P6 Import/Export Technical Specifications

When ALICE ingests a P6 file, all the data from that file is stored in ALICE even though ALICE only uses some of that data for schedule manipulation and optimization. For the schedule data that ALICE does not show or use for calculations, it will be untouched and included in the export file exactly as it was included in the import file. 

This article includes a dictionary of all fields included in the import and export, whether they are shown in ALICE or not, and any differences in field names between ALICE and P6.

Task fields shown

The table below aims to visualize all Imported, Exported and Shown task fields currently available between ALICE and Primavera P6.

Task & WBS

ALICE
Primavera P6
WBS WBS Name
ID Activity ID
Name Activity Name
Status Activity Status
Predecessors Predecessors
Successors Successors
Constraint Primary Constraint Date / Type
Custom Property Activity Codes - EPS
Activity Codes - Global
User Defined
Task Relationship Details Predecessors Details
Successor Details

Dates

ALICE
Primavera P6
Start Start
Finish Finish
Planned Start Planned Start
Planned Finished Planned Finished
Actual Start Actual Start
Actual Finish Actual Finish
Suspend Suspend Date
Resume Resume Date
Early Start Early Start
Early Finish Early Finish
Late Start Late Start
Late Finish Late Finish
Calendar Calendar

Duration

ALICE
Primavera P6
Note
Original Duration Original Duration Imported
Remaining Duration Remaining Duration Imported
Actual Duration Actual Duration Imported
At Completion Duration At Completion Duration Calculated: Actual Duration + Remaining Duration.
Total Float Total Float  
Free Float Free Float  
Duration Formula N/A  
Calendar Days N/A  
Calendar Hours N/A  

Budgeted Units

ALICE
Primavera P6
Budgeted Labor Units Budgeted Labor Units
Actual Labor Units Actual Labor Units
Remaining Labor Units Remaining Labor Units

Resources

ALICE
Primavera P6
Crews (Assignment) Budgeted Unit/Time
Workforce N/A
Materials (Assignment) Budgeted Unit
Equipment (Assignment) Budgeted Unit/Time
Resource Logic (Task Relationship Details) Notebook

 

Resource fields shown

The table below aims to visualize all Imported, Exported and Shown resource fields currently available between ALICE and Primavera P6.

 

ALICE
Primavera P6
Resource Fields
Subcontractor Name N/A
Trade N/A
Crew Name Resource Name
Imported Resource Peak N/A
Max Units/Time Max Units/Time
Default Units/Time Default Units/Time
Prs/Crew N/A
$Crew/Hr Standart Rate
Calendar Calendar
Idle Cost N/A
Equipment Name Resource Name
Equipment Quantity  Max Units/Time
Equipment $/hr Standart Rate
Equipment Idle Cost N/A
Material Name Resource Name
Material Type N/A
Material Quantity Available Budgeted Units
Material $/Unit Standart Rate
Production Rates N/A
Indirect Cost N/A


Task fields not shown

The table below aims to visualize all task fields not supported/shown in ALICE. This means that the following fields are saved in the file, and are exported back to P6 as it is, without any changes.

Costs
Actual Expense Cost
Actual Labor Cost
Actual Material Cost
Actual Nonlabor Cost
Actual This Period
Actual This Period
Actual This Period
Actual Total Cost
At Completion Expense
At Completion Labor
At Completion Material
At Completion Nonlabor
At Completion Total
BL Project Expense
BL Project Labor
BL Project Material
BL Project Nonlabor
BL Project Total
BL1 Expense Cost
BL1 Labor Cost
BL1 Material Cost
BL1 Nonlabor Cost
BL1 Total Cost
Budgeted Expense Cost
Budgeted Labor Cost
Budgeted Material Cost
Budgeted Nonlabor Cost
Budgeted Total Cost
Remaining Expense Cost
Remaining Labor Cost
Remaining Material Cost
Remaining Nonlabor Cost
Remaining Total Cost
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
 
Dates
Anticipated Finish
Anticipated Start
BL Project Finish
BL Project Start
BL1 Finish
BL1 Start
BL2 Finish
BL2 Start
BL3 Finish
BL3 Start
Expected Finish
External Early Start
External Late Finish
Remaining Early Finish
Remaining Early Start
Remaining Late Finish
Remaining Late Start
Secondary Constraint Date
 
Durations
At Completion Duration
BL Project Duration
BL1 Duration
Remaining Float
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
 
Earned Value
Accounting Variance
Accounting Variance - Labor Units
Actual Cost
Budget At Completion
Budget At Completion - Labor Units
Cost Performance Index
Cost Performance Index - Labor Units
Cost Variance
Cost Variance - Labor Units
Cost Variance Index
Cost Variance Index - Labor Units
Earned Value Cost
Earned Value Labor Units
Estimate At Completion Cost
Estimate At Completion - Labor Units
Estimate To Complete
Estimate To Complete - Labor Units
Planned Value Cost
Planned Value Labor Units
Schedule Performance Index
Schedule Performance Index - Labor Units
Schedule Variance
Schedule Variance - Labor Units
Schedule Variance Index
Schedule Variance Index - Labor Units
To Complete Performance
Variance At Completion
Variance At Completion - Labor Units
 
Feedback
Feedback from Resources
New Feedback
 
General
Activity Leveling Priority
Activity Type
Added By
Added Date
Auto Compute Actuals
Critical
Critical Path Number
Duration Type
Est Weight
Last Modified By
Last Modified Date
Lock Remaining
Longest Path
Owner
Primary Resource
Project ID
Project Name
Project Status
Secondary Constraint
Unread Comments
WBS
WBS Category
WBS Path
 
Lists
Cost Account IDs
Cost Accounts
Resource IDs
Resources
Role IDs
Roles
Work Products and
 
Multiple Float Paths
Float Path
Float Path Order
 
Number of Activities
Activity Count
Activity Resource Assignment
Actual Completed Activities
Actual In-Progress Activities
Actual Not-Started Activities
BL Project Completed
BL Project In-Progress
BL Project Not-Started
BL1 Completed Activities
BL1 In-Progress Activities
BL1 Not-Started Activities
 
Percent Completes
Activity % Complete
Cost % Complete
Cost % of
Duration % Complete
Duration % of
Expense Cost %
Labor Cost %
Labor Units %
Material Cost %
Nonlabor Cost %
Nonlabor Units %
Percent Complete Type
Performance % Complete
Performance % Complete
Physical % Complete
Schedule % Complete
Units % Complete
 
Project Codes
 
Units
Actual Labor Units
Actual Nonlabor Units
Actual This Period
Actual This Period
At Completion Labor
At Completion Nonlabor
BL Project Labor
BL Project Nonlabor
BL1 Labor Units
BL1 Nonlabor Units
Budgeted Nonlabor Units
Remaining Labor Units
Remaining Nonlabor Units
Variance - BL
Variance - BL
Variance - BL1
Variance - BL1
 
Activity Steps
Activity Step Count
Steps Completed
Steps In Progress
Steps Not Started


Resource fields not shown

The table below aims to visualize all resource fields not supported/shown in ALICE. This means that the following fields are saved in the file, and are exported back to P6 as it is, without any changes.

General

Active

Assigned to Current Project

Auto Compute Actuals

Calculate costs from units

Currency Name

E-Mail Address

Employee ID

External Rate

Internal Rate

Office Phone

Other Phone

Overtime Allowed

Overtime Factor

Price / Unit4

Price / Unit5

Primary on Current

Primary Role

Resource ID

Resource Notes

Role IDs

Roles

Shift

Title

Unit of Measure

User Login Name

 

Resource Codes

 

User Defined

 

Special Characters in ALICE and P6

Support for special characters depends on the encoding type used in the given file format or software. This can lead to a situation where special characters supported in one software might not be supported in the other.

XER Files: These are proprietary and typically use the Windows-1252 encoding. However, they do not store encoding information, so importing files with non-standard encodings (e.g., Russian) may lead to character display issues.

XML Files: These are based on the XML standard and support Unicode, allowing for better handling of international characters.

The client's issue with special characters is not an ALICE issue but the P6 or XER file format, which uses Windows-1252 encoding and does not fully support the export or import of all special characters.

Both P6 and ALICE allow the use of special characters directly in the platform. However, issues arise with export and import when using the XER file format. Hence, using the XML file format is recommended if the client uses various special characters.

The tables below show the special characters that are supported and not supported while using the XER file format for import or export.

Special Characters

Characters

Primavera P6

ALICE

!"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_{|}~

Supported

Supported

± × ÷

Supported

Supported

≈ ∑ ∂ ∞ ∆

Not Supported

Not Supported

$ € £ ¥

Supported

Supported

₹ ₩

Not Supported

Not Supported

‘ ’ " " - - _ _

Supported

Supported

\n \r \t

Supported

Supported

😀 🚀 ⚠️ 💡

Not Supported

Not Supported

º ª · ¿ ¨ ´

Supported

Supported

 

Multilingual Characters

Characters Primavera P6 ALICE
é ñ ü ç à (French, Spanish) Supported Supported
Привет мир (Russian) Supported Supported
Γειά σου Κόσμε (Greek) Not Supported Not Supported
مرحبا بالعالم (Arabic) Not Supported Not Supported
你好,世界 (Chinese) Not Supported Not Supported
こんにちは世界 (Japanese) Not Supported Not Supported
안녕하세요 세계 (Korean) Not Supported Not Supported
שלום עולם (Hebrew) Not Supported Not Supported
नमस्ते दुनिया (Hindi) Not Supported Not Supported
áéíóúÁÉÍÓ Supported Supported
ÄËÏÖÜäëïöü Supported Supported
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