Primavera P6 Release 8.2: TSLD with Color Coded Activity Codes

Primavera P6 Release 8.2: TSLD with Color Coded Activity Codes

Color coding information is one of the best ways to keep your documents, outlines and projects organized. I remember when I was still in a school and would highlight useful information in my school books and notes so that I would remember the importantance of that piece of information. This blog post is a continuation of our last post covering the Timscaled Logic Diagrams in Primavera P6 Release 8.2. In this blog post, we will discuss how to color code activity codes on the TSLD.

Primavera P6 users have always enjoyed the ability to group, sort, and filter project activities based upon activity codes. One of the great new features of Primavera P6 Release 8.2 is the ability to use color coded activity bars on the Timescaled Logic Diagram (TSLD) based upon Activity Code values.

Example of how to use the Color Coded Activity Codes in Primavera P6 R8.2

Let’s assume that your organization needs to organize your activities by “Responsibility” so that you can view, within one project or all projects, who is responsible for the activities. Additionally, you would like to be able to view a timeline of activities and determine when activities associated with each “Responsibility’’ will need to occur. The best way to accomplish this objective with Primavera P6 is to setup Activity Codes, which can be assigned to activities and then used to group, sort and filter activities in TSLD’s in addition to layouts and reports.

How do I setup Activity Codes in P6 R8.2?

Activity codes are setup using the Enterprise Menu in Primavera P6. When you setup an activity code, such as “Responsibility””, you establish the activity code values. For example, activity code values for “Responsibility” might be: JN (Joe Nolan), LH (Linda Haris), KL (Ken Lang – Design Team), GG (George Green – Sitework Crew). In Primavera P6 Release 8.2, you can also assign colors to each activity code value, which can be used in the context of the TSLD.

Activity codes can be setup at three levels:

1. Global Activity codes are available for use across all projects in your P6 database. If we setup an activity code such as “Responsibility”, we would be able to open one, multiple or all projects and reorganize/group them by Responsibility. You can setup an unlimited number of activity codes.
2. EPS level activity codes enable you to establish codes to be used for specific nodes on your Enterprise Project Structure. For example, you may setup your EPS to represent three different lines of business (such as Commercial Construction, DOT construction, Federal Government construction). One of those lines of business, such as the DOT, may require you to assign bid items to each activity and then submit reports organized by those bid items. You could setup EPS level codes for the DOT node and the codes would be available only to projects assigned to that EPS node. The codes would not be available to projects under the other EPS nodes. P6 lets you setup an unlimited number of EPS level activity codes.
3. Project specific activity codes can also be setup for projects with unique project reporting requirements. There is a limit of 500 activity codes per project.

TSLD and Color Coded Activity Values for Responsibility

This Primavera P6 training tutorial provides instructions for color coding activity code values for “Responsibility” and using then configuring the Timescaled Logic Diagram to display the color-coded activity bars based on ‘’Responsibility’’. This will enable you to view the Responsible party for each activity on the timeline. Hopefully, viewing information in this format will assist you in planning and managing your project more effectively.