Importing and exporting data - Future period bucket planning FAQ

Can I exchange manual bucket data with other P6 Professional users using P6 Professional XER files?

Yes, you can import and export manual future period buckets using P6 Professional XER files.

Import considerations

You will lose manual future period buckets in a project you are updating with imported data when all of the following are true:

• The XER file you are importing was created using
  P6 Professional.
• The XER file you are importing DOES NOT contain
  manual future period buckets.
• You choose the Update Existing import action.
• You choose to update activity resource assignments.
• The project you are updating DOES contain manual
  future period buckets.
  
  In all other cases, manual future period buckets remain intact when you import an XER file.

Can I exchange manual bucket data with other P6 Professional users using P6 Professional XML files?

Yes. When you export a project to a P6 Professional XML file, manual future period buckets are exported to the file.

When you import a P6 Professional XML file to a project, all manual future period buckets that exist in the project are retained.

Can I exchange manual bucket data with Oracle Contractor?

Oracle Contractor 6.1 and later users can exchange manual bucket data with P6 Professional using Contractor 6.1 XER files; however, manual future period buckets are not supported in Oracle Contractor 5.0 and earlier versions.

When you export a project with manual bucket data to a Contractor 5.0 XER, manual future period buckets are included in the XER file but are not imported to Contractor (version 5.0 or earlier). When you import a Contractor 5.0 XER to a P6 Professional project containing manual future period buckets, the manual future period buckets remain intact.

Can I exchange manual bucket data with Oracle Contract Management?

No. However, the following task information you can import from Contract Management may affect the spread of manual future period buckets:

• Remaining Early Finish
• Remaining Finish
• Original Duration
• Duration % Complete

If the duration of an activity with manual future period assignment buckets changes after importing data from Contract Management, one of the following will occur:

• For activities with a duration type of Fixed Duration & Units, the manual future period units are logically spread over the new duration of the activity.
• For activities with a duration type of Fixed Duration & Units/Time, the difference in units will be removed from, or added to, the last bucket.

Can I exchange manual bucket data with Microsoft Project?

Yes. You can import and export manual future period buckets to 2003, 2007, and 2010 using MSP XML format. Due to changes in Microsoft's supported import and export file formats, P6 Professional no longer supports MPD, MPT, MPX, and MDB files. P6 Professional does not support import and export using MSP 98 due to the manner in which time-phased data is stored in that version. You will achieve the most accurate import/export results using MSP 2003 or later.

Export considerations

When you export a project to MSP:

• Manual future period buckets are imported to MSP as a contoured curve.
• If the Timescale Units setting in MSP is smaller than the setting in the P6 Professional export file (as specified in the 'Interval for time-distributed resource calculations' field in User Preferences), the manual future period buckets are spread linearly across the smaller timescale in MSP. If you change the MSP timescale setting to match the P6 Professional timescale setting, the buckets will display the proper values.
• Since MSP does not use forecast dates, if the P6 Professional export file displays time-distributed data using forecast dates (as specified in User Preferences, Resource Analysis tab), assignments with manual future period buckets are spread linearly in MSP.
• For manually-planned assignments to activities with suspend and resume dates, MSP honors the suspend and resume dates and spreads the budgeted or planned unit values accordingly in the Baseline Work field; however, because P6 Professional's Actual Units and Remaining (Early) Units are combined into MSP's Actual Work field, MSP only honors actual and remaining values up to the Suspend Date or the Data Date, depending on when the activity's suspend and resume dates fall. If the suspend and resume dates are both before the Data Date, MSP spreads the Actual Work up to the Data Date; if only the Suspend Date is before the Data Date, MSP spreads the Actual Work up to the Suspend Date.
• WBS Summary activities with manual future period assignment values are exported to MSP; however, the manual future period values are not exported. In MSP, the total budgeted or planned and remaining unit values for assignments to WBS Summary activities are spread linearly across the duration of the assignment.

Import considerations

When you import a project from MSP:

• Suspend and resume dates in MSP are not honored when imported to P6 Professional. When you import an MSP project that has an activity with suspend and resume dates, the suspend time is imported as a 0 (zero) bucket value for the assignment.
• The MPX file format does not support time-phased data and therefore does not support manual future period buckets. When you import an MPX file, if you choose the Replace Existing import action and the project you are replacing contains manual future period buckets, all manual buckets will be deleted.