When I first started learning planning and Primavera P6, I thought I had it all figured out. But it wasn't until I sat with a client and tried to explain what I was showing him that I realized I still had a long way to go. This video tutorial walks you through 5 Things about Critical Path Analysis in P6 that I wish someone would have told me earlier on as a planner. But fret not! You can
Primavera P6 Videos & Tutorials
Check out our library of Oracle Primavera P6 videos & tutorials and videos to help you with Primavera P6 planning and scheduling.
How Primavera Calendars Change Durations – and what to do about it
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If you do a quick google on keywords <Primavera calendars change>, you'll end up with quite a few results that show you how to use Primavera's Fill-Down feature to change the activity calendar of all the activities in a project. But I think the fill-down piece is only the first step in changing activity calendars. What about durations? Changing an activity's calendar in Primavera can
Analyzing Relationships With Deltek Acumen Fuse
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I am on a mission to learn and master Deltek Acumen Fuse software and I am bringing you along for the ride. Deltek Acumen Fuse is a powerhouse app that becomes an incredible tool in your arsenal if you’re doing P6 scheduling all the time and getting hammered by people who are analyzing it on the other end. So, I’m going to teach you how to get the best use out of Acumen Fuse. In this
How To Import P6 Assignment Codes from Excel
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Perhaps you’ve noticed that as of December 2020, there are some new features in Primavera P6 EPPM (Enterprise Project Portfolio Management), which we are going to take a look at today. Specifically, we’ll talk about Assignment Codes, one of the new Primavera P6 features here to make our jobs easier. But only, of course, if you know how to use everything right. Note: If you didn’t read my last
Primavera P6: How To Use Assignment Codes as Cost Accounts
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Cost accounts: love ‘em, hate ‘em? I’ll tell you what, though: If you're cost-loading a Primavera P6 schedule, you should be using cost accounts. Now, chances are good you haven’t yet because they’re hard to use. I get it; they’re really inflexible. They were designed so that you set them up once for a whole database, and you can't have different versions of them for different projects. Ergo,
Primavera P6 Settings Video Series – NEW
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Primavera P6 sure has a lot of settings. Endless options, preferences, customizations and tools means a lot of confusion for almost any regular P6 user. Luckily, to try and help ease your climb up the mountain that mastering P6 can feel like, Plan Academy has been releasing a series of helpful videos covering the many settings and options inside the sometimes-perplexing software. If you follow
Track Construction Delays with this Free Delay Log Tracker
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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
Construction Project WBS – Examples to Get You Started
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When it comes to planning a construction project, many of us prefer to re-use elements from previous plans and schedules. But what if you're starting from scratch with no construction project examples to draw from? And are your past projects adhering to construction WBS best practices? Most project planners start building their construction schedule by establishing a Work Breakdown Structure.
6 Unusual Construction Builds That Push The Limits
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Pushing the limits has become the norm, especially when it comes to the new construction builts that are cropping up all over the world. No matter the state of the earth, engineers, architects, and contractors always accepts the challenge and seems to make it work. Founded by Fred Mill’s, TheB1M.com website was created as a place to view the best construction videos from all over the globe. B1M
Open Zipped XER files in Primavera P6 v18 – New Feature
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As of Primavera P6 version 18, you can now import zipped XER files directly into Primavera P6. There's no need to uncompress them first. Primavera P6 will read the zip archive directly. Check out our zipped xer files video tutorial to see firsthand how it all works....and also what doesn't
Color Coding Your Primavera P6 Gantt Chart: 2 Ways To Do It
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A picture says a thousand words. And a good color-coding system can do the same on the Primavera P6 Gantt Chart. Did you know you don't need to stick with Primavera P6's default Gantt Chart color scheme? The options are many and in this video tutorial, you'll learn how to color-code bars based on criteria YOU set. You'll learn about 2 ways to set the criteria using Activity Codes or by User
5 Things ScheduleReader Does That Primavera P6 Can’t
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I've been a fan of PrimaveraReader (or now ScheduleReader) for a quite a while. SchedulerReader is a truly great XER file viewer that fills many gaps for organizations using Primavera P6 Professional planning & scheduling software. More on that in a second. Last month, PrimaveraReader underwent a complete rebrand that had it move away from referencing the name "Primavera". Not surprisingly,
Install 2 Versions of Primavera P6 On the Same PC – NEW In Version 18
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I used to think installing 2 different versions of Primavera P6 Professional on the same PC was impossible. Well, impossible OR really, really difficult. I used to have a complicated VirtualBox setup with a huge virtual machine that would crawl along with delayed mouse movements just so I could run an older version of Primavera P6 on my PC. Of course, I would install the latest version
How To Do Rolling Wave Planning in Primavera P6
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One of the biggest challenges with building project schedules is that often you don't know the details of a piece of work but you need it on your schedule regardless. Yes, you know you need to say remediate an area once you've installed the watermain underground. But early in the project, the finer details of what that remediation might look like are scarce. Enter Rolling Wave
As Late As Possible Constraint: How To Use It In Primavera P6 [VIDEO]
9 Comments![As Late As Possible Constraint: How To Use It In Primavera P6 [VIDEO]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/as-late-as-possible-264x200.jpg)
Ever been confused by Primavera P6's As Late As Possible constraint? If you're a still familiarizing yourself with P6's many features, you might not be sure what the As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint does or when to use it. I had a Plan Academy member ask me that question recently and decided to put this informative video together. I had a chance to practice my whiteboard skills and
Primavera P6 Certification Explained [Video]
3 Comments![Primavera P6 Certification Explained [Video]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/certificate-p6-icon-264x200.jpg){kind=icon}
After so many questions about how to get certified on Primavera P6 and the confusion around Oracle certification exams, Michael has decided to clear things up with an explanation of Primavera P6 certification for users of the tool. Michael answers the following questions in this Ask Plan Academy video: How do I get certified on Primavera P6? What's the difference between a
Does Your Project Schedule Have Too Much Detail? [Video]
10 Comments![Does Your Project Schedule Have Too Much Detail? [Video]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/project-schedule-too-much-detail-264x200.jpg)
"These submittal activities are screwing everything up," I told my boss. "The project's Critical Path is completely messed up." There were 576 submittals to log. Each one took 2 lines in my P6 schedule. That was an extra 1,152 activities to manage and update, a lot of extra work from my perspective. I didn't like this notion. "The Owner's guy want to see those details or he won't approve the
Primavera P6 Activity Calendars Don’t Match WBS Calendar
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Ask Plan Academy. Primavera P6 is a great scheduling tool, but I hear from people who struggle with P6's Calendars alot. Here's another Ask Plan Academy question about WBS bars and Calendars from Tom, a project scheduler: "In Primavera P6, the Calendar on the WBS lines is different than the calendars that I'm on seeing on each activity. What gives? How do I fix this
Ask Plan Academy: How To Fix P6 Partial Durations
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Today we're starting a new series on Plan Academy where will be answering your Primavera P6 and project controls questions in video rather than in text. Video is such a great medium to explore and it's one that I want to continue to hone my skills with. So welcome to Ask Plan Academy. Here's a great question from Raj that we'll be answering in the video below. "In Construction, is it
How To Remove Resource Costs from XERs in Primavera P6
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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
Video: Import Primavera P6 Updates from Excel
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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
Quick Tip: Descrunch the P6 Gantt Timescale For Better Printing
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Have you ever printed your P6 Gantt Chart only to find that you can't quite see the first or last milestone because they fall off the page or are cutoff? I have. Here's how to avoid printing a scrunched gantt chart by easily expanding your P6 gantt timescale before you print.
[Video] Building a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6
37 Comments![[Video] Building a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/stacked-histogram-featured2-264x200.jpg)
A great way to see all your resource assignment levels comparatively over time is to use a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6. It's a feature that is available in the Resource Usage Profile charting facility. The process to get this all working is a bit convoluted, so we're going to show you step-by-step the process. Stacked Histograms are common sight in project environments.
Approve Updates from Subcontractors using Reflection Projects in Oracle Primavera [Video]
32 Comments![Approve Updates from Subcontractors using Reflection Projects in Oracle Primavera [Video]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/merge-p6-updates-reflections-264x200.jpg)
Featured this week is a great way to use Primavera P6 Reflection projects. If you've perused our other Primavera P6 tutorials, you may already know reflection projects are great for working with and managing scenarios. But they can also provide a way to preview and selectively approve activity updates from sub-contractors or other groups. The key to getting project updates to merge back to a
Primavera P6 Relationship Lines Point to Baseline Bars. Why? [Video]
8 Comments![Primavera P6 Relationship Lines Point to Baseline Bars. Why? [Video]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Baseline-Bars-201x200.jpg)
Primavera P6 relationships lines sometimes do some strange things. By now you've probably figured out how to turn on and off the relationships lines on the Primavera P6 Gantt Chart using the toggle button on the toolbar. But do you do if Primavera P6's relationship lines are pointing to the baseline bars? Well, in P6 order is important! Last post, we showed you the nuances of shading
Video Tutorial: Activity Splitting in P6 Using User Defined Fields
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Primavera doesn't have a feature to split a planned activity. It does have "Suspend" and "Resume" fields for statusing an activity with a break in the middle. But as for splitting planned activities in Oracle Primavera, we have to get creative to make it happen. One way to split an activity is using User Defined Fields to display the split on the Gantt Chart. I'm using a special Gantt bar -
