Project lines - planning

Use the Project lines - planning form to retrieve detailed information about the project selected on the Projects form. This information may include subprojects, activities and milestones. The information on the Project lines - planning form relates to the planning of the project and the project components.

After you have added a new project, you also use the Project lines - planning form to set up your project. You enter new project lines, and add details, such as a start date and a lead time, to these lines straight away. You can also set the order by clicking the and buttons to move lines to a lower or higher level. Once you have set the order of the project components, choose the Execute project planning option to plan the project. It is also possible to have this done automatically. For example, if you want a change to the start date to be applied to the planning immediately – without having to choose a process – enable the Calculate project planning option. Leave this check box empty to allow the planning to be calculated only when you manually start the calculation.

Note: You can add new project lines only if the preset 'All project lines' is active. This will prevent project lines from being assigned a number that already exists. Similarly, you can indent lines and unindent lines, calculate the planning and set successors only if all project lines are visible on the form (in other words, if the preset 'All project lines' is active).

Any changes made on the Project lines - planning form are also displayed on the corresponding lines on the Project lines - financial form. It is the same form, the only difference being that the Project lines - planning form focuses on planning data, and the Project lines - financial form relates to financial information.

Tip: To check whether sufficient capacity is available after you have planned a project, use the Info menu to open the Capacity overview form. The overview shows all the data relating to your project, which enables you to identify any bottlenecks straight away and adjust the planning accordingly. You can also open the form by using the shortcut CTRL + ALT + C.

Note: The Project lines - financial form does not allow you to add lines or to make changes to the project structure, because the project structure is defined on the Project lines - planning form. The financial control form is designed solely for keeping track of and controlling the financial data of the project.

Gantt chart

The Project lines - planning form opens with a Gantt chart that enables you to control the planning of the project. To learn how to use the Gantt chart to display and adjust your planning data, watch the video Working with Gantt charts. Some of the components you can use to manage the data are listed below:

• Presets: Use the preset to specify the project data to be displayed in the Gantt chart. You could, for example, specify to show only current project lines or both current and finalized project lines.
• Period: The data in the Gantt chart relate to the period shown on the toolbar. This period is subdivided into the components you have specified in the box to the left of it (the time interval), for example, per month/week or per week/day.
• Successor relationships: Project lines may be consecutive, overlapping, or separated by a break (drying time, for example). Relationships and any gaps are defined by linking operations or by dragging them in the timeline.
• Formatting: You can choose how to display the data on the form. For each preset and time interval (for example, 'Month/week'), you can use the Gantt chart properties to configure the graph settings. You can also define colors, shading and other formatting options for each operation (capacity group) and for each status, to clearly distinguish orders from offers, for instance.

For more information about setting up and using Gantt charts, see the Working with Isah section.

Presets on the Project lines - planning form