import export lowther

Understanding Import & Export with NetPoint 4.2

Eric LowtherPMA Consultants

1© 2013-2014 PMA Technologies, LLC

Primary Differences Regarding Import/ Export…

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CPM Tools NetPointF9 and Early/Late Dates Planned Dates

Float & Total Float Drift, Float & Total Float

Gantt Charts (Waterfall layout) Time-scaled LDM networks and AutoGRAPH

PDM Logic diagramming method (LDM) and embedded nodes

Leads & Lags Positive & negative lags

Milestones Only Milestones & Benchmarks

Database Driven Object Driven

Many Constraint Types 2 Types: SNET, FNLT

Resources by hours/day and Resource Calendars

One time unit/schedule vs day and hour/shift considerations,No resource or shift calendars

Resources apply to Activities & LOE’

Resources for activities only, not hammocks, milestones, benchmarks

P6 Single value, Not MSP yet Single & multiple values code assignments, use 1st behavior

LOE’s/Hammocks vary Hammocks do not support resources and cannot be empty

© 2013-2014 PMA Technologies, LLC

+ Primavera P6 and Primavera P6 API are products of Oracle Corporation * Project is a product of Microsoft Corporation

EXPORT NETPOINT 4.2 INTO PRIMAVERA P6+ USING API

Demonstration

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+ Primavera P6 and Primavera P6 API are products of Oracle Corporation


P6 Menu Options Enabled When Available

The API installs at the default location of Program Files > Primavera

Set custom API location using menu option File>Import/Export>Set location for P6 API

Administrative rights required to reset API

Working with the Primavera P6 API +

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Primavera P6 v6 or v7

Primavera API

Administrative rights required to install API

(application program interface)

Transfer to V8 using xer in development

NetPoint 4.2

Consideration for Export to P6Only planning units = day schedules

When defining a code, select the 1st option to set single value code assignment behavior. Set in in Code Property box.

For any activity, all resource assignments should be either by day or duration, not mixed. Option to convert available in P6 Export Options

New option to export global number of working hours per day to P6. Option in P6 Export Options

Hammocks cannot contain disconnected milestones (Export Stops and Error Report is Provided)

P6 has limit of 120-character descriptions (Export Stops & Error Report is Provided)

Plan Ahead for Export to P6


Manage Planned Dates Before Export…

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• What is a planned date? – An object has a planned date when not on its early

date, object has drift or can move earlier in time

• Using planned dates in NPT is easy, – but this is not the case in CPM tools.

• Planned Dates will snap to the Early Date with F9 in CPM tools


Manage Planned Dates Before Export…

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Strategies to consider to Address Planned Dates Conversion in NetPoint

• Find and review objects on planned dates – Set criticality threshold to drift to see all non-critical objects that will move– Use filters to see objects with drift, particularity start milestones – Temporary check with Early Dates mode - positive drift objects snap to

early dates except start milestones – separately filter drift values > 0 for SM• Address objects on planned dates

– Limit changes to objects that originate drift of a chain– Carefully apply lags/link offsets and SNE constraints, or let go to early

dates– Start milestones with drift can be SNE constrained or converted to

benchmark– Use activity right click menu Snap to predecessor– but this may not be the

activity early date which is based on its network vs the object’s drift– Update from Excel report, include drift as a field and apply SNE constraints


Steps to Export to Primavera P6+

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• Enter project id• Make selections for calendars, codes, resources

and working hours/day, details ...

Open plan, address CPM/GPM differences & planned dates

Go to File > Import/export > Export to Primavera P6

Details on P6+ Export Options

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Calendars now are set as project calendars by default, but global may be selected

Codes must be checked to transfer. Any object > one value per code assigned has those codes ignored, but accepts single value codes on transfer. *Use single value per code behavior .

Resources must be checked to transfer. In P6, all resource assignments for an activity must be the same – per day or per duration.

Resources in NPT do not consider hours/day, but global working hours can be set for transfer to P6 using the Working hours/day options.

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• Click OK. Review then F9 to schedule (until scheduled , finish milestones may show 1 day later and hammocks not calculated yet )

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After Export to P6…

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NetPoint P6Planned dates, instant feedback F9 must be applied after export to go to early dates

Activity & delays Task Dependent

Milestone Milestone, need to F9 to calculate

Benchmark Milestone with mandatory constraint, need to F9 to calculate

Hammock Level of Effort, need to F9 to calculate

Activity or milestones with start constraint Activity and milestones with Start On or After

Activity or milestones with finish constraint Activity and milestones with Finish On or Before

Logic diagramming method and embeds Embeds converted to lags

ID transfer but not required If not in NPT plan, IDs are created with prefix “~”

Calendars Now “NP_<Project Name>_<Calendar Name>”, Recurring holidays become fixed holidays days

Resources & Resource limits In “NetPoint Resources” under “<Project Name>-P, limits do not transfer

Resources daily only, no hours Resources assign as a global hours/day based on export choice

Codes Export as Activity Codes named “<Project ID> - <NPT Code Name>” with “one value” code

iobjects iobjects attached to object export as “Documents” and are assigned to the correct object. Canvas iobjects associate with the project.


IMPORTING TO NETPOINTOverview


Primary Considerations before Import from CPM

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• Only supports transfer of day schedules• Network Size

– Level 1 or Level 2 recommended– Summarize / Subset

• Keep Object Names short• Constraints: only SNE and FNL transfer, all others ignored • Codes in P6 will transfer to NPT and lend well to AutoGRAPH• Resources

– Resources will be supported in NPT for activities only – not LOE’s– Resources will not have hours/day but based on daily rate only . – NetPoint imports resources on a full-time basis only. If fractional durations, NetPoint rounds

down if finish before noon, or up if finish after noon. Resources then distributed as /day or /duration. If per duration is chosen, rate is constant.

– Resource limits do not transfer• LOE’s/Summary Activities

– Objects can only belong to 1 LOE/hammock – Resources on LOE/ hammock will not transfer– Empty LOEs will not transfer to NPT


+ Primavera P6 and Primavera P6 API are products of Oracle Corporation * Project is a product of Microsoft Corporation

IMPORT PRIMAVERA P6+

INTO NETPOINT USING API

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Demonstration


Before Importing from P6…

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Check LOES: Linked to members only, must be connected to fragnets at start with SS and at end with FF links, each member belongs to one LOE only

Set Relationship lag calculation to be based on Predecessor Calendar (P6+)



F9 to schedule/Calculate using CPM forward/ backward pass

Also must Summarize in P6+ to commit changes to database

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Steps to Import from Primavera P6+

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Preset NPT page size to accommodate better first view.

In File > Import/export > Import from Primavera P6

Login with Admin Privileges

Select Project and Click Import

Steps to Import From P6 continued

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Review import report changes/ omissions. Save, it cannot be recalled !

Accept the import

Review NetPoint Plan after Import…

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1 Set page size and adjust schedule calendar dates for best view

Address Pre‐import report, i.e., add back omitted logic

To maintain CPM dates address imported negative lags before affecting network with filter for links with gap < 0. • Change to SS/ FF logic and/or add negative link offset• Review/address imported constraints or link offsets added

in CPM to fix to something other than early date not be required with GPM planned dates

Run AutoGRAPH or manually layout schedule. Plan will remember layout and grid info if originally in NPT, then brought back into P6

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IMPORT/EXPORT WITH MS PROJECTNew feature via MSProject xml


* Project is a product of Microsoft Corporation

The Basic Approach

© 2013-2014 PMA Technologies, LLC 19

MSProject2007 & Later

MSProject XML

No API requirements

NetPoint 4.2

New process developed in NetPoint 4.2

NETPOINT EXPORT TO MSPROJECT VIA MSPROJECT XMLDemonstration



Plan Ahead for Export to MSProject XML

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• Only supports transfer of day schedules• Manage planned dates in NPT prior to export of Project xml• Resource assignments ignored – run NPT resource report • Codes do not transfer – run NPT code report • No special hammock considerations to MSP• Limit use of link lags - NPT lag calculation is based on the

predecessor object, but MSP the lag calculation is based on default calendar – review lags exported to MSP

• MSP limit of 255 character-descriptions, otherwise truncated


Steps to Export NetPoint to MSProject xml

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In NPT, go to File > Import/export > Export to Project xml, select location and name

Select As new project to be able to easily review import results. Click Finish

In MSProject, Go File > Open and to navigate to the xml file, check that xml is selected in dropdown. Click Open

After Export to MSP…

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NetPoint MSPPlanned dates are instantly calculated Schedules automatically, if manual setting is used press F9 to schedule

Activity & delays Fixed Duration

Start & Finish Milestone Milestones: Start milestone sets start at 8am, finish milestone set finish at 4pm

Start & Finish Benchmark Milestone with mandatory constraint set at 8am for start benchmark and 4pm for finish benchmark

Hammock Transfer directly as a Summary without complications

Activity or milestones with start constraint Activity and milestones with Start On or After

Activity or milestones with finish constraint Activity and milestones with Finish On or Before

Logic diagramming method and embeds Embeds convert to lags, review for lag calendar that was based on predecessor in NPT but now is based on project calendar in MSP

ID transfer but not required Activity IDs do not transfer, System IDs are transferred as unique IDs.

Calendars Project calendar with exact name, or append with 1, 2 if a matching calendar exists. Recurring holidays accepted.

Resources & Resource limits Names match NPT resources, or append with 1, 2 if a matching resources exist in MSP, limits do not transfer

Resource definitions and assignments Resource definitions export, but assignments do not export

Resources daily only, no hours Resources export with 8hr/day 8am to 4pm only

Iobjects Iobjects do not transfer

Codes Codes do not transfer


IMPORT MSPROJECT XML TO NETPOINTDemonstration



Steps to Import Project XML into NetPoint

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In NPT, go to File > Import/export > Import from MS Project xml and navigate to xml. Click Open.

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In MSP, open the project file and NPT, go to File > Save as > and name and select location of file, changing the Save type as XML Format (*.xml)

If manual setting used, F9 to schedule/calculate

Steps to Import MSP xml into NetPoint, cont’d

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Go to Pre‐Import report . Save this, it cannot be recalled !

Accept the import

Review NetPoint plan after xml import…


1 Set page size and adjust schedule calendar dates for best view

Address Pre‐import report, i.e., add back omitted logic

To maintain CPM dates address imported negative lags before affecting network with filter for links with gap < 0. • Change to SS/ FF logic and/or add negative link offset• Review/address imported constraints or link lags from CPM to fix to

something other than early date not required with GPM planned dates

Review lags to see any calendar discrepancies which are based on predecessor calendar in NPT vs default calendar in MSP

Check Milestones conversion as per rule: If no predecessor, then Start Milestone. Else if before noon then Start Milestone. Else Finish Milestone.

Run AutoGRAPH or manually layout schedule.

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PRESENTED BY:

Questions & Answers?

ERIC LOWTHER

[email protected]
