Help with External links

If you need to list external relationships, read this article, it inlcudes a report that can be uploaded to your P6 database

Listing P6 Inter-Project Relationships | Australasian Project Planning (austprojplan.com.au)

Hi, I have one xer file needs to be imported to the existing one in Primavera . The WBS for both of them is the same things but my customer sends met he xer file under a new Project ID every time . This does not allow me to use existing file . I have to import xer to the current one as  I have linked it to some other external projects. I was wondering if there is a soultion for my probelm -Thanks 

thats why I gave you 3 options

thats becasue there is not one in global tools but you can make your own activity code then use a global change to populate the code

then you can filter for the code only 

Thanks Zoltan.

Didn't think about the reports - looked in the Global Change to look to set a flag, but couldn't find it there.

Thom,

Zoltan's option would be easier than the one I suggested.

Regards,

Steven

you have 3 options listed from hardest to easiest 

option #1

1. create an activity code call it linked and set the values up to all of the projects that are linked to this project you can is the project is as the value code.

2. add a column for the code called linked

3. run this filter

filter any

where

external early start is not eqaul to (then leave the value blank)

or

where external early finish is not eqaul to (then leave the value blank)

now you have the list of activities that are linked

in the predecessor and or successor window right click and select customize (either the predecessor and or succssor window)

and from the left expand the General category and select Project ID

now go thru each activity that you filtered and in the predecessor window or the successor window look at the Project ID and see which one does not match your project id.

now in the linked column select the same project id as in the predecessor and or successor window

option #2 run a report 

create a new report on the right select Wizard then next

on the left and right hand side in the Subject Ares both should only have Activity Relationships (select Next)

in the Configure Selected Subject Areas it should only be Activity Relationships 

click on Columns and select 

predecessor project

Activity id (Predecessor ID)

Activity Name (Predecessor Name)

Successor Project

Activity ID (Successor ID)

Activity Name (successor Name)

Relationship Type

Critical

Driving

Lag

select Apply

select next

name the report

then run the report

option #3

I can send you the report and you can import the already made report into your report area. 

Thom,

Just had a look at v 16.2 & it only shows the relationship type as the additional details compared to your version, which wouldn't help anyway.

I have a couple of projects that have links between them & the only way I have been able to find them in P6 was to open the relevant projects & look for relationship lines between the projects (group by project).

I have had a look in the Global Changes & it does not list an option to see the Relationship Project ID.

Without being able to export the file as an XER, I am struggling to find out how to identify the links to projects within the same database. External Projects that are not in the database show up as an External Early Start or External Early Finish in P6, but if the link is to a project within the same database then this does not show up.

The only way I can think of at present is to open up your project & show the Predecessor column in the table.

Make sure that there are no filters applied to your project then select all & copy & paste into an excel sheet.

In Excel, use the Text to Columns tool in the Data Tab to split all the Predecessors out into separate columns - use the comma as the separator. Depending on the number of relationships for each activity will now give you all the columns.

Insert a column just after the Activity ID column & in this column use the =TRIM(A2) function, where A2 is the first Activity ID in your list. Fill this down for all the activities then select this column & copy & paste as values. - I have used Column B in the formula below for this new column.

For the first column of Predecessors, Insert a column to the Right & enter the formula =IF(C2<>"",COUNTIF($B$2:$B$300,TRIM(C2)),"") - where the Activity ID column you have just created is in column B - I have used the Rows 2 to 300 as an example, so change this based on the number of rows you have in the excel file. C2 is the first Predecessor Column & Row that you want to check for - This will depend on what columns you had showing when you copied from P6. Copy this formula down for all activitiy rows.

Repeat this for each column of Predecessors that was generated by the Text to Column, changing the cell referenced by C2 above to the correct column you are checking against. You should just be able to copy the entire column then Insert the Copied Column just after the next Predecessor Column.

In these calculated columns, any Activity ID that is not in the list will be shown as a 0, if the activity id is in the list then it will show as a 1. If there is no Predecessor in the column for a selected activity, then it will show as a blank cell to enable you to see only the ones that are relevant.

For each of the Predecessor Columns, Filter for Values of 0, these should be the activities that are not in your current plan & can be checked in Primavera.

Repeat the above using the Successor column.

This should work, unless there are activities in the other Project with the same Activity ID.

A bit of a chew for something that should be straight forward, but should give you what you are looking for.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Steven

Thom, If it is something that you would be able to send me as an XER file, then I should be able to run a report pretty quickly.

I have a custom application that should be able to give you an excel report showing the projects & activity ID’s for the external relations.

Some of the newer versions of Primavera have the ability to show additional relationship information, but not sure what version you are running.

Regards,

Steven