Girven Earliest Start and Expected End giving the same day finish and start

[A4A art for architecture]

Hello

new to this program and trying to get my head around it all on perhaps too big a project ith 142 activities in list.

I add in activities with work time with predecessors. I sometimes add in new activities in retrospect amongst the activities as I am planning out the project.

So when I add in a new activity, I am expecting all the following activities 'Expected End' dates to automatically change (update) with the new activity added in and also all the proceeding 'Given Earliest start dates' to update change to reflect the work duration length of the newly inserted activity. This does not seem to alter all the activity dates in respect of the new activity and some times a proceeding activity now has a 'Given Earliest Start' date before its predecessors finish date.

I am finding I am having to go through manually and change evert Earliest Start date. Is there any way I can do this quickly to update all the activities at once? Attached files show examples.

Merlin issue 1 shows activity 28 ending on 14/08/2017 and activity 29 starting on the 14th also - should start day after in reality.

Merlin issue 2 shows activity 111 starting on the 4th May but activity 110 has an expected end of the 7th May.

Do I have to manually go through every activity and change them all or is there some group action I can undertake, I have tried a mass selection of all activities and changing stary to 'Earliest' then trying 'unrestricted' then 'precise' then 'earliest'.........

Hear from anybody soon with any thoughts,

John

[Vicky Stamatopoulou]

Hello John, 

allow me first to explain how Merlin works.

There is no need in entering dates, if they are not binding.

If  you enter work and  predecessors, then you can leave all the ‘given earliest start’ and ‘given earlier end' dates empty. 

Merlin calculates the ‘expected end’ based on the work of an activity, and ‘expected start’ of successor based on the end of the predecessors.

Also.. ‘given…’ columns are as the name implies given. That means, they show what you enter. They don’t automatically change. 

‘Expected…’ or ‘Planned…’ columns are calculated columns. You may expect them to change, if you change the predecessors of your activities or their work or duration values. 

So when you enter a new activity, you cannot expect proceeding 'Given Earliest start dates’ to change.

For a quick update, select all rows except of the row #0, 

use the ‘plan’ inspector, 

select start > unrestricted, 

select  end > unrestricted

When you enter a new activity, simply enter its work and a predecessor. Its expected start will be set, and its expected end will define and successors you define.

Best regards, Vicky

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<Merlin issue 1.png><Merlin issue 2.png>

[A4A art for architecture]

Hello Vicky, 

thanks for your very prompt reply. I have tried what you suggest as all I need is an over view of expected start and end dates. So see picture attached. I have added just those columns and selected all the activies as multiple values in the plan inspector then start was unrestricted and end was unrestricted. If you look at the activities No.s 14 through to 30 it shows they still expect to end on the same day as the sucessor start, which cannot be so. Other blocks of activities are like this also. Should the new activity not have the day after its predecessors end?

Is there something fundamentally wrong with my inputting right from start?

John

[Vicky Stamatopoulou]

Sorry why can’t it be, that the successor starts, when to predecessor ends?

Isn’t what the whole thing is about?

>Should the new activity not have the day after its predecessors end?

Only if the activity ends on the last second of the previous day. Please increase the column width to see the time points. 

Best regards, Vicky

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<Merlin issue 3.png>

[A4A art for architecture]

Ah! yes I have turned on the time format in the column and it shows the half days finishing in mornings and the sucessor starting in the afternoon - very good, thanks for your help. John

[A4A art for architecture]

Hello Vicky,

thanks for your prompt reply. I lost my first response somehow, so here goes again.

I have tried out your suggestion with the two columns, Expected Start & Expected End. I  cleared all dates and all activities were both start unrestricted and end unrestricted.

But I still get blocks of activities that all start on their predecessors end date - please see attachment. This cannot happen in reality.

I am inputting some information fundamentally wrong right from the start?

John