Neara Reports are especially useful for performing “what-if” type visual analysis. To make that even easier, you can add interactive Parameter controls to your workspace.

Parameter controls make it intuitive and easy to modify the data variables used in a report.

For example, you might add a slider that adjusts the conductor temperature, or wind pressure. As you adjust the sliders, the variables in the report update, and you can see the effect in the visualizations on your network in real-time:

Depending on your data variables, Parameter controls can be configured in a number of ways.

For modifying integers or real numbers. Sliders can be configured with min/max values, and step sizes:

For modifying True/False data variables:

For modifying String type data variables:

In the following example, we'll add a slider that adjustments the standard Ground Clearance values reported for Spans in a network. A video walkthrough of these steps is provided at the end of this article.

In this example, we're interested in the Spans report, so start by opening the Report Manager by clicking (+) at the end of any group of tabs, and placing a checkmark next to the Report Manager option in the popup:

The Report Manager panel will open. Click New custom report and in the popup, click inside the datasource field and choose Spans. You can give your report a different name, or accept the default name:

The Spans report will open:

By default, this report doesn't have a column for the measured Ground clearance, so we'll add it. Click the (+) icon in the header of any column:

A new blank column will be inserted to the left and a popup showing its (currently empty) configuration will appear:

Neara already includes a field for Ground Clearance for spans. In the Field input start typing the word ground – a suggestion for ground_clearance will appear – click it:

In this step, take care not to click the first suggestion: Add new custom field ‘ground’. We will create a custom field later, however.

The new column now displays the Neara-calculated ground clearances:

In this example, we'll create a new column in the report that displays an adjusted ground clearance value, using a simple multiplier on the Neara calculated ground clearance. We'll then control the size of that multiplier using a slider Parameter Control and visualize the result of changing that in the Perspective View.

Because we want the multiplier to be set (and changed) using a slider Parameter Control, we'll create that multiplier variable in a new Parameter Control.

Click the (+) next to the tabs in the right-hand side of the workspace, and on the popup place a checkmark on Parameters:

The Parameters panel opens, ready for you to add new Parameter controls:

Click in the input box, and start typing a field name to use for the multiplier variable that the slider will control.

You can use any name for field names, provided they don't include spaces or conflict with an existing Neara field name.

We recommend you prefix them to make them easy to find in future. In our examples, we prefix custom field names with “u_” as shorthand for our “user defined” field names.

If you use underscores ( _ ) where you'd normally use spaces in the field name, Neara will generate a friendly title for it to appear in column headings, the parameter control, and other places it appears.

In this case, we'll name our new field u_ground_clearance_multiplier. Type that into the input box:

When press ENTER/RETURN on your keyboard, Neara will create the Parameter control as a slider, automatically giving it the friendly title “Ground Clearance Multiplier”:

When you did this, Neara automatically created a new custom field on the model called u_ground_clearance_multiplier. You'll use this next.

Click the (gear) icon in the upper-right of the parameter control to inspect its settings:

You can adjust the type of value that will be controlled, and the settings for each. In this case we'll leave it as a slider that sets a Real value between 0 and 100, in steps of 1:

Click anywhere outside the slider's settings panel to dismiss it.

The final step is to create a new column in the Report that will contain the adjusted ground clearance calculation, which depends on the multiplier value set on the slider Parameter control:

Insert a new column in the Report table by clicking the (+) in the header of any existing column. In the column configuration popup, click in the Field input box and give this field a new name, for example: u_adjusted_ground_clearance and then click the Add new custom field option that appears:

The popup will expand. Make sure Formula is selected and enter this formula:

You'll notice:

Click Save when ready, and your new column will appear:

For now, all the values in that column are zero (0) because the slider is currently set to zero (0).

Try changing the slider to see the effect on the calculation in the new Adjusted Ground Clearance column:

Finally, click the eye icon in the column header of the Adjusted Ground Clearance column to see the values overlaid onto each span in the Perspective View. These now update in real-time as you change the slider Parameter control:

Neara supports complex network analysis visualizations with parameter controls. If you need assistance creating an advanced visualization with these types of interactive controls, contact our team.

If you make a mistake, you can delete the slider Parameter control by clicking the (gear) icon to the right of the Title on the control to reveal its settings:

On the control's settings popup, click Delete:

If you delete a Parameter Control, it does NOT automatically delete any custom field that was created on your model when you created the control.

This is avoid important custom fields from being deleted inadvertently when modifying parameter controls.

If you want to delete the custom field that was created automatically - for example you named it incorrectly - click the (+) button next to the tabs at the top of the left-hand area of the workspace, and on the popup select Schema Editor:

In the Schema Editor you'll see the automatically-created custom field under the Model section. Click the delete icon to the right of it:

You may be prompted to confirm the deletion if columns, formulas, and controls are currently using it.