Exporting

Exporting

Goal: hand over your schedule as a file in another format, for someone who does not read IFC or for another package.

When you need this

The consultant works in MS Project, the client in Primavera, the subcontractor wants the tasks in Excel, or you send a schedule to a package that cannot handle IFC. An export is a copy in another format. If you want to keep your project itself, save it: that writes IFC and carries everything along. What each format does and does not carry is in Files and formats.

Steps

1. Choose Home › File › Export and pick a format from the list, or choose File › Export. There every format is a card with a short description.
2. In the window choose a name and a place. The app suggests the project name, with the extension of the format. The progress sheets are called projectname-voortgang and open in your downloads folder where possible.
3. Confirm. No message appears if the export succeeds, apart from the messages below. From File › Export you afterwards return to the Home tab, even if you cancel the window. If you cancel the window for an export from the list on the Home tab, nothing happens.

If your browser only saves through a download (such as Firefox), the file is in your downloads folder right after step 1. You see the message Saved as a download: 'name.xml' is now in your downloads folder. This environment does not let the app write directly to the location you picked.

Which format do you choose?

The list on the Home tab and the cards in File › Export offer the same formats:

• Progress (Excel) and Progress (CSV), on the cards Progress sheet (Excel) and Progress sheet (CSV): a slim sheet with id, WBS, name, dates and completion, to send round to whoever fills in the progress.
• CSV (;), on the card CSV (semicolon-separated): a task list that you open in a spreadsheet.
• MS Project XML: can be opened in Microsoft Project.
• Primavera P6 XML: for Oracle Primavera P6.
• IFC: the app's own format, with everything in it, in the IFC schema of the project (default IFC 4.3 ADD2).

An IFC export with a library file

If your project is linked to a resource library, the checkbox Save library file alongside is below the cards in File › Export. If you tick it and choose IFC, the app asks for a place twice: first for the project, then for projectname-bibliotheek.ifc. This checkbox is only in File › Export, not in the list on the Home tab.

Restoring a progress sheet

You read a filled-in progress sheet back through File › Import. See Importing progress from a spreadsheet.

Pitfalls and what the app does then

Your project does not change. Your project's file stays the same, and the Unsaved marker stays if it was there.

An out-of-date schedule is recalculated first. So you get the current dates, even if you forgot to press Calculate.

An export is also in Recent. That does not apply to the progress sheets. If you open an export there, it opens as an import of that format.

An export does not carry everything. A CSV file has no resources or constraints, P6 XML has no baselines and deadlines. The calculation profile does not go along either: a reopened export calculates as Open Planner Studio. Only IFC carries everything. You find an example with numbers in Files and formats.

Two formats with the same extension. MS Project XML and Primavera P6 XML both get the name projectname.xml. Give them different names yourself, otherwise you will not know later which file is which format.

A schedule with a circular dependency is not exported. The app calculates first and stops if there is a loop. On the Home tab you get the message Schedule could not be calculated, with below it for example Circular dependency between tasks: Set up site → Demolish existing extension → Set up site. In File › Export only that second text is on the page. Resolve the loop and export again.

A project from Primavera loses source information. If you export such a project to CSV, MS Project XML or P6 XML, the app reports: Exporting to CSV loses XER source information. For MS Project XML it says MSPDI, for P6 XML P6. See Opening a Primavera P6 file (.xer).

Split tasks lose their splits. MS Project and Primavera only know a split as an hour distribution. If your project contains split tasks without an hour distribution, the app reports after an export to MS Project XML or P6 XML: 2 tasks with breaks were exported without their breaks: MS Project/P6 only know breaks as a work distribution. For one task it says 1 task with breaks was exported without its breaks: MS Project/P6 only know breaks as a work distribution. See Splitting a task.

A schedule in the view Dates as recorded. If you export to CSV while you see the dates from the source file, the app leaves Critical and Total Float empty for tasks for which the source file did not record that. See Dates as recorded.

See also

• Files and formats: what each format carries and what not.
• Opening and saving a file: keeping your project itself as IFC.
• Importing progress from a spreadsheet: reading in a filled-in progress sheet.
• Import and export formats: per format what is carried over and what is not.