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3 Primavera Tips &TricksConvert to .pdf FormatProblem: The customer, vendor, contractor client need to view in .pdf format hence they dont have Primavera software to view.

Solution:

First you need to download from http://www.download.com/ type PrimoPDF and download it

into your machine.

2. Open the page you want it to be saved as a pdf and click on the Print Preview button, at the Toolbar.

3. It also available in any directory window you open even in the reports you will find a Print Setup

4. Select printer as PrimoPDF and Click Ok.

5. Now go to the Print icon and type Printer name also as PrimoPDF. Click OK

6. This Dialog box will appear automatically. In the ellipsis icon, select a directory where you want to save the file in., e.g. Desktop.

After you have done this, click CreatePDF.

Now look at your Desktop, the document is saved a s a PDF format.

Exporting Projectscredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Problem: The customer, vendor or contractor has an older version of Primavera or another project management tool, and needs to view a schedule.

Solution: Export the project.

Open the desired project to be exported

Go to File>Export Choose the format including desired program and version. For Primavera PM/MM and Primavera Contractor, there are now several options for versions. For Microsoft Project, select the file type Export type should be Project Click Next (These fields will show you the file to be exported)

Click Next Do not try to save the file to your C drive or any other local drive on your computer. Try saving to a network drive (in this example, the file is saved to the M: drive) Click Finish

Function Keyscredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

In both the P5/P6 client and web applications, the following function keys work:F1Context-Sensitive Help

F2Toggles between Edit and Browse modes when the focus is in Description Panes in Details Tabs for Notebooks, Steps, WPs and Docs and the Notes to Resources pane on the Feedback Detail Tab

F3Find Next (works after using )

F5 Refresh (from server)

F7Spell check when in Edit mode on the above-mentioned Panes and Tabs and in a given column currently in focus in tables

F9Schedule

Shift+F9Schedules with Leveled Resources

F10Commit Changes (to server)

P6 Hierarchies credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

When creating hierarchies in P6 (for example, WBS), as an alternative to using the mouse, Ctrl + arrows will promote, demote and move elements up and down.

Bring Your External Website Into Primavera Web credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

When customizing a portlet on a dashboard in the Primavera Web Access program, in order to bring up an external websiteor URL, one tip needs to be known in case you must troubleshoot or if you are experiencing problems with the page loading.

For example: Your personal or project workspace dashboard has a link to the weather or a link to your company website. If the page delays in loading or has difficulty and freezes, you will need to know this tip.

If Primavera or other dashboards are working, then likely the external website is having difficulty loading, not that Primavera is having trouble.

DO NOT exit the web browseryou will remain logged in to the Primavera tool and not be allowed to log in for 30 minutes or until your admin changes your password.

Instead, type 1=TRUE at the end of your URL in the URL field of the site and hit return.

Example: http://servername:8080/myprimavera/login_cmt/1=true

This restarts the page in safe mode and ignores external websites temporarily. Next time you logon and the external website is working, you should not experience the problem. Now you are logged on without the use of that external site. You can do all other work in Primavera until the external site is working again.

Copy/Paste Role of Resourcescredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

The following may already be known by all of you, but its still a pretty slick trick.

Ever wish you could just copy / paste roles or resources from one activity to another (or several others)? Heres an alternative.

Thats it! Its still not quite as easy as Ctrl-C Ctrl-V would be, but its a decent workaround.

Project Management Hot Keys credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Problem: What are the keyboard shortcuts in Project Management?

Fix: Shortcut Keys

TOOLBAR MENUS SHORTCUTFILE MENUSHORTCUT

File MenuAlt+FNew ProjectCtrl+N

Edit MenuAlt+EOpen ProjectCtrl+O

View MenuAlt+VPrintCtrl+P

Tools MenuAlt+TExitAlt+F4

Help MenuAlt+HCommitF10

RefreshF5

EDIT MENUSHORTCUTINSERT MENUSHORTCUT

Cut ActivityCtrl+XNew ActivityIns

Paste ActivityCtrl+V

Delete ActivityDel

FindCtrl+F

HELP MENUSHORTCUTTOOLS MENUSHORTCUT

Contents and IndexF1Schedule NowF9

Automatically Calculate Percent Completecredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Often managers are uncomfortable with the guesstimate given for percent complete. The Primavera steps feature becomes very useful when they are weighted to drive the percent complete in a way that is less subjective and more quantifiable. Generally, steps are a way to track deliverables or any sub-activity without adding activities and complexity to your schedule. Any group of steps that is often repeated (a typical document workflow for example) can be made into a step template for use on all such activities, too.

To have each step automatically drive physical percent complete for the activity:

1. Open the columns within the step tab by right-clicking on the last column and selecting Customize Column Headings. Then select the Step Weight and Step Weight Percent columns and move them into the view by clicking the right arrow button on the middle frame. Click OK. The new columns appear on the steps tab.

2. Now, define each step by importance or weight it carries toward overall completion of the activity. The cumulative physical percent complete is automatically calculated if the setting on the calculations tab at the project level is checked to Activities with steps drive percent complete. You may want to ensure the Physical Percent Complete column is viewable in the activity table or that this activity is set in the general tab to the Physical Percent Complete Activity Type. If you do not weigh them, then each step carries equal weight, so if you have ten steps then each one counts 10 % of the total physical percent complete.

Two examples: IT and Construction Test 2000 Code Testing ActivityWeightPercent Complete After Step is Completed

Step One: Unit Test One 55

Step Two: Unit Test Two510

Step Three: Unit Test Three 515

Step Four: Unit Test Four520

Step Five: Integration Testing of One and Two1030

Step Six: Integration Testing, Add Three1040

Step Seven: Integration Testing, Add Four1050

Step Eight: System Test1565

Step Nine: Functionality Test2590

Step Ten: Move to Production10100

CON2000 Pre-Bid Cycle Activity for Carpentry Vendor Selection Weight Percent Complete After Step is Completed

Step One: Bid Statement of Work (SOW)Drafted55

Step Two: Vendor Selection Criteria Agreed Upon510

Step Three: SOW Reviewed515

Step Four: SOW Approved520

Step Five: Solicitation of Bids525

Step Six: Bid Close, Vendor Selected3055

Step Seven: Vendor Notified 560

Step Eight: Contract Drafted 1575

Step Nine: Contract Revisions2095

Step Ten: Contract Approved5100

Using Filters with Activity Viewscredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

In my adventures here in Indianapolis, I just came upon a feature in Primavera Web of which you need to be aware. There are two standard filters for Activities Views, that are actually configurable:

1. Activities finishing within specified days

2. Activities occurring within specified days

If you use either of these filters, you can specify a number of days (calendar days) that you wish to use.

Instead of using a custom filter to create a lookahead report, you can just use the activities occurring within specified days filter.

This is a viable workaround to the issue regarding only being able to filter on specific dates when using custom filters.

The primary issue is that these filters are dynamic, and use the system date, rather than a data date.

OBS and EPS Things to Keep in Mind When Creating It credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

The Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) is a hierarchical based structure that represents your organization. The Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) is also a hierarchical based structure that represents how your projects are organized.

The OBS and EPS are combined together through the responsible manager field on the EPS structure, project folder and WBS level. The Responsible Manager field is the OBS and this determines what users can gain access to the Project. When you create a user, you have to give them Responsible Manager assignments in order for them to see projects.

Your EPS and your OBS need to have a one-to-one relationship. If you give a user a Responsible Manager assignment (OBS) that is not tied to an EPS, Project or WBS level, they will not see any projects when they log into the Primavera Client application or the Web Application.

Rate Source Overridecredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Since v5.0, I have been under the impression that a resource was limited to 5 rate types in Primavera. Today, I was informed of a field available in the Resource tab that allows a user to select a Rate Source. The values in the rate source field are Role, Resource and Override. Override allows the user to plug in the custom rate for the resource at the activity assignment level.

We therefore are no longer limited to what was essentially 10 rates (5 role, 5 resource) for a resource assignment.

Wish I could go back to several demos and change my answer ;-)

Run a Quick Pertmaster Risk Analysis credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Conducting a detailed and thorough schedule or cost risk analysis can be a data intensive and time consuming effort. Proper conduct of the assessment process requires input from multiple responsible project team members. Though this process is necessary to provide a credible analysis there is one way to get a quick initial thumbnail sketch for any given project plan.

From the Pertmaster menu, select Risk, Duration Quick Risk, then specify whether you want to include All tasks in the plan, All filtered tasks, or Selected tasks only; then specify a Distribution function and standard percentages for the Minimum, Likely and Maximum durations. Click OK and youre all set to run the risk analysis. Repeat the same steps for resource costs.

Using Resource Codescredit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Just like Project Codes and Activity Codes, Primavera provides you resource codes that allow you to organize, group, sort and filter your resource dictionary. The resource codes also allow you to group and sort in the Resource Assignments and Resource Profile views.

Create a Resource Code

1. In Primavera, create a resource code called a Manager by doing the following:

1. Click on Enterprise in the menu bar, and choose Resource Codes.

2. Click on Modify.

3. Click on Add.

4. Type Manager as the new resource code name.

5. Click Close.

6. At the top, you will see Manager in the drop down.

7. Click on the Add button, to add names to the manager resource code.

8. After adding all of the names, click on Close in the resource code window.

2. Click on Customize and place the Manager resource code as the first option to group by.

3. Your resource dictionary is now grouped by the code.

4. To go back to how the resource dictionary was originally grouped, click the Display Option bar again and choose Group and Sort, default.

A resource profile can also be grouped by the Manager resource code. This allows the user to click on the managers name in the profile and see a rollup of all of the limits for the resource under that managers name. This view makes for a great capacity planning report. To group by the Manager resource code that was created above in the resource profile, follow the instructions below:

1. Open a project.

2. Click on the Activities button in the Directory bar.

3. Turn on the resource profile in the bottom layout.

4. In the resource list on the left side of the resource profile, choose the Directory Bar.

5. Click on the Select View and then choose Resource.

6. Click on the Group and Sort By.

7. Choose the Manager resource code as the first option to group by.

8. Click on OK.

9. In the resource list, you should now see your resources grouped by the Manager name.

10. Click on the Manager name in the list and you will see the rollup information displayed in the Profile view on the right of the screen.

Clean Up Your Primavera Reports credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

When adding header and footer information to your custom printing layouts or notes fields, Primavera adds a double-space when you hit Enter for another line by default. You can get a single space by holding down the Right Shift key while hitting Enter to minimize the space you need and make the reports look more professional.

How to Determine Resources Needed for a Project credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

When using P6 for managing resources, users often want to be able to see the number of people a project will require to complete. This can be achieved by using the Resource Allocation capabilities of P6.

Start by building your project schedule with the required roles to do the work. Next, turn on the Resource Profile in the bottom layout view. Then go to the Role Profile options by clicking on the Display Option bar in the Resource Profile view. Click on the Graph Tab and go to the bottom of the window and click in the check box next to Calculate Average. In the Divide Intervals Total by section, type in the number 40 (this represents a typical work week amount of 40 hours per week). In the Unit of Measure field type in FTE (Full Time Equivalents) or People or whatever you want the unit of measure to be.

Click OK on the Window and your resource profile will now tell you the number of people needed.

Exporting Expense Detail in P6credit to : http://www.ims-web.com

Because you can export Expense information from the schedule to Excel, you can easily add, revise or delete this information. It can then be imported back into Primavera.

The catch to this is that any column that has a column header that contains an asterisk (*) from the export is Read-Only and you cannot modify these fields. One of these columns is the Unit / Price column, which is one that may need revision. The Trick is that the values in the Actual Cost column will populate the Unit / Price values when they are imported back to the Expenses in Primavera. Just place the Unit / Price value in the Actual Cost field of the spreadsheet. Once imported, the Actual Cost field from the import will also populate the Unit / Price field and Budgeted Cost will result from the product of Budgeted Units x Unit / Price. Zero ($0) out or re-import the true Actual Cost values in Primavera and youre done!

5 Responses

1. ihtsham, on August 5, 2008 at 4:44 pm said: hello guys, i am a newbie to Primavera & hence to project management, I know litle about primavera, never worked profesionally in it, but can define WBS, activities, relations, constraints, scheduling, cost, roles & resources definition, and nothing more

Well, in couple of days i will be interviewed for a planning engineer job, can you people help me in this case? what type of typical question are common in interview of planning engineers?

waiting anxiously for your reply. u may reply me at [email protected], ihtsham

Reply

2. farestplanner, on August 12, 2008 at 6:50 pm said: Here is my tips:

1) Get familiarize with Planning Tools i.e Microsoft Project, Primavera etc. It will help you to explain how you are going to start your work. The most popular question is:1. What is CRITICAL PATH METHOD?2. Relationship between successor & predecessor3. Different between financial & physical curve4. WBS concept and implementation on Primavera5. Calculation for the physical progress2) Prepare your Planning Sheet; which is comprises with site productivity. You can organize as your construction library. As Planner, Planning Sheet is our basis to justify duration for each activity we assign in Primavera or MS Project.3) Get to know with correct sequence of work. No matter either you are in construction industry or M&E system, extensive knowledge in correct work sequence is an essential skill to develop.

Reply

RaviKuamr A, on September 7, 2010 at 7:14 pm said: Very Useful info.Thanks

Reply

3. Ravishankar Anantharamu, on February 19, 2010 at 4:19 am said: Hi,I like the level of detail in the article.

RegardsRavi

Reply

4. Rob, on May 12, 2011 at 1:36 am said: Im also needing help in Primavera and Planning activities. I would like to know how can I be an effective planner and what are the day to day task for a planning engineer do I need to be expert in Primavera?

What are the key things I need to know?

Pls Help

Reply

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