Primavera P6 | Construction Science

Nov

Release 8.4 for Primavera P6 Now Available

Categories: Primavera P6

Tags: P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, Primavera P6, Release 8.4

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by Bill Pepoon

Oracle recently issued upgrades to Primavera P6 Professional and P6 EPPM, Release 8.4 (R8.4). If you have purchased annual support from Oracle, you may be eligible for this upgrade; contact Oracle with your CSI number to obtain additional information. Anyone with an active support agreement can download this upgrade for free.

Upgrade Highlights (P6 Professional)

Visualizer Enhancements
Copy Bar Settings
Include Legend in Header or Footer
Manage Multiple Layouts Simultaneously
Display Shifts on a Gantt Chart or TLD
Manage Baselines as Job Services
Integration with Primavera Unifier
Integration with Primavera Prime
Import XML as a Job Service
Simplified Standalone Installation with SQLite Database

Upgrade Highlights (P6 EPPM)

Visualizer Enhancements
Update Baselines
Add New Column in Highlighted Position
Submit Timesheets via Team Member
Additional Search Criteria for Assigning Resources
View Project Users
Integration with Primavera Unifier
Integration with Primavera Prime

Should You Upgrade?

Is the upgrade worth installing? Perhaps more importantly, is it worth buying if you don’t have support? It depends. If you are currently using anything older than Release 8.0 we believe the enhancements are quite significant. And for P6 Professional users, the new standalone installation is much easier. Many users have struggled in the past to get the Oracle XE database properly installed and configured. But if you have already managed to install Oracle XE it is hard to justify switching to SQLite.

Anyone looking to purchase a new license of Primavera P6 should buy Release 8.4 as there is no price difference. Click here to see our pricing for Primavera P6 Professional and Primavera P6 EPPM. And please note that while some companies advertise lower prices, these prices do not include Oracle’s mandatory support agreement for the first year. Our prices include the perpetual license plus Oracle Support. This support agreement also provides free upgrades to new software releases. After the first year users can choose not to continue the support agreement.

Just to avoid any confusion, when someone buys Primavera P6 they own the software forever regardless of whether Oracle Support is maintained. This is why we refer to the license as being “perpetual”. Oracle Support is an annual agreement that must be renewed in order to receive software upgrades and technical support but does not affect ownership of Primavera P6.

Primavera P6 Professional R8.4 is much easier to install with the SQLite database. This means that Oracle Support is not as critical – especially for users with prior experience using Primavera P6. For this reason, we feel confident that users can purchase Primavera P6 Professional without Oracle Support, saving nearly $500 a year. Click here to see the lowest possible price for Primavera P6.

We will be posting a video on our Primavera P6 training website in the near future demonstrating some of the benefits of Release 8.4 for P6 Professional.

May

Export Primavera P6 Filters with Layouts

Categories: Primavera P6

Tags: Primavera filters, Primavera Layout File, Primavera layouts, Primavera P6

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by Bill Pepoon

Most Primavera P6 users know how to share a layout with someone in a different database. But did you know that filters can also be shared? To recap, we select View → Open Layout → Export to transport a Primavera Layout File (PLF) from the database. The other user then selects View → Open Layout → Import to bring the layout file into their database. While there is no such export/import feature for filters, they can be attached to any layout and therefore transferred to another database.

The trick to exporting filters with layouts is to copy an existing filter as a Layout Filter. In the screenshot below I have selected the existing User Defined filter, “Activities with Steps”. To create a Layout Filter, select “Copy As Layout” from the right-hand side of the filters menu:

In the next screenshot we see the result of this operation. The “Activities with Steps” filter appears under a new group, “Layout Filters”. All filters copied to this group will be exported with any layout you choose to export. Because of this, you might want to keep the number of Layout Filters to a minimum, or delete those that should no longer be exported.

One other thing. The above layouts are project layouts. The Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) has its own set of layouts. When the other user receives the Primavera Layout File it is important that they open a project – any project – and import the layout in the Activities window. EPS layouts are not compatible with project layouts despite having the same PLF format. However, EPS filters can likewise be exported with EPS layouts.

Apr

Import Any Primavera P6 File Easily

Categories: Primavera P6

Tags: Primavera P6

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by Bill Pepoon

Primavera P6 has been upgraded quite a few times over the years. This creates a small problem when trying to share files with users of older versions of P6 – and this would include P5/Contractor. Older Primavera programs cannot import newer Primavera files. As a certified Oracle trainer and Primavera P6 scheduler I find myself constantly dealing with this problem. Our company uses P6 Release 8.3, which is the most current version, but our clients use a wide variety of Primavera products.

The most obvious solution is to export Primavera P6 files in a format that older Primavera programs can read. For example, if I know that my client is using P6 R7.0 then it is a simple matter to export this file format, as seen below:

As long as I export my file as Release 7.0 or older my client will be able to import the file (not visible is Release 5.0, which is the same thing as Primavera Contractor).

Since I work with many different firms, however, keeping track of what versions of Primavera P6 my clients are using is not so simple. Even within the same company not everyone uses the same version. With this in mind, I send them Release 8.3 files and show them a quick and easy way to make any P6 file readable by another version of Primavera P6 or Contractor. This method involves modifying the native P6 file (XER).

XER files can be opened with Microsoft Notepad, Word, or any other text editor. Below is an example of an XER file:

See the number in the upper left-hand corner? That is the version of P6 that was exported. In this case the file was exported as Release 8.3 on November 25, 2013. Paying attention to the date can also be useful; any changes made to the original file after this date will not be included in the XER file.

To make this file readable by Release 7.0 a user just needs to backspace over the “8.3” and replace it with “7.0” or any other number that corresponds to older versions of P6. Save and close the file, and that’s it. The XER can now be imported into Release 7.0 without any loss of data or functionality.

We teach this little XER trick in our Primavera training classes and almost no one can believe that the only difference between all of the different releases of P6 is the number in the upper left-hand corner. Yet it works every time. Just be careful not to modify anything else in the XER file. Bad idea!

And in case you are wondering why this file format is called XER, there is actually a good explanation. A company called Eagle Ray created the first enterprise scheduling software. Primavera bought this company and rebadged the product as P3e. Several years later, Oracle bought Primavera. The file format stands for “eXport Eagle Ray”. Now you know.

Dec

Primavera P6 is Going to the Moon

Categories: NASA, Primavera P6

Tags: NASA, Orion, Primavera P6, SLS

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by Bill Pepoon

Primavera P6 is going to the moon, or Mars, or perhaps some distant asteroid. NASA uses Primavera P6 for all of its space programs and we were fortunate enough to be invited to train NASA contractors at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier this month. We spent nearly two weeks training people how to use the latest versions of Primavera P6 Professional and Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM). December in Florida is not a bad gig! The situation at NASA is certainly different these days. The Space Shuttle program defined NASA for the better part of three decades. With the cancellation of the Shuttle program in 2010, NASA will not have a comparable space program until the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is ready for its maiden voyage in 2017. The Orion capsule will be carried by the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS is designed to be flexible, with both crew and payload-only configuration, as seen below:

Orion will explore deep space, something that has not been done by any manned spacecraft since the Apollo days. Following my training sessions I visited the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to see a mock-up of the Orion capsule (below). My first impression was, “this thing is really big!” And it is: the Orion capsule has 2-1/2 times the volume of the Apollo capsule and will carry four astronauts as opposed to Apollo’s three.

I also had a chance to visit the SLS Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) that one of our Primavera P6 training clients, J.P. Donovan Construction, is modifying for the SLS program. This platform was initially built for the Ares space program, which was cancelled around the same time as the Shuttle program, but NASA was instructed by Congress to finish the MLP regardless.

The next photo shows the MLP from the vantage point of the VAB: Because the SLS rockets are much larger, the platform is currently being modified to handle the additional size and weight. One of the first tasks for J.P. Donovan was to offload two enormous boxes from the MLP. This required bringing in a 250 ton crane, which was just being dismantled during my visit. Both the crane and the boxes appear below:

The electrical, plumbing and other systems inside the MLP are similar to what you might expect to find in a multi-story building. But then, this structure is more than 30 stories tall and weighs several million pounds! The red piping is the fire suppression system, which is used to reduce sound waves during a launch and to protect the steel superstructure from the intense heat.

In this next photo you can see that workers are cutting apart the MLP in order to enlarge the platform. The SLS rockets require a wider flame pit, so the platform is being cut in two in order to graft on a wider section.

The last photo shows what the completed MLP will look like with the SLS vehicle attached. Note the water tower nearby. This tower provides more than a million gallons of water to the fire suppression system. All of the water in that tower will be released in less than 8 minutes (!) during a launch.

What a great experience! I am really looking forward to Orion’s first voyage in 2017. Happy Holidays to all of you!

All posts tagged Primavera P6

Release 8.4 for Primavera P6 Now Available

Upgrade Highlights (P6 Professional)

Upgrade Highlights (P6 EPPM)

Should You Upgrade?

Export Primavera P6 Filters with Layouts

Import Any Primavera P6 File Easily

Primavera P6 is Going to the Moon