Primavera P6 import

What an XER import reads, how activities map onto the project, and what the relationship types mean.

Demonstration project - no figure here describes a real facilityChanges are not saved

Why

The XER writer produces a file P6 can import, and its output is verified by re-reading it block by block. The schedule shown is the project's own.

Writes are validated against the engineering rules and then refused, because no database has been configured for this environment.

Activities

On the critical path

Relationships

Exportable file

3.1 kB

Start-to-start, not finish-to-start

Engineering activities overlap: the line list begins while the P&IDs are still in development. An importer that assumed finish-to-start would produce a schedule that reads as sequential and is not, and every date after the first overlap would be wrong.

What an import reads

The four tables P6 needs to rebuild a schedule.

XER tables
Table	Fields	Rows	What it carries
PROJECT	6	1	the project, its dates and its calendar
PROJWBS	6	14	the work breakdown, parents before children
TASK	13	12	the activities, their dates and their progress
TASKPRED	7	10	the relationships between activities, with their type and lag

Activities

Schedule activities
Activity	WBS	Name	Start	Finish	Complete	Discipline
A1000	ZRF.1	Detailed design - condensate export	2026-06-01	2026-11-30	72%	PRO	Critical
A1010	ZRF.1.1	P&ID development	2026-06-01	2026-10-28	95%	PRO	Critical
A1020	ZRF.1.2	Line list and piping material selection	2026-07-15	2026-10-22	88%	PIP	Critical
A1030	ZRF.1.3	Equipment datasheets	2026-08-01	2026-11-14	64%	MEC	Float
A1040	ZRF.1.4	Instrument index and datasheets	2026-08-15	2026-11-28	55%	INS	Float
A1050	ZRF.1.5	Electrical single line diagrams	2026-09-01	2026-12-12	40%	ELE	Float
A2000	ZRF.2	Construction - condensate export	2026-12-01	2027-06-30	0%	CON	Critical
A2010	ZRF.2.1	Piping fabrication and installation	2026-12-01	2027-04-30	0%	PIP	Critical
A2020	ZRF.2.2	Pressure testing and reinstatement	2027-03-15	2027-05-28	0%	PIP	Critical
A3000	ZRF.3	Commissioning - condensate export	2027-05-01	2027-08-31	0%	COM	Critical
A3010	ZRF.3.1	Loop checking	2027-05-01	2027-06-15	0%	INS	Float
A4000	ZRF.4	Handover	2027-09-01	2027-09-30	0%	COM	Critical

Import a schedule

What an import does not do

Overwrite dates somebody changed in EDS
Create assets. An activity named after a pump does not establish that the pump exists.
Infer which subsystem an activity belongs to. That mapping is chosen above and recorded.

XER has no escape character

An activity name containing a tab breaks the row and shifts every column after it. The writer refuses such a value rather than emitting a file that imports silently wrong, which is the failure mode that costs a day to find.