Guidelines for Importing from Microsoft Project

Review import guidelines before you import data from Microsoft Project to Vision Planning.

Resources

Vision can import both named resources and generic resources.

• Named Resources — For the data to map to the appropriate employee, a named resource must use one of the following formats:

  Firstname [space] Lastname (for example, Mike Brown)

  Firstname [space] Middlename [space] Lastname (for example, Mike Joseph Brown)

  Firstname [space] Middleinitial [period and space] Lastname (for example, Mike J. Brown)

  The spelling of the first and last names must be identical in both Microsoft Project and the Vision Employee Info Center. For example, they both must be Mike Brown in order for data to map correctly; if Microsoft Project is Mike Brown, but Vision is Michael Brown, the data won't map correctly.

• Generic Resources — The value that displays in the Code field for a generic resource in Configuration > Planning > Generic Resources acts as a unique identifier for the resource. Before importing a generic resource, you must enter a value in the Code column in Microsoft Project for the respective resource. The data in the Code column is used to look up the corresponding Generic Resource that will be included in the Vision Assignment row during the import operation. After completing the import, the generic resource's Description displays in the Assignment row in Vision.
• When MS ActiveX is used to retrieve assignment rows from MS Project, the rows are returned in the same order as the Resources are entered into the Resource Usage view. This order does not always reflect how Resources are assigned to each Task.

Units

In Microsoft Project, you must select Material for the Type column and enter a unique value in the Group column before importing the respective unit. The data in the Group column is used to look up the corresponding Unit Table that will be included in the Unit row during the import operation. After completing the import, the unit's Resource Name in Microsoft Project becomes the Unit Name in Vision.

Plans and Tasks

• Each Vision plan name defaults to the Microsoft Project file name. After importing into Vision, you can change the plan name and save.
• Task names truncate to 97 characters.
• Vision imports Work from Microsoft Project into Planned Hours, Cost into Planned Cost, Baseline Work into Baseline Hours, and Baseline Cost into Baseline Cost. Vision does not import Actual Work and Actual Cost from Microsoft Project.
• When tasks with predecessor or successor relationships are imported, Vision includes the dependencies in the new project record and carries over the assigned relationship type, any lag or lead time, the number of days, and the direction of the dependency. You can view the dependent relationships on the Schedule tab or by referring to the Dependency column and the Dependencies dialog box on the Labor tab of Project Planning. Use the Edit Dependencies dialog box to make changes to these relationships.

Dates and Time

• The default accordion calendar format in Vision is set to Quarter/Month. You can change the calendar scale after data is imported.
• Imported time data is converted from minutes in Microsoft Project to hours in Vision.