Primavera P6 Calendars - Creating and Assigning

How to Create and Assign a Calendar in Primavera P6?

Two weeks ago, one of our readers asked: What is a Primavera P6 Calendar and how can I create, assign and modify a calendar in Primavera p6? Therefore, in this article, we will demonstrate how to create a default 10-hour per day, 6-day work week with holidays calendar in Primavera P6. Before preparing a project schedule in Primavera P6, it is important to understand the functions of Calendars in Primavera P6. For a serviceable work schedule, the calendar must represent the real site conditions, weather conditions, non-work days, public holidays, etc.

Working days and daily working hours are defined in P6 default calendars. It is possible to modify these default calendars for your project’s conditions.

Creating and Assigning and Modifying Calendars in Primavera P6

We will select Enterprise | Calendars from the main top drop-down menu, Figure 1.

Primavera P6 create, assign, modify Calendar

Primavera P6 Calendars Figure 1

In the “Calendars” window, we will select the + Add button, Figure 2.

Add Calendar Figure 2

Now we will copy a default calendar of P6 and modify it. “In the Select Calendar to Copy From” window, we will select the 7 Days 10 Hours calendar, Figure 3.

Select Calendar to Copy From – Figure 3

We will type the name of our calendar as 6×10, Figure 4.

Name Calendar Figure 4

We will select “Modify” and open the “Global Calendar: 6×10” window , Figure 5.
Make sure that “Total work hours/day” option is marked.

Primavera P6 Calendars – Global Calendar Figure 5

We will select “Workweek” in order to mark the nonwork days. Let’ s assume that Sundays are the nonwork days. We will type “0” work hour for Sunday, Figure 6.

Figure 6

We will have a 6-day work week calendar, Figure 7.

6 day work week calendar Figure 7

Holidays

Now we will mark the holidays. Let’ s assume that December 13th, January 20th, and April 7th is a holiday in our project. We will highlight them and select the “Nonwork” button, Figure 8.

Primavera P6 Calendars – Holidays Figure 8

Time Periods

Make sure that the Hours/Day cell is set to 10.0 to match our 6-day 10-hrs/day work week, Figure 9.

Hours Per Time Period Figure 9

If we leave it as 8-hrs/day then Primavera P6 will consider each 8-hour period of our 10-hour day as one day for the Original Duration calculation. This means, if it remains 8-hrs/day and we insert an activity original duration 3 days, it will calculate 3×8 = 24 hours. Then if we change 8-hrs/day to 10-hrs/day, original duration of the activity will be 24/10 = 2 days. So it is important to set the working hours before to add activities in primavera p6.

Set Default Calendar

Now we will set our newly created 6×10 work week calendar to the default. We will select Enterprise | Projects from the main top drop-down menu and select our newly created 6×10 work week calendar, Figure 10.

Primavera P6 Calendars Figure 10

Summary

It is possible to create and modify different types of calendars in P6 and assign them to different activities. Working hours, nonwork days and holidays can easily be defined. Different working types can use different calendars. For example, site calendar may be 10-hours per day, 6-day work week calendar, office calendar may be 8-hour per day, 5-day work week calendar. Creating and assigning a calendar in Primavera P6 is an important process. Because the assigned calendar must represent the real conditions of the project.