As you know Primavera P6 has a lack of graphical features so often we schedulers need to export everything to other software packages (mostly Excel) to produce an understandable schedule and graphs. I always had a problem when I export P6 resource assignment data to Excel with the standard exporting feature on P6 until I found a way to leverage the Reports feature. Here you can use the current
Using Excel in Project Controls - Articles & Tutorials
Project Controls & Primavera P6 articles that demonstrate using Excel to import & export data.
How to clean a Primavera P6 XER file using the XER File Parser
11 Comments
In the third part of our Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will show how to use the parser to clean an xer file In the third part of our Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will show how to use the parser to clean an xer file. But if you haven't read them go back and read: XER File Parser Excel utility Part 1: 6 Ways to Clean Up Your Primavera Database
Understanding Primavera XER Files
47 Comments
In this second part of Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will discuss the data structure of an XER file, and how the XER File Parser & Builder works. As the XER File Parser is a manual process (it does not honour P6 business rules), it is handy for the user to have a working knowledge of the P6 database. That’s why in this P6 tutorial we will show a general overview of P6's
P6 Export to Excel: Number Formatting Secret
Leave a Comment
We all struggle with the same issue when exporting data from Primavera P6 to Microsoft Excel for analysis, progress updating and graphing. Excel does not seem to recognize numbers as numbers! That is because P6 formats all data exports as text (appends an apostrophe in front of all data). This makes getting clean data from P6 (even filtered data) extremely difficult. Often we would like to
Track Construction Delays with this Free Delay Log Tracker
6 Comments
Construction delays costs both Owners and Contractors millions of dollars each and every year. According to a Arcadis' 2020 Global Construction Disputes Report, the global average value of disputes was $30.7 million USD in 2019. That's a lot costs tied up in claims, legal battles and disputes. With so much importance put on managing costly construction delays, why don't we have a better
Quickly Export From Primavera P6 To Excel
10 Comments
Faster is better. That should be Oracle Primavera's mantra. Well, in this case it is! Exporting Primavera P6 data to Excel could not be faster & easier with this quick tip. Getting Primavera P6 Activity data into Excel is essential. Excel's data crunching, grouping, pivoting and filtering is just so much easier to use than Primavera P6's. Even generating S-curves and graphs is better in
Use Excel Power Query To Graph P6 Data
8 Comments
Excel Power Query & P6 go hand-in-hand. Around two years ago, I realized that although my role as a project planner was based on my skills in Primavera P6, I was spending a significant amount of my day doing repetitive work in Excel. I would update my project schedules in P6 and then spend hours getting all the reports ready. All this changed when I came across Excel’s new data
Translate A Primavera P6 Project To A Different Language
18 Comments
It's surprising to me how many people across so many countries have been helped by Plan Academy's Primavera P6 tutorials & training. I mean I know I'm tooting my own horn here, but it's not to be an egotist. When I first started blogging about Primavera P6 in 2011, and I would gaze daily at my little Google Analytics screen that would inform of what sort of visitors were visiting our site. I
The One Indicator That Can Foil Your Excel Import into Primavera P6
16 Comments
There is the temptation to think that because you can export a data field from Primavera P6 to Excel that you can import the same data field back to Primavera P6 after manipulating the field’s data in Excel. If you have ever imported data into Primavera P6 using Excel, you would have experienced instances where despite getting the familiar message of a successful import, some of the changes you
How to Print a Calendar from Primavera P6, with some help
17 Comments
In this quick tutorial we show how to create a 12-month formatted calendar in Excel based on the data extracted from an xer file using the handy Xer-Reader utility. Hopefully I will soon provide a more technical explanation on how the code works in the xer reader wiki. Michael has written excellent article about calendars and The Biggest Problem with Primavera P6 Calendars, And How You Can
Graphing a P6 Resource S-Curve in Excel
6 Comments
In my previous tutorial in this series, I described the procedure to export resource assignment data from P6 to Excel. Most of us have worked with Excel charts in our job or during our study in college or university. What we all know is that they are really helpful when you want to demonstrate some analytical information without technical terms. In this tutorial, I am going to tell you how to
Create a P6 Project Dashboard in Excel
29 Comments
Tutorial Files Excel Spreadsheet (Excel 2007+): PTuts_Project_Dashboard.xlsm - 1.5Mb One of our previous site manager told us (the project control team), that if we bring to him another report that have more than 1 page, he will just throw it away (sic), actually managers care only about the big picture, and don’t bother reviewing every small details. The purpose of this tutorial is to
How To Link A P6 Schedule To The BOQ With Different Levels Of Detail
11 Comments
Tutorial Files Excel Spreadsheet (Excel 2007+): PlannerTuts_BOQ_Pay_Item.xlsx P6 Schedule and BOQ challenges A contract's Bill of Quantities is always meant to be more details than the schedule, at least in theory. In many cases, the planner and the estimator are not working in perfect coordination and you may end with two different level of details for the same project. In case you need
How To Remove Resource Costs from XERs in Primavera P6
24 Comments
This tutorial will walk you through a process to remove resource costs from XERs exported from Primavera P6. This comes in very handy if you are sending project schedules to general contractors but want to hide cost information from them (or anyone else for that matter). In case you want to completely remove resources from your schedule prior to sending over the XER file, here are the steps to
Solve Primavera P6 Import from Excel Problems with ASAP Utilities
46 Comments
Many P6 users have trouble importing data from Excel. Many of the problems are focused on importing costs or other numeric data fields that have been manually typed into Excel. Why can't I import Primavera P6 cost data from Excel? Primavera P6 only imports data that is formatted as "Text" in Excel. If you have manually typed in a value like "$32000" into an Excel cell, Excel will
Excel VLOOKUP Tutorial – Step by Step for Primavera P6 Users
8 Comments
Primavera users are also Excel users. As many of you know, Microsoft Excel has many useful functions in different areas such as Financial, Date & Time, Math & Trig and so on. One of these areas is Look up & Reference. The functions in this area are dealt with lists, indexes and arrays and help us to find some special information in these listed data or other. This required information
Video: Import Primavera P6 Updates from Excel
53 Comments
Occasionally we revisit some of our reader's favourite posts from the annals of the Plan Academy tutorial library, and today we're revisiting a topic that is always hot - importing updates from excel. Let's take a look! Often large projects demand many sub-teams or subcontractors update a portion of the master project plan on an on-going basis. If your subcontractors are not up to speed on
Using Primavera’s .Xer File Parser – Import WBS From Excel Without The SDK
69 Comments
In this tutorial we explain how to import a WBS dictionary in Primavera P6 without the SDK. NOTE: The steps needed to transform a classical WBS presentation (which is WBS Path and Description) to a format understood by the database (which is parent / child) is covered in Steps 1 to 6 of this tutorial. To load the WBS data into Primavera P6, instead of using the SDK we will use the XER File
How To Import WBS From Excel To Primavera P6 Using The SDK
37 Comments
In this tutorial we explain how to use the Oracle Primavera P6 SDK to import a WBS from Excel to Primavera P6. We are using the WBS.xls P6 SDK spreadsheet made available by Oracle Support. The SDK is a very handy tool, but the data must exactly respect the required format, we used a sample WBSand a step-by-step guide to prepare the data to be imported. We assume you already have the Primavera SDK
Convert WBS to Activity Codes in Oracle Primavera P6
18 Comments
The idea of this tutorial was inspired by a question in LinkedIn forum. A planner had received a Primavera P6 schedule using WBS. It's often useful to have different layouts to present the schedule to a different audience, so Activity Codes were needed. More importantly the Work Breakdown Structure was based on geographic area in the construction phase, and then based on systems in the
Using Primavera P6 Filters On Export To Excel
19 Comments
Primavera's custom Activity filters are great for focusing in on a subcontractor's work list or even to hide Activities that are already completed. But when it comes to filtering down a 5000 line project plan to Activities in a specific timeframe, P6's filters fall flat. Here's the Gotcha: any filter that uses a rolling date or P6's built-in date variables will not work when exporting P6 data to
