Design Versus Weathermap Layouts
There are two layout types: Design and Weathermap.
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The Design layout is useful for interactive work where the emphasis is on detailed interactions, planning, and network editing. Plan files open using the layout named Default, which is a Design layout.
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The Weathermap layout is designed for use in a static, non-interactive view of a fixed network layout, with an emphasis on seeing operational issues such as high utilization.
The conventions described in this guide apply to both Weathermap and Design layout types, but there are key differences between the two. The following table describes these differences, and the following figure shows an example of each layout using the same topology and canvas.
Weathermap Layout |
Design Layout |
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The shape and size of the circuits differ.
Example: In the following graphs, the top circuit has a capacity of 1000 Mbps, and the circuit on the bottom has a capacity of 10,000 Mbps. |
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In Weathermap layouts, the traffic utilization color fills the entire interface. In Design layouts, the color fills up the interface proportional to traffic utilization levels. |
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Parallel circuits render differently. In both layouts, color fill of the grouped circuit shows this average. In the Design layout, however, the circuit is divided lengthwise into its constituent interfaces, and each interface has a colored border showing the utilization of that interface. |
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The default utilization colors have different saturation. |
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The site icon and site name appear differently.
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The node icon and node name appear differently. In the Weathermap layout, the node icon does not reflect whether interfaces from it are collapsed, whereas in the Design layout, it does. |
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The peer site icon and peer name appear differently. In the Weathermap layout, peering sites (that is, any site containing one or more external AS nodes) appear as a cloud. In the Design layout, they have the same appearance as sites, and, like other sites, they reflect whether interfaces from them are collapsed. |
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