oracle-primavera-filters-excel

Primavera’s custom Activity filters are great for focusing in on a subcontractor’s work list or even to hide Activities that are already completed.  But when it comes to filtering down a 5000 line project plan to Activities in a specific timeframe, P6’s filters fall flat.  Here’s the Gotcha: any filter that uses a rolling date or P6’s built-in date variables will not work when exporting P6 data to Excel.

What variables are you talking about?

Primavera P6 has the following 6 built-in date variables that can be used when building custom filters:

  • PS : Earliest Project Start
  • PF : Latest Project Finish
  • DD : Data Date
  • CD : the current date (according to Windows)
  • CW : the current week
  • CM : the current month
These variables come in real handy to create filters that display a rolling date range. With them, you can create the essential “Lookahead” layouts such as a “3-Week Lookahead” which displays only the Activities starting within the next 3 weeks.
Using Primavera P6 Filters On Export To Excel
Lookahead filters are essential for short-term planning.  They let you focus on work that is coming up soon.  And with large projects, they are essential.
It’s common for a project planner to send a subcontractor an excel spreadsheet with all of his activities coming up in the next 3 weeks.  But since the rolling filters don’t work during an excel export, we’ll need a new approach.

Workaround For Using P6 Filters On Export To Excel

The workaround is pretty simple.

  1. Create a copy of the filter, a version specifically for use when exporting your P6 project data to Excel.
  2. Edit the Filter. Rather than use the date variables, replace them with specific dates in your filter for the current time period.
  3. Then proceed with the export to excel.

Fixed Date Filter in P6

Although you’ll have to edit the dates in this filter over and over during the project, it’s much easier to filter Activities in P6 than it is to try to filter them in Excel.

Oracle has yet to resolve this Primavera P6 Gotcha, so make sure you drop them a line – “Dear Oracle….”







Michael is an avid project controls blogger and is the Chief Learning Officer here at Plan Academy. Michael has taught 1000s professionals how to use project controls software like Primavera P6 over the past 10 years through his online courses and tutorials. Michael is a member of AACE, the Guild of Project Controls and holds his PMP certification from PMI.