{"id":7916,"date":"2013-04-30t06:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-30t10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2019-10-09t13:57:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09t17:57:59","slug":"primavera-p6-visualizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/primavera-p6-visualizer\/","title":{"rendered":"what is primavera p6 visualizer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
the new version of primavera p6, r8.3, has been released recently, and one of the new features is a stand-alone software, called the primavera p6\u00a0visualizer. this software provides you with a visual, read-only version of the plans you\u2019ve stored in the p6 database.<\/p>\n
the primavera p6 visualizer is a good choice for those team members who are not supposed to change anything in plans, but need to review them. you won\u2019t need to worry about software capabilities of those team members, because working with primavera p6 visualizer is rather easy, and you can also customize it for them, so that they can easily open and explore the plans even without setting up anything themselves.<\/p>\n
good news is that the settings you create in one computer, which are all contained in \u201clayouts\u201d, are stored in the primavera p6 database, so you can access them in every computer connected to the same database. it\u2019s even possible to only install primavera p6\u00a0visualizer in a specific computer, without primavera p6\u00a0professional.<\/p>\n
now let\u2019s take a quick look at p6\u00a0visualizer.<\/span><\/p>\n if you don\u2019t have a copy of the latest version of primavera p6, goto edelivery.oracle.com, and download it. the process is simple: you create a free account, read and accept the user agreement, and download a free, full-functional, not-limited version of the software, for your non-commercial use. if you\u2019d like to use it in your real-world projects, you should ask your responsible department to obtain a license and install it.<\/p>\n once you have the installer, it\u2019s easy and straightforward to install the software. if you\u2019re going to use it on a single computer, you should choose the stand alone option in the installation wizard; by this, the p6\u00a0visualizer along with p6\u00a0professional will be installed on your computer, and you can start using it right away.<\/p>\n if you are using it in an enterprise environment, you should choose the server option. aterwards, you can choose between the full installation, or a p6\u00a0visualizer only installation.<\/p>\n the primavera p6\u00a0visualizer is a stand-alone tool. you can run it like any other software from the windows start menu, a shortcut, etc.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n you can also click on tools | visualize inside p6\u00a0professional, and it will run the software.<\/p>\n the same privileges, user preferences, and admin preferences that are assigned to your account, will govern your p6\u00a0visualizer, the same as p6\u00a0professional.<\/p>\n once you\u2019re logged into the server, you can access all the projects that are available to your user account in p6\u00a0professional. in order to open an existing project, we can click on the plus sign at the top of the visualizer window.<\/p>\n this will provide us with two options: tsld and gantt.<\/p>\n by choosing either of the two options, the similar dialog box shown in the figure bellow will be opened.<\/p>\n when we\u2019re done choosing the project(s), we can click on the next button. this will open the next step of the wizard, as is shown in the following figure.<\/p>\n and of course, you need respective privileges to create non user layouts. we\u2019re going to enter a name for the layout (\u201ctest\u201d in our sample), and select create new option, to create a new layout with default settings. we can click on draw button, and the visualization will be available.<\/p>\n there are lots of formatting options available (that will be stored in the layout). e.g. we can change the formatting of bars.<\/p>\n let\u2019s increase the height of the bar of the critical activities, to create a more common view. to do so, we can click on options, and choose bars & labels tab in the options window.<\/p>\n let\u2019s scroll down the window and find height option. this has a value of 5 at present. other bars have a value of 15, and we\u2019re going to enter the same value for this particular bar, followed by clicking on draw\u00a0&\u00a0save. the next figure shows the result.<\/p>\n you cannot edit projects in primavera p6\u00a0visualizer; it\u2019s only used for viewing the projects. the only thing we can save here is the layout, which is a collection of visual settings.<\/p>\n we can click on save as button, on the upper right corner of the window, and the following dialog box will be opened:<\/p>\n there are two ways of opening a project:<\/p>\n so, we\u2019ll be using the folder sign more frequently than the plus sign, because we prefer to create a number of layouts and use them all the time, rather than creating a layout each time. however, you can still edit and save the layouts when you use the folder sign to open the project with an existing layout.<\/p>\n when we click on the icon, a dialog box appears, asks for project(s) to be opened, asks for the layout, and creates the output.<\/p>\n there are lots of options available in primavera p6\u00a0visualizer, and you can certainly deal with them easily, based on your experience in primavera p6\u00a0professional. we\u2019re only going to mention the zoom option, which is specific to primavera p6\u00a0visualizer. let\u2019s click on options button on the upper right corner of the window, and open timescale tab of the options window.<\/p>\n another interesting feature of primavera p6\u00a0visualizer is that it accepts command line parameters needed for printing the layouts or creating pdfs. this enables a lot of automation options for us.<\/p>\n you can create a batch file, containing the input parameters. whenever you run this batch file, the output will be produced without any interactions with the user. you can also use windows task scheduler to run this batch file in specific intervals\/times.<\/p>\n these are the parameters you can use (they are case-sensitive):<\/p>\n for example: you should replace all values with your own specific ones. this command is based on the assumption that the batch file and the actionscript are both stored in the same folder as the p6\u00a0visualizer; you should add their paths before the filenames otherwise.<\/p>\n as long as you need to enter your username and password in an unprotected batch file, it\u2019s a good idea to ask your system administrator to secure the folder that contains this file.<\/p>\n the inputs needed for an automated script is too much for a simple command line; therefore, it\u2019s designed to accept them in an xml file. this file is addressed in actionscript parameter in command line.<\/p>\n you can have one or more action tags in a single actionscript. each action opens one or more files in a pre-existing layout, and prints them.<\/p>\n these are the tags required for each action: be careful with tag names; they are all case-sensitive.<\/p>\n this actionscript opens two projects, named sample1 and sample2, with a global layout named test, and sends the output to an imaginary printer named p1200. when you run the batch file for this actionscript, p6\u00a0visualizer will run in the background, and your printer starts printing the output.<\/p>\n these are the actionscript tags, and their explanations:<\/p>\n if you\u2019re not comfortable with batch files and xmls, just ask your it department to do it for you. they don\u2019t need to know how p6 works; the short explanation in this part of the article is enough for them.<\/p>\n primavera p6\u00a0visualizer, the new stand-alone software from oracle primavera p6 collection, is a useful tool for two purposes:<\/p>\n you can set up your desired layouts, make them global, and use them in as many computers as you wish. these computers only need a connection to your primavera p6 database, and a working primavera p6\u00a0visualizer; there\u2019s even no need to install primavera p6\u00a0professional. primavera p6\u00a0visualizer provides users with a simple, read-only presentation of the schedules, and there\u2019s nothing they can mess up.<\/p>\n finally, you can automate the reporting process by using windows task scheduler, a batch file, and an actionscript.<\/p>\n what are your thoughts on primavera p6 visualizer? is this a worthy enhancement to primavera p6? will you use it? will you not? leave us your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\ninstalling the\u00a0primavera\u00a0p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
opening primavera p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
\nthe primavera p6\u00a0visualizer should connect to your server, and this needs authentication. when you run it from inside the p6\u00a0professional, the same username and password that you\u2019ve entered when you were opening p6\u00a0professional will be sent to p6\u00a0visualizer, and you won\u2019t need to enter it again; the main window of the software will be opened instantly.<\/p>\n
\nif you run it from outside the p6\u00a0professional though, a dialog box will appear, asking you for your username and password.<\/p>\n
\nthe main window will be available after you log in with your username and password. that is the same username and password you use in p6\u00a0professional.<\/p>\nopening a project in primavera p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
\ngantt option will create a normal gantt view of our project. tsld stands for timescaled logic diagram, and it\u2019s a similar diagram, that doesn\u2019t show the left-side table of activities (called grid in p6\u00a0visualizer), and it\u2019s capable of showing sequential activities in a single row. you, as a planner, are probable not to like tslds so much, but many managers prefer this kind of presentation.<\/p>\n
\nit\u2019s time to choose the project(s). the list on the left side of the dialog box shows the projects in their hierarchy, eps. open the eps and find the project(s) you want to visualize, and then click on the left-to-right arrow to add it to the list on the right side. you can choose one or more projects. however, there\u2019s only one visualized presentation open in any given time, and if you want to open another project or another set of projects, you should close the previous one.<\/p>\n
\nthere are lots of settings involved in any visualization; all settings are stored in a layout, and all layouts are saved in the p6 database. there are three kinds of layouts:<\/p>\n\n
\nthere are two previously created layouts in our sample, both of which are of user type; that\u2019s why it shows \u201cuser (2 items)\u201d in the previous figure.<\/p>\n
\nthis is a tsld of a sample project. the next figure shows the same project in primavera p6\u00a0professional.<\/p>\n
\nas you can see, some activities are shown in the same row.<\/p>\n
\nthe list on the left side of the window shows all the bar types. when we click on critical remaining work, the options for this bar type will be available on the right side of the window, and a preview will be shown in the middle.<\/p>\n
\nthis setting is saved in our layout, which was named \u201ctest\u201d. we can use this layout in future, and the same settings will be applied.<\/p>\nsaving a layout in primavera p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
\nwe can enter the name and choose the category. the category actually determines the availability of the layout to other projects and other users; the three options of global, project, and user, which were explained in the beginning of this article.<\/p>\nopening a project, using an existing layout<\/h2>\n
\n
editing a layout in primavera p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
\nprimavera p6\u00a0visualizer uses a timescale similar to the one in primavera p6\u00a0professional. however, we can choose a period of time, and visualize it with a different scale right inside the normal timescale. this feature can be handy; e.g. we can display the whole project in months, and display the coming week(s) in days inside the whole timescale.<\/p>\n
\nthere\u2019s a sub-tab inside timescale tab, called primary, which shows settings used to display the main timescale. now we can click on the plus sign next to primary tab, to create our first zoom area.<\/p>\n
\nwe can set the period in general section, and its different scale in the lower section. our main timescale is based on years\/months in this sample, so we\u2019re going to choose months\/days for this zoom area. we\u2019ll choose another color for the heading of the timescale, to make the difference more visible and outstanding.<\/p>\n
\njust be careful with this zoom option; it can easily lead to misunderstandings if the zoom area is not visually differentiated from the normal timescale. a good use of vertical lines, as in the previous figure, is probably the best solution.
\nother tabs in options window provide you with settings for:<\/p>\n\n
automating primavera p6\u00a0visualizer<\/h2>\n
\n
\nprimavera.visualizer.exe \/username=nader \/password=nadpass \/actionscript=c:actions.xml<\/p>\n
\nthe following code displays a sample actionscript file:
\n
\n<actions>
\n<action>
\nparameters for the first action should be here
\n<\/action>
\n<action>
\nparameters for the second action should be here
\n<\/action>
\n<action>
\nparameters for the third action should be here
\n<\/action>
\n<\/actions><\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\n<action>
\n<reporttype>tsldreport<\/reporttype>
\n<reportcategory>global<\/repostcategory>
\n<reportname>test<\/reportname>
\n<projects>
\n<projectid>sample1<\/projectid>
\n<projectid>sample2<\/projectid>
\n<\/projects>
\n<outputtype>toprinter<\/outputtype>
\n<outputname>p1200<\/outputname>
\n<\/action>
\n<\/code><\/p>\n\n
summary<\/h2>\n
\n
have your say<\/h2>\n