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Can not import Layout

Can not import Layout

Your colleague send you Primavera XER file and Layout file. After you import project successfully, you click on Layout -> Open -> Import -> Select the layout. And this error appear:

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You may think “Wow, this layout file must be damaged. I need to tell him to send me again”.

Wait! It’s not because of the Layout file. It’s because of you’re in the wrong window. After import project maybe you’re still in Project window.

You have to switch to Activities window. Then you can import layout successfully.

So, to import Activities layout, you need to go to Activities window.

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Microsoft Project : Custom View (New view) appear in all Project

 

Microsoft Project : Custom View (New view) appear in all Project

When you need to customize a View and save it for later use, sometimes we only need that View for a certain Project.

However by default Microsoft Project always save New View to Global template, and it will appear in all project. This can cause problem because day by day the list of View will increase and become a mess.

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In order to tell Microsoft Project not to save it to Global template, but only save in this project, we will simply turn off an option.

Go to File -> Option -> Advanced -> Display section. Uncheck “Automatically add new views, tables, filters, and groups to the global” option.

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Now the new view you create only save in that project.

 

 

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Criteria required for Risk schedule



·         Be between 50 and 200 activities (the smaller the better).

·         Have only finish to start relationships. If not possible then start-to-start or

finish-to-finish should be kept to the very minimum but never on the critical or

near/sub critical paths.

·         The plan must have no constraints e.g. Must Start On Date, Cannot Finish Later

Than Date etc. The only acceptable constraint is the start date for the first activity.

However, if there is some doubt about when the project will start then it is

recommended that an activity prior to start is put into the plan, this can be

constrained to say current date. Another activity called something like duration to

start of project then follows and the actual start of the project links to this. This will

allow a variation in the actual start of the project to be considered in the analysis.

·         The plan should only contain future and current (remaining scope) activities.

Completed activities are not required. No progress should be shown against an

activity only the remaining work for that task.

·         Lags and leads should also be avoided. If you want to start an activity say three

weeks after ‘Design’ starts then it is better to split the Design activity into two calling

the first part something like Design to requisition stage, this would then become the

finish to start to the activity that you wanted to delay.

·         Ideally the plan should have one start and one finish. However, if the plan has

more than one end then multiple ends are possible. If this is the case then thought

must be given to structuring the plan so that activities can be deleted to review each

end separately, if required. This may be needed as the analysis will show the critical

path for the last/longest activity/path and therefore, shorter paths (to the other

ends) will not show up as critical. To show these as critical the other ends and their

associated activities can be deleted and separate runs carried out.

·         Titles should be self-explanatory and not reliant on summary level descriptions

e.g. the plan may have various sections the first called Design. The activities within

Design relying on the reader to see the Design section heading. This is required as

the risk analysis will likely sort the activities in a different order and therefore, the

descriptions must stand alone. Summary level titles should be avoided.

·         Ideally the plan should be developed using a single calendar. Weather

modelling and non-productive time will be modelled within Primavera Risk Analysis

(PRA).

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Brown Field Engineering

Brown Field Engineering

Modifications to an existing plant, for its expansion, debottlenecking etc., entail a set of specific engineering tasks and documents which are not found in a "Green Field" (new built) development.

As the modifications of the existing plant will lead to a change of operating conditions for its process equipment, their duty must be checked for the new conditions. This will entail, among others, the verification of the capacity of roating equipment, thermal duty of heat exchangers. Etc. Some of these verifications will need to be done by the equipment supplier itself, such as verification of compressors for new gas composition, distillation column trays for new gas/liquide traffic etc.

 Additionally, suitability of the equipment and piping for the new pressure and temperature conditions must be checked. Hydraulic calculations of pipework given the new flow conditions must be performed etc.


 

 Instruments, such as control valves and pressure saftey relief valves must also be checked so that they have adequate capacity to cover the new operating requirements.

In the case of new unit(s) being added to an existing facilities, it is more than likely that the new unit(s) will use some of the existing facility utilities. This could include fuel gas, electrical power, cooling medium, instrument air etc. Care must be taken while evaluating if the existing utilities have enough capacity: The current consumption need to be precisely assessed, taken into account the conditions of maximum consumption. Note that the spare capacity of the existing units might be less than that indicated in their original design documents due to modifications made to the plant since then!

 The additional load must also be estimated with sufficient accuracy as well. This will avoid a situation where the existing utilities fall short as the new design develops.

 On a physical stand point, addition to an existing plants will make use of the provision for "future" that was made in the original design. A new built facility indeed includes a certain level of pre-investment, such as 20% free space on pipe-racks, 20% free spare terminals in instrument junction boxes and multi-cables etc.

 Such space, if it has not been used up already, will be used for the extansion. Retrieval of the engineering drawings of the existing plant allowing identification of such free space is only the first step. As these drawings may not reflect the as-built condition of the plant and may not have been up-dated with later modifications, a physical check of the available free space is required. This requires to perform surveys.

 For above ground facilities, surveys range from simple visual or "measuring tape" type, to more extensive co-ordinates and elevations, up to the full 3D survey of an area.

 The 3D survey is performed by shooting numerous 2D pictures of an area of the plant from different view points. The pictures are then superimposed, yielding a 3D image. The later can be looked at and navigated in from the engineering office. The 3D picture is coordinated to the local plant coordinate system and scaled, which allows measurements.

 The point cloud 3D image of the existing plant can also be superimposed to new design in the 3D model, as shown on the picture here, to identify interferences.

 A 3D survey involves significant field and processing time besides expensive equipment. It is justified in the case of extensive modifications to a congested existing area. It will indeed allow to identify interferences, specially with small items such as small bore pipes, small E/I trays, supports etc. which do not appear on the existing drawings. In this case, it avoids numerous visits to the job site.

 It can also be useful to mitigate unavailability/unacurracy of existing drawings, provide measurements in unaccessbile areas, produce scaled drawings of the existing etc.

 Underground survey is done by means of excavations. The plot of land where a new unit is to be built, for instance, must be free of underground networks, such as pipes, cables etc. or their positions precisely known As available drawings may not depict all constructions having taken place over a number of years, an exploratory trench is commonly dug all around the area, up to the lowest level of expected networks, to identify any pipes, cable etc.

 Local excavation, of cable trenches, will allow to confirm that the free space that appear on existing drawings is still available for cables foreseen to be added in the trench.

 Although surveys might mitigate the unavailability of existing drawings, some existing documents are necessary. The addition of new lines on a pipe-rack for instance, will not only require the drawings of the existing steel work (which could be redrawn following survey if not available) but also its calculation note. The latter will indeed contain the information about its existing loading. Although the revamping engineer could estimate the pipe weights, loads sustained by the steel work to ensure pipe flexibility requirements, such as loads at fixed "anchor" points, cannot be guessed. They are found in the steel structure calculation note, as input data resulting from detailed piping stress calculations.

Once free spaces have been identified for the plant expansion, it needs to be booked. Physical markers are best, such as signs at tie-in locations, warning tape etc. Experience proves that co-ordination between a large plant various expansion projects is not often effective, especially between small projects under the Plant Engineering department and larger ones under dedicated project teams.

Knowledge of concurrent projects is essential for coordination to avoid conflict (both projects use the same plot space for instance).

The connections of the new facilities to the existing plant are called "tie-in’s". They consist of connections to the existing facilities pipe-work, electrical power distribution, instrumentation and telecom systems etc.

Doing some such connections will require the existing facility to be shut in, while others can be done while the plant is in operation. The Engineer will be able to minimize the former by discussing with the plant operator and find that, for instance, a piping tie-in can be relocated onto a line that can be temporarily put out of service etc. The existing design may also allow for tie-in’s during operation, such as that to a control system with redundant A/B circuits (operating with B while working on A then reversely), that to an electrical switchboard a section of which can be isolated etc. Detailed review and optimization ot tie-in’s will allow to reduce the number of tie-in’s requiring plant shutdown hence reduce downtime.

Tie-in schedules are issued by the concerned disciplines (Piping, Electrical, Instrumentation, Telecom).

Process discipline defines the required connections to the existing process and utility lines and initiates the Piping tie-in’s list. Verification is made of the adequacy of the existing lines design pressure and temperature with that of the new connecting lines.

Piping tie-in’s will entail the usual "tee" addition, where a branch is added on an existing line by "cut and weld" requiring the line to be shut in.

Addition of a branch connection during the operation of a line is also feasible by performing a "hot tap". In such case, a slightly larger and purposely made "tee", split in two halves, is welded to the live line. The tee is then fitted with a flange and an isolation valve. The hot tapping machine drills through the open valve while containing the fluid coming through the opening. A special device allows retention of the coupon. Once the drill is completed, the drilling equipment is retracted, the valve closed and the hot tap machine dismounted.

Controlled heat input during the welding operation of the hot tap tee to the live line is required. The pipe effective wall thickness will be indeed be reduced during welding due to the fusion of its outer surface (typical penetration is 2-3mm). The remaining wall thickness must be sufficient to hold the fluid pressure, or the latter shall be decreased.

 System modifications will entail that of:

   • Old systems, which are hard wired or have a hard logic, such as that contain in a ROM chip etc. Changes to these systems require their shutdown, for rewiring, replacement of the old chip with a new one etc.

   • New systems, which have a soft (configured) logic and distributed architecture: additional controllers can be added on-line while modifications on operators’ consoles (addition of mimics etc.) can be done on each console at a time, without impact on the other consoles. Even the controls (control loops) can be modified on the LIVE system, as controllers are usually duplicated A/B so that modifications can be done on A with B controlling, and then on B with A controlling.

 In both cases, the modifications of the system must be performed by the existing system supplier, which can be a constraint in terms of cost as there is no alternative. The Engineer merely provided the functional requirements, which the supplier implements.

 One may also find old systems which are obsolete and cannot be extended. I/O cards may for instance no longer been manufactured. Such systems must then be upgraded, i.e., replaced by new version.

Tie-in dossier will be submitted to the plant owner for review. They will include ad-hoc drawings, such as dismantling drawings showing what part of the existing plant has to be removed, e.g., a piece of pipe for incorporation of the branch "tee" connection etc.

Up-dating of plant documentation by its owner is rarely done properly. A project often develops new drawings instead of up-dating the existing drawings. The owner ends up with two drawings instead of one, one showing the existing plant and another one showing what has been added by a given project. Consolidation has to be done later on to a single drawing.

One issue faced is that several projects might be making concurrent modifications to the same part of the plant hence the same drawing. Having each of them up-date the same existing drawing in parallel is not acceptable and a drawing check out/check in system must be put in place: Project B, which "checked out" a certain drawing, must return, i.e. "check in", such drawing before it is provided ("checked out") to Project A.

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How to install Primavera P6 Professional 16.1 Stand-alone

 

 

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Click on Setup

Select “Typical” and click OK

 

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Click Install

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After installation complete, click OK.

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In Driver type drop-down list, select “P6 Pro Stand-alone (SQLite)”, then click Next

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Select “Add a new standalone database and connection”. Click Next

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Enter new password. For example “admin”. Click Next

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You can change destination of database file, otherwise it will be stored in My Document folder.

Check on “Load Sample Data” if you want some sample project appear in your database. Uncheck it if you want your database is blank. To create database for working, we usually uncheck it.

Click Next

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Click Finish

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You have finished the installation.

Now we open the application.

In Start menu click on P6 Professional R16.1

Enter password. For example “admin”. Click OK

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Click OK again. We will turn that notification off when we’re inside program.

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Go to Admin -> Admin Preferences

Go to Industry tab and select your industry. For example “Engineering and Construction”. Then click on Close.

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Congratulation. Now you can plan with Primavera P6.

Happy Planning:-)

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Create activity list report include predecessors and successors


Sometimes you need to make an activity table report which also show predecessors and successors of each activity.

Here are the step how to do it.

Go to Report window and click “+” button to create a new report.

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At “Select Subject Area” dialog, Select Activities.

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At “Select Additional Subject Areas” dialog, Select Predecessors and Successors

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Select Predecessors, Click Column

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Select column you want to show. For example : Activity ID and Name. Then you should click Edit column to change the title.

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You will do the same with the Successors.

Now you can print the report like this:

It show Predecessors and Successors for each activity.

 

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