Have anyone used P6 Visualizer to create TSLD & Gantt Chart?

I would suggest using a sample project and only using one project to build out the "samples" or templates of the TSLD or Gantt Chart. The tedious, but fun part, is customizing the look and feel of the chart or diagram to really get it to where you want. If you don't have a powerful machine, it may hang, but it does not hang on a machine with 8GB of RAM. So keep that in mind. In a quick google search, I found a partner's pdf on using the Visualizer. Hopefully it helps you get started...

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/June-2013-Tech-Webinar-Primavera-Visualizer.pdf

How do I use roles in Primavera 6?

You can use roles in a few ways. You can use them as placeholders for activity assignments you know you need, but don't know the actual resource (named or otherwise). Some organizations use the role as the resource name and go that route. Seems like you're using 6, so roles usually can just be added to your activities as you are building your schedule and you can do your planning/budgeting that way if the roles have costs assigned to them. This way, you can get a cost estimate even if you do not know the named resources.

As for EV, this is a topic we could talk about all day here. What exactly is the end goal of what you are measuring? I imagine cost and schedule, but do you know what EV attributes you are looking to measure? All of them. There are plenty of books that are out there. A partner has a pdf out there and there are tons of videos and material out there on this topic.

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/October-2012-Webinar-Calculating-Earned-Value-and-Estimate-to-Complete-in-P6.pdfless

How can I restrict users from changing the filter on the dashobard?

Go into the dashboard, on the general section, you can restrict users from changing the filter.

Why is summarize staying in pending status?

This is usually happening if Job Services is not installed or the Primavera Job Service is not running. Reinstall Job Services, verify it can connect during installation. Ask the System Administrator to verify that Job Service is installed and running.

What is meant by financial periods and stored period performance?

The help definition actually isn't too bad...so I am going with it.

P6 enables you to define your organization's global financial periods in the Financial Periods dialog box. Customized financial periods provide more accurate display and reporting of actual units and costs. Rather than spreading costs evenly throughout the length of a project, users can view how actual costs were incurred by customized financial period.

If your organization always updates the schedule according to the same time interval (i.e., every week, every month, every quarter, etc.), you can quickly create a batch of financial periods. If the schedule may be updated irregularly, you can create a single financial period at any time.

When financial periods exist in the Financial Period dictionary, users can store period performance for any defined period. When you store period performance, actual units and costs are stored as past period actuals. The past period actual values can be edited for any financial period in columns of the Activity Table and Activity Details, Resources tab. Past period actual spreads per financial period can be viewed in the Activity Usage Spreadsheet and Resource Usage Spreadsheet, and past period actual data can be displayed in profiles, time-distributed reports, and the Tracking view.

If you are experiencing Java Plugin issues when in P6 8.x web.

If any of you are using 8.x – 15.1 and experiencing Java Plug-in issues with Firefox 31-38; most noticeably loading the page and see the block plugin icon appear, you can use this workaround to allow the sites you are trying load to pass through as trusted sites (I’ve only added Oracle/PGBU sites). This will speed up performance and reduce the actions for the subsequent loads. Feel free to share.

As a workaround, you can use the Exception Site list feature to run the applications blocked by security settings. Adding the URL of the blocked application to the Exception Site list allows it to run with some warnings.

Steps to Add URLs to the Exception Site list

1. Go to the Java Control Panel (On Windows Click Start and then Configure Java)
2. Click on the Security tab
3. Click on the Edit Site List button
4. Click Add in the Exception Site List window
   
5. Click in the empty field under the Location field to enter the URL
   
   Example: http://www.example.com
   (URL should begin with http:// or https://)

More information from Oracle located here http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/security/exception_site_list.html

Please explain the total float options in the schedule options feature.

If you are referring to compute total float, you have 3 options in the schedule options dialog box. Here are the options and there explanations.

Compute Total Float As option

Determines the method to calculate total float for all activities based on the following methods:

Start Float: The difference between the early and late start dates (Start Float equals Late Start minus Early Start).

Finish Float: The difference between the early and late finish dates (Finish Float equals Late Finish minus Early Finish).

Smallest value: Select to use the most critical value, which is the smaller of the start float and finish float values.

I'm using P6 web 8.3 and I'm trying to figure out how I can manually enter my remaining hours by week/month, in the same way I used resource assignments in the windows client.

Bucket planning is available in version 15.1.

Schedule % and performance % not showing any data.

Most likely need to tie EVM options in the admin preferences to activity % complete.

Has anyone experienced Global Activity Code structures changing on their own? I am currently facing this issue. The database is accessed by 20+ Project Planners. XER Imports are often carried out.

Not sure what versions you're using, but you may be able to click the column header and it will go through a sort. Now that I see that you have folks importing projects, depending on the version, some of their coding may be coming in as well.

Has anyone experienced a glitch in Primavera P6 Team Member where you setup the project to require status update approvals, however the updates go directly into the P6 schedule without stopping for approval?

There is more information in the P6 8.x user guide, but most likely the project preferences have not been configured correctly. Here are some brief instructions on how to do so.
To configure status updates:
1) Click Projects.
2) On the Projects navigation bar, click EPS.
3) On the EPS page:
a. Select a project.
b. Click the Actions
menu and select
Set Project Preferences....
4) In the Project Preferences pane, click Team Member.
5) On the Team Member page, click the Status Reviews tab.
6) On the Status Reviews tab:
a. Select Enable review for team member status updates.

Can you please guide me as to how I can convert a manually entered and baselined project into a Project template in Primavera 8.3.0

Without going into P6, I am almost certain that when you go to action>add project template, it gives you the option to copy from an existing project. You can select the project you manually entered and baselined and add it as a project template. My thought is that it's not going to carry over the baseline as each baseline is specific to the actual project and will not be a copied over feature. I will replicate for accuracy.

Issue with modifying a report with Report Wizard

You may not have security to change the reports. Depending on which P6 version you are using, you may need to change it in the global profile or you may need to contact your admin to change it.

Edit Global Reports Create, edit, and delete global reports; edit report
groups and global report batches; and save global
reports created or modified by the Report Wizard.

P6 Physcial % Complete not working anymore...?

Check to make sure the activity % complete type is set to physical on the general tab. Easy thing to overlook. Also earned value preferences to make sure it's pulling from activity % complete.

What are required from a planner for his/her weekly report?

Schedule, Critical Path, Activities that are of importance around the time of the report, EVM figures by WBS/phase/gate.

I am updating a project schedule with resources and after updating I found that the remaining units/time for completed activity is still fixed 8h/d. Is this right?

Remaining units/time should tie back to the hours/day setting and correct, it should not be changed. the remaining units is what you can change.

Why create a secondary baseline?

Possibly to track against the original baseline for variances.

Performance % showing in WBS 100% Completed (P6), but activities are not completed.

In Admin Preferences you need to set the technique for computing performance percent complete to pull from activity % complete. That should fix the issue. Also check it in the WBS section.

Why I don't see any related tasks on activity in the P6 iOS application?

Click on the activity in the list of activities. Also, this application is referred to as the Team Member app. So you need to be an activity owner, primary resource or project manager with rights to the activity. It is not the all-inclusive P6 EPPM application that you use on the desktop. This application is for team members to update their tasks that they are responsible for or assigned to or are the owner of. Related tasks can be accessed after selecting the respective activity.

How do you create formula-based UDF's?

1) Click the Projects
menu and select Enterprise Project Data, or click the Administer
menu and select Enterprise Data.
2) In the Enterprise Data pane, expand Projects and click Project UDFs.
3) On the Project UDFs page:
a. Click
Add (Insert).
b. In the User Defined Field, double-click and type a name.
c. In the Data Type field, double-click and choose a type from the list.
d. In the UDF Type field, double-click and choose Manual or Formula from the list.
Notes:
-Choosing Formula enables the fields in the Formula detail window, allowing you to define a formula or statement to calculate the value of the field. If no calculation is required, choose Manual.
-You cannot filter views by UDFs calculated on the basis of a formula.
4) In the Formula detail window, define a formula or statement.
5) In the Indicators detail window, define a graphical indicator.
6) On the Project UDFs page, click
Save (Ctrl+S).

I would like your help with the stages to changing the baseline dates in P6.

In P6 you create your schedule and then take a baseline (snapshot) of the schedule at a point in time. You use that baseline as your point of reference and the dates usually should not be changed. You are able to update the baseline dates in a baseline. You can do this in the same area you take the baseline by using "update baseline". It will take actuals and replace old baseline dates as well as new planned dates will replace the old baseline dates. Using the Update Baseline utility, you can update the original baseline plan with new activity, resource/role assignment, and project data. When updating a baseline, you can choose to update all activities or you can apply a filter to update activities that meet the filter’s criteria. You can also specify the types of data to update, including specific data related to activities, resources, costs, thresholds, and issues.

How to summarize activity % complete of activites to WBS level if i have cost baseline

You can set up the view with the activity % complete column in the activity table and then group and sort by the respective WBS level. make sure that summary roll-ups are checked off on the group/sort (in web this will be under customize view).

A contractor has given me a "change log" What are someof the factors I should consider when reviewing the "Change Log"?

Review the contractors hours/costs from before and after the change. If the contractor's activities were already loaded in the schedule, you may want to review what is there now and what is being changed. If you took a baseline of the schedule with the resource loaded activity, you can change the activity's attributes, take another baseline and compare.

Can you approve an extension of time claim without a resourced program?

You can extend a project or activity from the original duration, yes, you can do that. If a baseline was taken of the project, you can do it on non-started activities.

Why can't I see resource assignments for a specific project?

Check to see if the layout is filtering on certain projects/attributes. Also check to see if project is active.