I've built a free, browser-based .xer viewer along the same lines: XER Viewer (https://www.xerviewer.org) — no install, files parsed locally.
If you've ever worked on a project, you know the pain: someone shares a Primavera P6 schedule, and half the team can't open it.
Not everyone has P6 installed. It's expensive, it's heavy, and it's Windows-only — so Mac users are locked out completely.
I got tired of that. So I built XER Viewer. It's a simple idea: open Primavera .xer files straight from your browser — no installation, no license, no setup. Anyone on the project can view the schedule, anytime, anywhere, on any device — including Mac.
What you can do with it today:
📊 View the full schedule as an interactive Gantt chart — group by WBS or activity code, see the critical path, filter to exactly what you need
👥 Resource view with quantities and cost
📈 Histograms for resource and cost distribution over time
✅ Run a DCMA 14-point schedule check to gauge schedule quality in seconds
📋 Browse every table in the file (activities, WBS, relationships, codes…)
📤 Export to Excel in one click, or print clean PDFs
✏️ And a bit more: you can tweak Gantt bars and activity text formatting — honestly a little more easily than in P6 itself
One thing I care about: your data stays yours. Files are parsed locally in your browser — nothing gets uploaded to a server.
Is it perfect? Not yet. It's an early version and there's plenty I still want to improve. But for the vast majority of people who just need to open, read, check and share a P6 schedule, it already does the job — and it does it in seconds.
If you work with Primavera schedules (or work with people who can't open them 😄), I'd love for you to try it and tell me what you think. Your feedback will shape where it goes next.
👉 Try it here: https://www.xerviewer.org/
