Showing the Mean and Other Marker Lines

You can display mean, mode, median, standard deviation, certainty, and other marker lines on assumption, forecast, and overlay charts. These lines help you locate various values in the charted distribution.

Note:

If you have activated the process capability features and have entered an LSL, USL, or Target value, you can include marker lines for them in forecast charts (Viewing LSL, USL, and Target Marker Lines).

Base Case is the value in an assumption, decision variable, or forecast cell prior to running the simulation. For forecasts, Certainty Range shows lines at the certainty range endpoints. Marker lines are shown with labels, such as Mean = $125.

You can press Ctrl+m to cycle through the median, mean, and base case or mode, depending on chart type. Press Ctrl+p to cycle through every 10th percentile.

  To display marker lines:

  1. Display the Chart Type tab of the Chart Preferences dialog.

    The settings apply to the selected series.

  2. In the Marker Lines group, select an item to display. If you select Standard Deviation, Percentile, or Value, another dialog opens:

    • For Standard Deviation, enter the standard deviation(s) where you want a marker to be displayed. If you enter more than one, separate them with commas. Then, select whether you want the marker(s) to be displayed below the mean (technically indicating negative standard deviations), above the mean, or both above and below.

    • For Percentile, select the group of percentiles where you want markers to be displayed or select Custom and create a group of percentile points separated by commas.

    • For Value, enter the x-axis value where the line should be displayed and click Add. Optional: Enter a label. Select Show Value On Marker Line. Optional: Click New to add another value.

  3. Consider adjusting the chart type (Setting the Chart Type) and color (Setting Chart Colors) for the selected series.

  4. Optional: Follow steps 2 and 3 to customize settings for any other series in the chart.

  5. When all the settings are complete, click OK.

    Note:

    If the marker lines fall outside the maximum or minimum value displayed on a chart, they will not appear on the chart. This can happen with standard deviations of plus or minus 2 or 3 for uniform distributions.