Primavera P6 has a great feature for highlighting a time period on the Gantt chart without affecting the start and finish dates of schedule activities.
The Gantt chart is at the heart of scheduling software. Knowing the many graphical features available for the Gantt chart in Primavera P6 Professional is important for leveraging the full potential of the Gantt chart.
One such feature in P6, enables the scheduler to shade a time period on the Gantt chart but not affect activity dates in the way that calendar work and non-work periods do. In this way the scheduler can note important periods, such as winter shutdowns, and make manual adjustments to the schedule to ideally work around these highlighted periods.
This quick tip article shows how to insert a shaded time period on the Gantt chart in Primavera P6 Professional.
We have in Figure 1 our demonstration project.
Figure 1
This is an underground piping installation project along a roadway. The project calls for the excavation of a trench along a roadway, installation of piping, backfill & compacting of the trench, and repaving of the roadway. It’s the paving of the roadway during winter months in Canada that is the concern. Project managers typically want to avoid asphalt paving during cold winter months. The project manager in this particular situation must decide whether to commence the project in the late fall or postpone the project till early spring in consideration of proper asphalt paving.
The scheduler must consider various start and completion dates of the project in relation to winter. But the scheduler does not necessarily want to automatically schedule around the winter months. Sometimes a small overlap may be considered a minor acceptable risk considering predicted cold weather conditions.
In this situation, you may want to highlight winter on the Gantt chart using a static shaded time period. Primavera P6 Professional calls these shaded time periods curtain attachments. To insert a curtain in Primavera P6 Professional simply right click on the Gantt chart and select attachments | curtain | add curtain, Figure 2.
Figure 2
A curtain similar to Figure 3 will appear on the Gantt chart and the curtain attachment dialog opens.
Figure 3
In the curtain attachment dialog the scheduler can set the start and finish dates of the curtain. In Figure 4 we choose February 29th to signal the end of winter.
Figure 4
In Figure 5 we have our winter shutdown curtain and our project schedule.
Figure 5
It is also possible to graphically adjust the curtain start or finish dates by hovering the mouse arrow along the edge of the curtain and left click and drag to adjust the date, as we do in Figure 6.
Figure 6
In Figure 7 we adjust the start date of the curtain to Sunday, November 24th.
Figure 7
You may want to change the color of the curtain to better highlight this shaded period. To return to the curtain dialog double left click anywhere on the curtain. In Figure 8 we select the color orange to better highlight our winter shutdown period.
Figure 8
It is also possible to change the fill pattern. Our final schedule including a winter shutdown curtain is displayed in Figure 9.
Figure 9
To remove the curtain double left click anywhere on the curtain and select delete from the curtain attachment popup dialog. You can further insert additional curtains on the Gantt chart. And adjust as previously demonstrated.
Summary
The Primavera P6 Professional curtain attachment feature allows the scheduler to warn against though not prohibit scheduling tasks during a particular highlighted time period. Inserting a curtain is a simple process in P6.
Knowing the curtain feature exists and where it resides in P6 is the challenge and inspiration for this quick tip article. Thus, stakeholders may be warned when the tail end of their project enters an adverse weather period or some other period of time that could have a negative or, perhaps, a positive impact on the project.
Last, you may want to insert an annotation attachment to label the curtain. Refer the following blog Primavera P6 Gantt Chart Attachments for instructions on inserting Gantt chart text label attachments and for a more comprehensive overview of attachments in Primavera P6 Professional.