If you’ve ever exported a perfectly balanced Primavera P6 schedule only to have it look like a “ghost project” when imported into TILOS, you aren’t alone.
Moving data between the world’s leading CPM engine and the premier linear scheduling tool is where most project controls teams lose hours of productivity. In my current work, I’ve identified the five most common “Logic Breaks” that occur during this exchange.
Before you hit “Import” on your next Rail or Pipeline project, run through this technical checklist:
1. The Date Format Suffix
The Problem: TILOS reads P6 “Actual” dates (the ‘A’ suffix) as text strings, not dates.
The Fix: Clean your Excel export. Remove all ‘A’ suffixes and ensure your column is formatted as DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM. Without this, your import will fail or drift.
2. Spatial Coordinate Integrity
The Problem: The task appears in the list but is “invisible” on the Time-Location chart.
The Fix: Every linear activity must have a Start_Distance and End_Distance. If these are null or fall outside your TILOS Pilot Cell range, the activity cannot render. Check your decimal points—meters vs. kilometers is a common trap.
3. The “Speed” Reality Check
The Problem: The imported activity slope looks physically impossible ($m/day$).
The Fix: Set your TILOS Calculation Mode to Calculate Work Rate. If TILOS shows you need 600m/day to meet the P6 date, but your site capacity is 200m/day, you’ve just identified a critical project risk that P6 alone couldn’t see.
4. Structural WBS Mapping
The Problem: 1,000+ activities imported into one messy layer.
The Fix: Map your P6 WBS Path to the TILOS Layer or Category field during import. This allows you to instantly toggle views by subcontractor or work type (e.g., Earthworks vs. Paving).
5. Template Synchronization
The Problem: Manually formatting every imported bar.
The Fix: Use a TILOS Task Template (.jtp). By mapping your P6 “Activity Type” to a pre-configured TILOS Style, you can instantly apply visualization (colors, shapes, and annotations) to your entire schedule in one click.
⚠️ Top 3 “P6-TILOS Sanity Checks” Before Hitting Import:
- Unique IDs: Does every activity have a truly unique Activity ID? Duplicate IDs will overwrite data in TILOS.
- Calendars: Does your TILOS project have the same Non-Work Days as your P6 file? If not, your finish dates will drift.
- Units: Are you exporting Meters from P6 and importing Kilometers into TILOS? Check your decimal points!
Go Deeper: Join the 4-Hour Technical Intensive
In our upcoming workshop, “The P6-TILOS Integration Intensive,” we are discussing the full “Bridge” toolkit—including the pre-built Excel Mapper and the Infrastructure Style Library.
Don’t just schedule; synchronize.