Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

Problem in MSP file migration to Primavera version

6 replies [Last post]
Mon, 2004-11-01 11:17
Anu Khanna
User offline. Last seen 7 years 48 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Nov 2004
Posts: 4
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
The duration value has chanded in several fields when I open a project that was imported from MSP. before importing the MSP project was tied well together by defining dependencies against each task.

Is there something wrong that I am doing..? An early reply will highly be appreciated.

Regards,

Anu
Top

Replies

Sat, 2004-11-20 04:21
#1
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 15 years 22 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
Hi Raj,
I agree.

My first experience with MSP was, in 1994, where the company I was with was using Open Plan Dos version four and the client was using MSP. Because we needed an integrated schedule, and there was no conversion facility we had to figure out how to transfer via database files and spreadsheets. It turned a fairly simple operarion, of changing field names act copying. The more difficult task was converting the logic files, this had to be done manually as MSP puts its logic in one field, and where multiple logical links occur they had to be turned into single records, and the same with the resources. A handy manual to get is of of the old open plan manuals in which they describe how the databases is set up in planning programs. P3 works in the same way. Should you be interested, contact me and I will scan in the relvant sections, and forward them to you.

Regards

Philip
Top
Fri, 2004-11-19 23:38
#2
Raj Maurya
User offline. Last seen 2 years 43 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 132
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hi! Anu,
Philip is right but if the file is large then it is not suggested to check the duration of each activity. I can say you can export p3 file in excel after converting from MSP. Then copy the duration column from MSP and paste it in excel sheet and then import duration in P3. But if your file is not so big you just can edit manually.
Top
Thu, 2004-11-18 11:53
#3
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 15 years 22 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
It is not quite that simple Ronald as I normally make sure the MSP file is correctly set-up, however, I still encounter the problem of incremental increases. ie. 3days become 4, 7days 9, etc. It is obviously a bug somewhere, and the solution is fix it.
Top
Thu, 2004-11-18 11:33
#4
Ronald Winter
User offline. Last seen 3 years 7 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 4 Jan 2003
Posts: 928
Groups: None
There is a simpler solution - transfer it correctly in the first place. Before you transfer from MSP to P3, go to MSP and set all display settings to days only (no hours.) You do this in Tools/Options. If done correctly, P3 will read the schedule as days and convert the durations to days for you. Good luck!
Top
Thu, 2004-11-18 11:29
#5
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 15 years 22 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
The problem stems from the set up in MSP. What happens is that for some reason P3 converter in creases the durations during the importation. The remedy is simple, you have to export the activity ID’s and durations to a dbf file and open this file in excel. Then copy the same info into excel from MSP and then copy the MSP durations to the P3 duration field. Sure the MSP durations is in days. Also make sure you check the lags in the relationships, as the same problem exists there.
A hint if you have not used not used d-base files before, is not to name the files with more than eight characters, a rule from the old dos days. Further do not try to use Wk1, wks or prn files as P3 does not like when you try and import these formats. The reason for this is that the engine behind P3 is a database engine.
Hope this helps.
Top
Sun, 2004-11-14 21:20
#6
MK TSE
User offline. Last seen 3 years 48 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 27 Feb 2002
Posts: 550
Groups: None
The time scale in MSP is by hour while P3 is by day as default.

In MSP, the default value is 8 hour per day. If no change in calendar or working hour in MSP, after import in P3, either multiple or divide the duration related fields by 8 will fix the problem.
Top