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ProjectEngine v1.1.0 – Live Simulation Analytics, Reset Workflow & Gantt Reliability

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@TMailletFR TMailletFR released this 23 Jul 14:31
v1.1.0
23456e2

Overview

ProjectEngine v1.1.0 turns TEST and Drag & Drop into a much more complete planning workflow.

This release adds live schedule analytics to simulation, introduces a dedicated Reset / Réinitialiser action, improves Drag reliability across Gantt views, preserves user layout customizations, and strengthens the lifecycle of Gantt controls and constraint rendering.

The result is a more coherent and more professional experience:

  • simulated dates and simulated analytics now come from the same planning snapshot;
  • Critical Path, Longest Path and float update immediately during TEST and Drag & Drop;
  • simulations can be abandoned cleanly with one Reset action;
  • Detail / Summary transitions no longer break the Drag watcher;
  • manual column resizing is preserved and no longer triggers false Drag events;
  • constraint markers remain visible across fast paths, fallbacks and view changes;
  • Gantt controls stay correctly positioned, styled and localized across all workflows.

No migration is required.

✨ Highlights

Live Critical Path and Float in TEST mode

TEST mode now simulates the complete planning state, not only task dates.

The following values are recalculated from the simulated network:

  • Total Float;
  • Free Float;
  • Critical Path;
  • Longest Path;
  • task dates and durations;
  • progress;
  • summary rollups.

If a delayed activity becomes the new critical driver, the Gantt updates immediately:

  • the new critical activity is highlighted;
  • the previous critical path returns to its normal style;
  • successor dates move;
  • float values change;
  • the project finish can shift;
  • the result remains visible before anything is committed to WBS.

No Full Update is required.

Drag & Drop now shows the real planning consequences

Interactive Drag & Drop continues to use the common TEST transaction, but now includes live schedule analytics.

Moving an activity can immediately change:

  • successor dates;
  • project finish;
  • Total and Free Float;
  • Critical Path;
  • Longest Path;
  • Gantt path highlighting.

This means Drag & Drop is no longer only a visual date simulation. It now acts as a genuine decision-support workflow.

New Reset / Réinitialiser button

The Gantt header now includes a dedicated:

Reset | Scenario | Test | Lock

Reset returns the workbook to the last calculated normal schedule.

It clears the active simulation state, restores the normal Gantt projection and reconciles the Drag watcher without running the planning engine again.

Reset works after:

  • TEST;
  • Drag & Drop;
  • SCENARIO;
  • Day, Week or Month views;
  • Critical Path or Longest Path display;
  • Detail or Summary view.

Reset is idempotent:

  • no simulation active → no redraw and no unnecessary mutation;
  • yellow TEST inputs only → inputs cleared without rebuilding the Gantt;
  • active TEST or SCENARIO → exactly one display refresh;
  • WBS and CALC remain unchanged.

The button is localized:

  • English: Reset
  • French: Réinitialiser

Safer and clearer simulation messages

Successful Drag messages now use Reset / Réinitialiser as the official way to abandon a complete simulation.

TEST and SCENARIO now provide mode-specific guidance:

  • TEST explains how to remove one yellow-cell assumption and run TEST again;
  • SCENARIO explains how to remove one assumption and run Scenario again;
  • SCENARIO no longer incorrectly tells users to relaunch TEST.

This makes the difference between:

  • abandoning the whole simulation;
  • removing only one assumption;

much clearer.

Reliable Drag after Detail / Summary changes

The first Drag after switching between Detail and Summary is now detected immediately.

Previously, the Drag watcher could remain active with a watch map that still represented the previous view. This could cause the first Drag after returning to Detail to be ignored until another workflow rebuilt the watcher.

The view toggle now follows a complete lifecycle:

  1. pause the Drag watcher;
  2. apply the final Detail or Summary geometry;
  3. ensure the Gantt controls are canonical;
  4. reconcile the watcher against the visible eligible shapes;
  5. restore normal execution.

No Full Update and no Gantt redraw are required.

Manual Gantt column widths are now preserved

Columns A:J can now be resized as a legitimate user customization.

ProjectEngine no longer interprets this layout change as a Drag & Drop action.

After resizing the left panel:

  • no TEST transaction is triggered;
  • no yellow TEST cells are written;
  • no planning message is generated;
  • WBS and CALC remain unchanged;
  • the Drag watcher rebuilds its geometry baseline;
  • the customized widths are preserved.

Day / Week / Month changes now update the timeline without resetting the chosen A:J widths.

Constraint markers remain consistent

Constraint visualization now remains complete across:

  • TEST fast path;
  • TEST fallback;
  • explicit redraw;
  • Detail / Summary;
  • Critical Path / Longest Path / None;
  • Day / Week / Month;
  • manual column resizing.

Both parts of the constraint display remain aligned:

  • CSTR_* marker shapes;
  • red semantic cell borders.

The grid lifecycle no longer removes the constraint overlay.

Canonical Gantt controls across all workflows

The Gantt header now has one differential lifecycle for:

  • Reset;
  • Scenario;
  • Test;
  • Lock;
  • Detail / Summary;
  • Day / Week / Month;
  • Constraints;
  • Critical Path / Longest Path / None;
  • Single / Multiple Project.

Correct shapes are preserved rather than deleted and recreated.

This provides:

  • stable shape IDs;
  • correct geometry;
  • consistent callbacks;
  • correct FR / EN labels;
  • no unnecessary flicker;
  • reliable controls after workbook opening and sheet activation.

Safe in-memory simulation architecture

TEST analytics are calculated entirely in memory.

During simulation:

  • WBS remains unchanged;
  • CALC remains unchanged;
  • no planning result is persisted;
  • no Full Update is triggered;
  • no second analytics engine is introduced.

The same scheduling and analytics algorithms used by the normal planning workflow are reused against the simulated dataset.

The runtime TEST snapshot contains, by task ID:

  • Start;
  • Finish;
  • Duration;
  • Progress;
  • Total Float;
  • Free Float;
  • Critical Path;
  • Longest Path;
  • summary and error state.

The renderer now reads both dates and analytics from the same active projection.

Mode Dates and progress Float and path analytics
Normal WBS / CALC WBS / CALC
TEST TEST runtime snapshot same TEST runtime snapshot
SCENARIO existing SCENARIO projection existing SCENARIO behaviour

Fast path and fallback rendering therefore remain semantically identical.

⚡ Performance

On the reference workbook, the new TEST analytics added approximately:

  • 54–91 ms for the analytical calculation;
  • approximately 1 ms to build the runtime snapshot.

No Run_Planning_Update, Run_Full_Update or persistent analytics workflow is called during TEST.

The following optimizations remain active:

  • Predictive Registry;
  • ApplyDiff fast path;
  • lazy geometry repair;
  • registry reuse;
  • display-only refresh;
  • no-op Reset when nothing needs to change.

🛡️ Validation

Permanent regression harnesses now cover:

TEST and Drag analytics

  • Critical Path changes;
  • Longest Path changes;
  • Total Float and Free Float changes;
  • real Drag through the watcher and timer;
  • Day predictive rendering;
  • Week fallback rendering;
  • explicit redraw;
  • Critical Path / Longest Path / None;
  • convergence after LOCK;
  • stability after a subsequent Full Update.

Reset

  • no-op Reset;
  • yellow TEST inputs without active simulation;
  • TEST in Day, Week and Month;
  • SCENARIO;
  • Drag & Drop TEST;
  • localization EN / FR;
  • exact restoration of the normal Gantt;
  • WBS and CALC invariance;
  • watcher pause and reconciliation;
  • absence of Core, Planning Update and Full Update.

Column resize and constraints

  • manual resize of A, C, G, H and J;
  • zero false Drag transactions;
  • preservation of user widths;
  • TEST with and without visual delta;
  • None / Critical Path / Longest Path;
  • Day / Week / Month;
  • simultaneous preservation of constraint shapes and red borders.

Detail / Summary Drag lifecycle

  • Detail → Summary;
  • Summary → Detail;
  • Summary Drag → Detail;
  • first Drag after each transition;
  • exact watcher membership;
  • exactly one simulation transaction per real Drag;
  • FR / EN TEST and SCENARIO message contracts.

Gantt controls

  • workbook opening on GANTT;
  • activation from another sheet;
  • Full Update;
  • TEST fast path and fallback;
  • SCENARIO;
  • LOCK;
  • all Gantt toggles;
  • stable IDs and no-op second ensure.

All final VBA imports, compilation checks and regression harnesses passed.

Compatibility

  • Existing workbooks remain compatible.
  • No migration is required.
  • No WBS or CALC schema change is required.
  • No public callback or OnAction contract was broken.
  • Normal scheduling and analytics behaviour remain unchanged.
  • SCENARIO and LOCK workflows remain compatible.
  • The released workbook remains fully Excel-native and powered by VBA.

Why this release matters

A planning simulation should not only move bars.

It should answer the questions that matter before a change is committed:

  • Which path becomes critical?
  • Which activity gains or loses float?
  • Does the project finish move?
  • Which task becomes the new schedule driver?
  • Can the user safely abandon the simulation?
  • Will the first Drag still work after changing views?
  • Will the Gantt keep the user's chosen layout?
  • Will constraints remain visible and trustworthy?

ProjectEngine v1.1.0 now answers those questions through one coherent simulation and Gantt workflow.

Thank you

This release grew from testing ProjectEngine as a real user would use it.

A communication demo uncovered a missing analytical simulation capability. That led to a broader round of workflow validation covering Reset, Drag lifecycle, column resizing, constraints, messages and Gantt controls.

The result is not only a corrected TEST mode.

It is a more complete and more reliable planning experience.

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