Importing Your Project Schedule for Progress Tracking

Importing Your Project Schedule for Progress Tracking

Introduction

Your project schedule provides the activities and planned dates that can be used to monitor construction progress in DatuBIM. 

DatuBIM supports project schedules imported from Microsoft Project and Primavera P6. Once your schedule is uploaded, you can review it in the Gantt viewer and select the activities you want to monitor through Progress Tracking.

Before You Begin

Before uploading your project schedule, confirm that you are working with the correct and most current schedule revision for your project.

For quantity-based Progress Tracking, make sure the applicable Gantt activities include usable quantity and measurement unit information. If this information is not available in the project schedule, you can add the required quantity and unit fields to the schedule and re-upload it, or use a Standalone Activity for the applicable work.

Helpful Note: You do not need to begin by tracking your entire project schedule. Consider starting with a manageable scope of work and activities that can be clearly verified in the field.

How to Import and Select Activities

Upload Your Project Schedule

  1. Navigate to the Tracked Activities tab.
  2. If a Gantt chart has not previously been uploaded, select "Upload Project File". 
          
      3. You can also open the three-dot menu and select the option to upload your project schedule.
          
      4. Select your Microsoft Project or Primavera P6 schedule file to upload it to DatuBIM.

Helpful Note: When an updated Gantt is imported, previously logged Progress Tracking information is retained, except for the Planned Start Date and Planned End Date. Review these dates after importing an updated schedule.

Open and Review the Gantt Chart

Once a schedule is available, select View Gantt Chart to open the imported project schedule. 


The Gantt viewer supports:
  1. Full-text search
  2. Show only geometric, which filters the Gantt chart to activities that have geometric units
  3. Critical Path filtering
  4. Day, week, month, and quarter time scales
Activity hierarchies from the source schedule are retained, including sub-activities and child activities. DatuBIM also preserves the unique activity IDs assigned by Microsoft Project or Primavera P6.

Select Activities to Track

Once the Gantt chart is open:
  1. Locate the activity you want to monitor. 
  2. Use Search when needed to find an activity by name.
  3. Select the checkbox next to the activity.
  4. Repeat for any additional activities you want to track.
  5. Return to the site when your selections are complete.


Then, selected activities will appear in the Tracked Activities list.

Helpful Note: You can remove an activity from Progress Tracking and add it back later. Tracking data is saved automatically and remains available if the same activity is added back.

Choosing the Right Activities to Track

You do not need to track every activity in your project schedule. 

For your initial setup, consider choosing a defined scope of work with activities that can be clearly identified and verified in the field. This may include drainage, foundations, walls, utilities, or another manageable work package. 

Before expanding your Progress Tracking setup, confirm that: 
  1. The correct schedule revision is being used. 
  2. Planned dates are appropriate for the selected work. 
  3. Quantity and unit information is available when required for your tracking method.

Tracking Activities Outside of the Gantt Schedule

If the work you want to monitor is not represented by an appropriate Gantt activity, you can create a Standalone Activity.

Standalone Activities are designed for projects without an uploaded Gantt or for teams that want to build a Progress Tracking structure that differs from the formal project schedule.

We will cover the configuration of Standalone Activities in Creating and Configuring Tracked Activities.

Ready to Continue? 

Once you have selected the activities you want to monitor, the next step is to prepare the corresponding elements in your project design. Continue to Preparing Design Objects for Progress Tracking.