message at a time.
Note that several clicks may be required before any change is visible on the Map,
depending on the binning settings.
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Click on the Play buttons to move at a selectable multiple of real-time speed through the
data (if Play by Time is selected see below). In this case, some messages may be
dropped as necessary to allow the data to be highlighted at the set speed.
The Select Options button allows you to set the replay mode:
Play by Time Replays message at the same rate as Step to next message.
originally recorded. Some messages will
be ignored to maintain the replay speed.
Play by Message Replay all messages. The speed slider has Step to next message.
no effect.
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You can synchronize all views in other open data windows by clicking on the timeline in
Navigator-type StateForms like this.
Other StateForms provide information for the currently selected point in the drive test:
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Basic data analysis 37
3 If you have scanner data in your logfile, start another Form window.
4 Right-click on the form and select Open File, then select a form (.axw) file for a
scanner.
5 Right-click on the form and select Stream Selector, then the scanner stream.
See the online help for details on how to create your own forms.
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You can display more than one attribute on the same chart.
2 Select a second attribute that would make a useful comparison (in this example,
the attribute 'ForwardFER') and drag it onto the existing chart.
You can also zoom into selected areas of the chart by defining a frame for the zoom.
3 On the chart, click the upper left corner of the zooming rectangle, and drag down
to the lower right extent of the rectangle.
Note that the zoom only operates in the X-axis, not in the
Y-axis.
5 Now return the chart its original state by dragging a box anywhere, but this time
starting from the bottom.
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6 Use the right mouse button to pan and scroll around the chart window.
Although you can scroll in the X-axis for all attributes on the chart, you can only pan in the
Y-axis for the last attribute to be displayed on the chart.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Integrating reverse/forward link data 41
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Creating and using queries 42
Filter queries
Binned queries
Histogram queries
Statistical queries
Crosstab queries
Event queries
You can also:
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Generating new reports 44
1 From the Workbook menu, select Open Workbook and select an appropriate Excel
template.
2 Click Open.
3 Select the data source that you want to view in the workbook report.
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You can proceed to adapt the workbook, use other Excel tools on the data, and so on.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Loading large amounts of data 46
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Beneath each device in the Attribute Explorer, you can see the attributes and queries that
are part of that device. The structure of the devices and their attributes, queries, and
filters are defined by the template that was used to create the repository and cannot be
changed after the repository has been created. Sometimes each device might have a
different list of attributes and queries and sometimes some or all of the devices might have
the same lists.
When you right-click an attribute or binned query in the Attribute Explorer, you get options
to display it on the Map and other binned data viewing components and to see its
definition in the Attribute Help system.
When you right-click a crosstab or event query in the Attribute Explorer, you have the
option to open the Repository Statistics Explorer, which provides useful features for
exploring the summary views that the crosstab queries provide.
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Typically an engineering process module that uses Repository Manager will retrieve
crosstab data from the repository and display it in a table or chart embedded on the task
page.
2 Select the Template on which you want to base the repository and enter a Name
and Description.
3 Do one of the following:
Click Create & Open, if you want to open the new repository after it has been
created.
Click Create, if you do not want to open the new repository immediately after it is
created.
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2 Select the repository you want to open and then click OK.
1 If necessary, select the Attribute Explorer tool to open the Attribute Explorer.
2 Locate the repository in the Open Repositories folder in the Attribute Explorer.
3 Right-click the repository and from the shortcut menu, choose Load Data.
This opens the Load Data dialog. This has features that make it easy to select individual
files to load, and also to select multiple files based on their location and file names.
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4 Use the Add Files button to select individual log files to load. When you select a
file, it is automatically added to the list of files in the center of the Load Data dialog box.
5 Use the Add Folders button to select folders that contain log files to load. Selecting
a folder automatically selects all of the files in that folder and all of its subfolders and adds
them to the list of files in the Load Data dialog box.
6 You can remove files from the list by selecting them individually or in groups
(using Shift-click and Ctrl-click) and then clicking Remove.
7 You can also remove files from the list by entering an expression into the Filter
dialog box and then clicking Apply. This removes from the list all of the files that do not
meet the filter expression.
The expression should use a combination of text and wildcard characters to specify the
name patterns of the log files that you want to include. You can include multiple patterns
using the semicolon (;) character. The following table provides details of the valid wildcard
characters.
Wildcard Description
Example Selects
*.log;*Friday*.sd5 All files that have a .log filename extension and all log files whose
names contain the text "Friday" and that have an .sd5 filename
extension.
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Example Selects
*08-??-2004*.dat Only files that have a .dat filename extension and whose names
contain the characters "08-" followed by any two characters and
then followed by the characters "-2004". In practice this could be
used to select files whose names contain any date in August 2004
specified in the American short date style.
Clicking the Apply button applies the expression to the files listed in the box above. Note
that clearing the expression and clicking Apply again does not cancel any filtering that was
applied earlier.
8 When the list reflects the files you want to load, click OK to start the loading
process.
Notes:
Repository Manager will attempt to load all of the files in the list. If any of them
cannot be loaded, because, for example, they are not valid log files, Repository
Manager will simply move on to the next file.
Repository Manager does not reload files that have already been loaded into the
repository.
When the file loading process has finished, Repository Manager displays a list
showing each file and the results of the loading process. A result of OK means that
the log file was successfully processed and does not necessarily mean that any of
the data was actually loaded into the repository. For example, it is possible for a
log file to be shown as OK when in fact none of its data was loaded into the
repository because it did not meet any of the loading criteria defined for the
devices or if it did, the log file did not actually contain any of the attributes defined
for those devices nor any data that matched the queries. See Repository Template
Wizard: Define Devices in the online help for more information.
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Open the Template Manager, select the template you want to change, and then
click Edit. This takes you straight to the Combine or Separate Data? page.
To delete an unwanted template
Open the Template Manager, select the template you want to delete, and then
click Delete.
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9 Printing Data
Analyzer features two different ways to obtain printed map outputs. The Map Layout
Designer may be used to arrange the map and legend on the page, add a title, and
preview the output. The Quick Print option allows you to bypass the Map Layout Designer
and print the map with a legend in a fixed position.
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Actix Analyzer Basic Features Training Course January 2008 Saving Your Preferred Layout 54
Window layouts
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