Creation - Grouping

OVERVIEW – Organize activities by grouping one or more data items, including phase, department, responsible person, dates, total float, custom user field, and others. Grouping data enables you to focus on activities that have something in common. - Primavera

1. If it isn’t already open, let’s keep the Activity Codes project open.  We do not need to create a new project since there will be no actual manipulation of the schedule in this lesson.  There will only be manipulation of how the information is displayed.
   
   
2. Now, in the activity view, click the “Group & Sort” icon on the top toolbar or right-click and choose “Group & Sort…” from the drop-down menu.
   
   
3. The “Group & Sort” window is displayed.
   
   Note:  If you are familiar with P5, you’ll notice that this window is slightly different. 
   
   TIP - In this version you can hide the roll-up summary data so that only a solid band with the grouping element’s title displayed.  To hide the group totals, check the box next to “Show Group Totals” at the top.
   
   
4. Notice that the currently selected grouping element is the WBS, WBS level 1, 2, 3, etc. 
   
   Also, notice that each level within the WBS hierarchy is indented.  Uncheck this box in order to make each WBS level to appear on the same level.  Click Apply once you uncheck to the box to see the change in the activity table without actually closing the Group and Sort window.
   
   Furthermore all levels of the WBS are included.  Change this by clicking All in the “To Level” field and select “1”, the WBS will only show to the database level now, WBS level 1.  Click Apply.
   
   The last column controls the font and color of the background of each grouping band.  Double-click on that column.
   
   Click on the Font box in the Edit Font & Color pop-up and change the font to Times New Roman, Bold, 14, & white on the proceeding Font window.  Click OK & OK again to get back to the Group and Sort window.  Click Apply.
   
   
5. Let’s change the grouping method now.  Double-click on WBS in the Group By field.  A drop-down menu appears from which we want to select the code definition, Subcontractor, that we created previously.  By default, the Indent box will be checked and the code will show to All levels.  Click Apply.
   
   TIP – When the drop-down menu appears, you can quickly jump to a field by very quickly typing it.  For example if you wanted to quickly get to WBS, you would type W-B-S as quickly as you can with the Group By field selected.  However, if you’re like me, type the first letter of the desired field to be taken relatively close to it.
   
   Instead of being grouped by our WBS hierarchy the activities are now grouped by the various subcontractors that can be useful when distributing a schedule out to subs.
    
   
6. What happens if we want to group our schedule by two different things?  Let’s do that now.  Go ahead and change the Group By field back to WBS and uncheck Indent.  Unchecking the Indent box frees up the second Group By field.  We can now select a second grouping method.  Select Subcontractor and click Apply.
   
   
7. For each phase of construction we can now see which subcontractors are involved.  However, notice the two highest WBS’s have nothing underneath them now since the WBS grouping is no longer indented.  To correct this issue highlight the WBS line in the Group By field and check the Hide if empty box below.  Click Apply.
   
   
8. If we wanted to save the changes that we made here, we could go to Layout and Save As to create a new layout.  However, for now, close the Group and Sort window, go to Layout, click Open, and when asked, do not save changes.
   

NEXT - Scheduling