Farest Planner: 3 Primavera Tips & Tricks

7/19/2014
3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner
farest planner
3 Primavera Tips & Tricks
Convert to .pdf Format

Problem: 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 www.download.com (http://www.download.com/) type PrimoPDF
and download it
into your machine.
http://farestplanner.wordpress.com/current-construction-issue/
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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.
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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.
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Exporting Projects
credit to : http://www.ims-web.com (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.
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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
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Function Keys
In both the P5/P6 client and web applications, the following function keys work:
F1
Context-Sensitive Help
F2
Toggles 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
F3
Find Next (works after using )
F5
Refresh (from server)
F7
Spell check when in Edit mode on the above-mentioned Panes and Tabs and in a given
column currently in focus in tables
F9
Schedule
Shift+F9
Schedules with Leveled Resources
F10
Commit Changes (to server)
P6 Hierarchies
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

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

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

Problem: What are the keyboard shortcuts in Project Management?
Fix: Shortcut Keys
TOOLBAR MENUS
SHORTCUT
FILE MENU
SHORTCUT
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File Menu
Alt+F
New Project
Ctrl+N
Edit Menu
Alt+E
Open Project
Ctrl+O
View Menu
Alt+V
Print
Ctrl+P
Tools Menu
Alt+T
Exit
Alt+F4
Help Menu
Alt+H
Commit
F10
Refresh
F5
EDIT MENU
SHORTCUT
INSERT MENU
SHORTCUT
Cut Activity
Ctrl+X
New Activity
Ins
Paste Activity
Ctrl+V
Delete Activity
Del
Find
Ctrl+F
HELP MENU
SHORTCUT
TOOLS MENU
SHORTCUT
Contents and Index
F1
Schedule Now
F9
Automatically Calculate Percent Complete

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 subactivity 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.
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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 Activity
Weight
Percent Complete After Step is

Completed
Step One: Unit Test One
Step Two: Unit Test Two
10
Step Three: Unit Test Three
15
Step Four: Unit Test Four
20
Step Five: Integration Testing of One and

Two
10
30
Step Six: Integration Testing, Add Three
10
40
Step Seven: Integration Testing, Add

Four
10
50
Step Eight: System Test
15
65
Step Nine: Functionality Test
25
90
Step Ten: Move to Production
10
100
CON2000 Pre-Bid Cycle Activity for Carpentry

Vendor Selection
Weight
Percent Complete After Step

is Completed
Step One: Bid Statement of Work (SOW)Drafted
Step Two: Vendor Selection Criteria Agreed

Upon
10
Step Three: SOW Reviewed
15
Step Four: SOW Approved
20
Step Five: Solicitation of Bids
25
Step Six: Bid Close, Vendor Selected
30
55
Step Seven: Vendor Notified
60
Step Eight: Contract Drafted
15
75
Step Nine: Contract Revisions
20
95
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Step Ten: Contract Approved
100
Using Filters with Activity Views

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
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
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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 Override

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

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 Codes

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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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Open a project.
Click on the Activities button in the Directory bar.
Turn on the resource profile in the bottom layout.
In the resource list on the left side of the resource profile, choose the Directory Bar.
Click on the Select View and then choose Resource.
Click on the Group and Sort By.
Choose the Manager resource code as the first option to group by.
Click on OK.
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

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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

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 P6

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 reimport the true Actual Cost values in Primavera and youre done!
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7 Responses
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 ihtxam@gmail.com
Regards, ihtsham
Reply
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 & predecessor
3. Different between financial & physical curve
4. WBS concept and implementation on Primavera
5. Calculation for the physical progress
2) 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
Ravishankar Anantharamu, on February 19, 2010 at 4:19 am said:
Hi,
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Hi,
I like the level of detail in the article.
Regards
Ravi
Reply
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
Moshood Agboke, on December 19, 2011 at 5:53 pm said:
You are awesome!
Reply
manoj, on April 7, 2012 at 3:32 am said:
HOW TO CREATE S CURVE IN EXCEL USING DATAS FROM P3
Reply
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3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks

Convert to .pdf Format

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

4. Select printer as PrimoPDF and Click Ok.

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

For Microsoft Project, select the file type

Export type should be Project

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

Find Next (works after using )

Refresh (from server)

Schedules with Leveled Resources

Commit Changes (to server)

Bring Your External Website Into Primavera Web

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

Copy/Paste Role of Resources

Project Management Hot Keys

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

Contents and Index

Automatically Calculate Percent Complete

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

The new columns appear on the steps tab.

Percent Complete After Step is

Step One: Unit Test One

Step Two: Unit Test Two

Step Three: Unit Test Three

Step Four: Unit Test Four

Step Five: Integration Testing of One and

Step Six: Integration Testing, Add Three

Step Seven: Integration Testing, Add

Step Eight: System Test

Step Nine: Functionality Test

Step Ten: Move to Production

CON2000 Pre-Bid Cycle Activity for Carpentry

Percent Complete After Step

Step One: Bid Statement of Work (SOW)Drafted

Step Two: Vendor Selection Criteria Agreed

Step Three: SOW Reviewed

Step Four: SOW Approved

Step Five: Solicitation of Bids

Step Six: Bid Close, Vendor Selected

Step Seven: Vendor Notified

Step Eight: Contract Drafted

Step Nine: Contract Revisions

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

Step Ten: Contract Approved

Using Filters with Activity Views

OBS and EPS Things to Keep in Mind When

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

Rate Source Override

Run a Quick Pertmaster Risk Analysis

Using Resource Codes

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

credit to : http://www.ims-web.com (http://www.ims-web.com)

Clean Up Your Primavera Reports

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner

How to Determine Resources Needed for a Project

Exporting Expense Detail in P6

3 Primavera Tips & Tricks | farest planner