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Articles tagged with: P6-Scrubber

P6-Scrubber Helps Client Import Schedules Without Polluting Existing Data

Consultant Uses P6-Scrubber to help manage many P6 schedules from different clients

Consultant Uses P6-Scrubber to help manage many P6 schedules from different clients

Written by Sue Fermelia

Client Overview

Client is a one person company that manages schedules for many different clients.

Challenges

  • Client needed a way to import schedules from different clients without polluting the existing data in their database

  • They wanted to be able to import outside data with prefixes and into specific structures to keep track of what schedules they belonged to.

Results

  • Installed P6-Scrubber on their standalone database, where they could see what already existed in the database and either rename or remap data in their XER/XMLs to match their existing data

  • P6-Scrubber allows them to prefix and place data elements, such as Resources and Roles into specific trees.

Utility Company Uses P6-Scrubber to Clean P6 Files

P6-Scrubber helps utility company clean P6 schedules prior to importing them in their production environment

Client Overview

The client is a multi-faceted utility company that has multiple business units. They own and operate many substations and transmission lines that form part of the Alberta interconnected electric system. They provide water and wastewater services to more than 85 communities and industrial sites across Western Canada. The client also operates in the US and serves more than 780,000 people across 42 communities and 18 counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, making it one of the largest private regulated water utilities in the U.S. Southwest.

Challenges

  • The scheduling teams' interactions with outside contractors and consultants required the team to receive schedules to import. They required a way to clean the schedules prior to import so the data does not collide with other business units.

  • Each team required different rules for contractors and consultants, such as prefixes and what parent tree to land resources when imported.

Results

  • P6-Scrubber was deployed for the team to make the cleaning effort easier, more reliable and faster to handle.

  • The users setup the scrubbing definitions for the contractor and consultant loads, import an XER/XML file into P6-Scrubber, run P6-Scrubber which does the cleanups and then import the projects into P6 Production after the P6-Scrubber has done the cleanups

P6-Scrubber v6 - New Release

In version 6, we added notebook type scrubbing and also made improvements to the P6-Scrubber user interface, reports and functionality in general.

February 27, 2023

Notebook type scrubbing, improved UI

Written by Ravi Wallau

In version 6, we added notebook type scrubbing and also made improvements to the P6-Scrubber user interface, reports and functionality in general.

New Features

  • Notebook scrubbing - remove unwanted notebook types and/or rename them

Enhancements

  • Option to hide users starting with "zz" from the user list, as well as users with no global access to P6

  • Additional safeguards around editing configuration profiles to prevent accidental overwrites

  • Scrub report improvements

  • Up to 10 times faster XER/XML import operations, and up to 5 times faster scrubbing operations

P6-Scrubber v5 - New Release

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files and now, in the new release, XML files. Version 5 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers.

December 5, 2022

Written by Ravi Wallau

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files and now, in the new release, XML files. Version 5 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers.

New Features

  • XML support! Now the P6-Scrubber can scrub XER or XML files.

  • Simple prefix - lets you add a prefix to global objects such as resources, code types, UDFs, calendars, etc. to identify where it came from.

  • XML sanitation - when scrubbing an XML file, its contents are saved accordingly to the XML schema file. If the file cannot be imported into P6 EPPM because of schema errors, processing the file with the P6-Scrubber may fix it.

  • Version control - setting the version you are uploading back into P6 is now in the GUI for easier control for both XER and XML importing.

  • Parent role & resource - to land all the resources and roles in the scrubber file under a specific role or resource in the P6 database.

  • OBS definition - it is possible to choose an OBS that will be associated to the project when it is imported when scrubbing XER files.

  • SSO/ SAML support - if you are using SSO/ SAML for your P6 Cloud environment, you can perform SSO/ SAML login with the P6-Scrubber.

Enhancements

  • UI improvements - the last imported project (or projects) is shown in the UI, and it is possible to access the scrubbed files directly from the main page of the application.

Large U.S. State DOT Saved Time Cleaning Primavera P6 Files for Import

Learn how P6-Scrubber can edit P6 XERs, XMLs and MSP XMLs

P6-Scrubber used to edit and remove unwanted data prior to import

Client Overview

This State Department of Transportation is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure. It is responsible for more than 20,000 lane-miles of roadway, nearly 3,000 vehicular bridges and 524 other structures. This infrastructure includes rail lines, state highways, state ferries (considered part of the highway system) and state airports.

Challenges

  • Users were in need of a faster, easier way to remove or remap data from contractor XERs and XMLs prior to importing to P6.

  • Users required a fast way to prefix or remove roles in their XERs and XMLs.

  • Microsoft Project XMLs are provided by contractors. They wanted to also have the ability to edit these files prior to importing them into their P6 database.

Results

  • Deployed P6-Scrubber to facilitate the editing of XER and XML files.

  • Quick role prefixing or removing roles was needed, so Emerald added that option to the Simple Scrub module in P6-Scrubber.

  • MSP XML file scrubbing was added to the P6-Scrubber tool to facilitate the editing of these files.

P6-Scrubber - Simple Scrub - Watch Now

Watch the P6-Scrubber Simple Scrub in this short video clip.

Blog: P6-Scrubber - Demoting Versions in XERs

Have you ever had the need to demote an XER from a higher version of Primavera P6 to a lower version so you can import the file into your database? Learn how P6-Scrubber can help!

March 15, 2022

Written by Sue Hopkins

Have you ever had the need to demote an XER from a higher version of Primavera P6 to a lower version so you can import the file into your database? Learn how P6-Scrubber can help!

P6-Scrubber v4 - New Release

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files and now, in the new release, XML files. Version 4 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers.

November 30, 2021

Written by Ravi Wallau

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files and now, in the new release, XML files. Version 4 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers.

New Features

  • XML support! Now the P6-Scrubber can scrub XER or XML files.

  • Simple prefix - lets you add a prefix to global objects such as resources, code types, UDFs, calendars, etc. to identify where it came from.

  • XML sanitation - when scrubbing a XML file, its contents are saved accordingly to the XML schema file. If the file cannot be imported into P6 EPPM because of schema errors, processing the file with the P6-Scrubber may fix it.

  • Version control - setting the version you are uploading back into P6 is now in the GUI for easier control for both XER and XML importing.

  • Parent role & resource - to land all the resources and roles in the scrubber file under a specific role or resource in the P6 database.

  • OBS definition - it is possible to choose an OBS that will be associated to the project when it is imported when scrubbing XER files.

  • SSO/ SAML support - if you are using SSO/ SAML for your P6 Cloud environment, you can perform SSO/ SAML login with the P6-Scrubber.

Enhancements

  • UI improvements - the last imported project (or projects) is shown in the UI, and it is possible to access the scrubbed files directly from the main page of the application.

Large Engineering Firm Moves to EAI Hosting

Learn how a large engineering firm moved to the Emerald Cloud.

Emerald Cloud, Tools and Services - A Winning Combo

Written by Sue Hopkins

Client Overview

Client is an employee-owned multi-disciplined engineering, planning, architectural, and environmental services firm in the United States. With nearly 700 employees spread between more than 30 offices in 12 states, they offer a wide range of services with a focus on aviation, construction, facilities design, federal, power, transportation, survey, and water. They sit in the top 150 of the Engineering News-Record's prestigious Top 500 Design Firms list, while Zweig Group has recognized client as a best firm to work for in the multi-discipline category for six consecutive years.

Challenges

  • Client was looking for an alternative to the Oracle Cloud for them and the Department of Transportation (DOT) they were working with.

  • The Program Controls manager wanted faster response time on support tickets for four databases.

  • Needed a reliable environment for 80+ DOT users to fulfill their contract commitments.

Results

  • Moved hosting of four databases to the Emerald Cloud.

  • Decreased supported response time from days to hours

  • Able to bring their DOT client online with their environment in less than two months, including upgrade of P6 and rollout of new business processes.

  • Added a second DOT client to Emerald's hosting environment two years later.

P6-Scrubber v3 Overview

P6-Scrubber Overview Video

From the Video...

Thank you for watching this overview video of P6-Scrubber. P6-Scrubber is a tool developed by Emerald Associates that will take an XER and allow you to clean up or remap data in that XER prior to importing it into your P6 database.

So, as projects become larger and your team members are spread out across either the country or sometimes even the world, getting a Primavera P6 database up and deployed in an environment that can be shared is difficult and it's often not a luxury that a lot of us have. So, we often get updates in other ways. We find most commonly those updates are going to come in the way of people sending in XERs to get their information into the project. Now the problem with this is that when you are importing XERs from someone else's database, you're going to get some of the information from their database that you don't necessarily want in yours. What we've done is provide an easy tool to clean up XERs prior to importing them into P6, so your production database doesn't get polluted with all sorts of codes, user-defined fields and calendars that we don't necessarily want or that we don't want to have overwrite what we already have.

We've also found that clients who have very specific contract specifications on how a schedule needs to be put together were wanting the ability to take a look at that XER prior to import and see what's in it so that they can give immediate feedback to those contractors sending in those schedules.

What we found with this tool is that it's really easy to keep your database clean. It's not hard to learn or use, so you don't have to be a P6 expert.

If you'd like to find out more about the P6-Scrubber or any of our other tools, please feel free to reach out to us.

P6-Scrubber Review

"The tool has great versatility on changing the schedule to customize to the owner’s format requirements. I was very interested in the capability of rolling down the Global Calendars. The tool works great for me. The HTML reports are very detailed and informative. I used the tool to demote the calendars and to scrub the schedules.”

-Senior Specialist for an Alberta based Oil and Gas Company

"The tool has great versatility on changing the schedule to customize to the owner’s format requirements. I was very interested in the capability of rolling down the Global Calendars. The tool works great for me. The HTML reports are very detailed and informative. I used the tool to demote the calendars and to scrub the schedules.”

-Senior Specialist for an Alberta based Oil and Gas Company

P6-Scrubber v3 - New Release

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files. Version 3 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers .

May 21, 2020

Work online or offline to define and scrub your XER files. Version 3 makes scrubbing files even easier for schedulers .

Feature requests for v4 include file uploads and scrubs, auto upload, and XML.

New Features

  • online mode capable for more than one P6 database

  • online mode - suggested mapping for Codes

  • online mode - suggested mapping for UDFs

  • online mode - suggested mapping for Calendars

  • online mode - suggested mapping for Roles and Resources

  • online mode - suggested mapping for Cost Accounts

  • Share Scrubbing definitions to team members