Tasks Centric Workflows.
Tobe Builder uses a Task Centric workflow when working on projects. When working the in Tobe Builder you will only be able to interact with one task at a time. This task will be shown on the top right breadcrumb, and highlighted with a green outline as shown below. All changes that you make to your Tobe project will only change the currently selected task.
There are 5 menus that interact with and control how time, and schedules are managed in Tobe Builder. The Programme Menu allows users to hide/exclude parts of the master program so that the team can focus on specific areas of the project. The Task and Resource Timelines allow navigation forward and back in time, and are the fastest method to find specific tasks. Finally the task inspector is used to interact with all elements that are associated with a task.
The Task Timeline
The Task Timeline is the main method of interacting with the schedule within Tobe Builder, the task timeline has 3 modes;
The default “Wedding Cake” view compresses the tasks from the traditional Gantt view to save space. The Task you are working on is shown on the bottom bar and highlighted in green. Tasks in progress at the date-picked time are shown on the left panel.
WBS View: creates a view that include a WBS hierarchy that can be expanded and collapsed to focus on specific sections of work.
Gantt View: Is a simple gantt view, with summary bars hidden, and all tasks shown in chronological order.
Navigate Time
The date picker can be moved from left to right in any mode to navigate forward and back in time.
Keyboard shortcuts to navigate the timeline include:
SHIFT + scroll wheel: Pan the timeline left and right horizontally
CRTL + scroll wheel: Zoom in and out
Scroll wheel: scroll up and down vertically
Users can also move the timeline via the horizontal and vertical scroll bars, and resize the horizontal scroll bars to zoom in and out.
Basic Functions and Controls
Programme controls:
Timeline Toggle: This toggle controls weather objects in the view window are controlled by the timeline or now. In effect this toggle can be used to disable the timeline and show all BIMs, resources, zones and paths irrespective of the time picker location.
Resource Toggle: show Tasks that contain (or do not contain) plant resources
BimLinks Toggle: show Tasks that contain (or do not contain) Bim linked Geometry (three-way)
PDS Filter: Filter timeline by PDS or activity codes imported from your schedule or via TSV import.
Date Picker: Move the date slider to a specific date
PDS Filter:
To use the PDS Filter:
OR. press the + below the Group to create a new Group. If there are multiple Groups, they act as if there is a. OR. operator between the Groups. You must press the "Save" icon before exiting. |
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Understanding Programmes
Tobe Builder allows the creation of programmes within TBB or by import from Asta Powerproject (pp), Primavera P6 (XER), Microsoft Project (mpp).
Tobe Builder allows the creation of Sub-Tasks within TBB that remain attached to main programme tasks and will update when the main program is refreshed into TBB.
For data security, TBB cannot alter main program Tasks, only Sub Tasks created in TBB. The Planner remains in full control of the programme.
Creating a Programme
| If no programme is present within a Tobe Builder project, any menu that relies on task information will display a warning that a programme must be loaded, and a shortcut to the create and load programme menus.
If you wish to create a custom Programme within Tobe Builder you can hit the Create Programme button in the breadcrumb icon, or in any of the menus that use task information that will be disabled until a schedule is created or uploaded.
You are required to enter a Programme Name, Start and End date for the project and the number of Tasks you wish your Programme to have.
After hitting Accept Tobe will create the number of tasks with an average time for each task according to start and end date
(e.g. a 12 week project with 12 tasks will allocate 1 week per task.) |
Loading a Programme
Tobe Builder currently supports multiple scheduling tools to create project programmes,
When you select Load Programme you will be directed to your file explorer where you can select and load the requires file. The file will then be displayed on the Timeline with Tasks represented by bars covering the start and end date of the task.
Supported File types:
If an imported Programme is changed you can click the Refresh Programme button located in the breadcrumb menu to refresh the current Programme and update and changes. | 
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Editing Programme and Task Visibility
| The Programme view can be accessed via the Programme menu.
Calendars: List of calendars which are included in the programme.
Resources: List of resources that are brought across from Asta. These will be assigned as Asta resources to each Task. The resources assigned in Asta are described as "Budget". The resources assigned in Virtual Builder are the "Virtual Cost" or "Forecast". Preferred work method is Asta will be fully resourced, but we understand not everyone will do this.
In Custom Programme no resources will appear as no resources are directly linked to the Programme.
Tasks: These are the Tasks of the Programme.
Users can use the eye icon to hide any calendars, resources or tasks that are present in the programme from appearing in the virtual builder menus and selection boxes. This is useful to hiding non-site activities from the virtual builder interface.
Note that hiding a Task or a group of Tasks will hide them from ALL users of the project. |
Refresh (update) a program.
Tobe Builder allows updating a program, which may be desirable on a weekly basis during a project, or more often during a fast-paced tender.
Refreshing the program will open a dialog box to select an XER or other file type. If everything has been done in a very neat and orderly manner by the planner, this will go smoothly. However, in the majority of cases, something breaks. The following should be checked manually:
That the Task_ids are the same. The Task_id is a unique identifier for each P6 Task. It is not visible in the P6 user interface, but appears in the XER file. ToBe Builder relies on this unique identifier. But every time a program is copied within a P6 enterprise database, or copied to another database or a standalone C: installation, these Task_ids are all re-created. This breaks all links to those Tasks. Whilst re-running the search sets should in theory fix this, manual links will have to be exported and re-done, and resourcing, keyframes, annotations and paths may be lost.
That no tasks that matter have been deleted, or changed meaning. Again, this requires checking by Task_id.
That Activity Names (task_name in XER) are unique. Consider if you wish to concatenate the Task_code (Activity ID in P6) to enforce uniqueness.
Prior to refreshing a program, always clone the project. Export the existing program, with all the search sets and manual sets, and save these elsewhere. After the refresh, compare the old and the new. Any loss of search sets and manual sets means the Task_id they were linked to no longer exists in the new program. An outstanding feature request is for a list of Task_ids that have shapes, annotations, resources etc to check if any of these will be lost on program refresh.
Unless you are very sure of the integrity of the P6 planner’s workflow, or that the only changes to the program are date shifts, it is better to process the XER through a clone of the project, then use Excel to check all of the above and re-import using the TSV process.
Creating Tasks in Tobe Builder
If you are not using Asta, MS Project, or Primavera, creating the program is shown in 3.1 above.
Inside VB you can create and edit tasks here. You cannot edit tasks that come from the master program in Asta, P6, Synchro or MS Project. To get these changed you need to talk to the planner. This is to maintain the integrity of program information.
You can create your own Tasks and SubTasks. These will not be overwritten when the program is refreshed.
If master program dates change, sub tasks will remain in the same percentage position relative to the start of the task. Tasks created in VB do not change dates on program refresh.
To create a new Task:
Press Edit Tasks. Gantt mode is activated (if not already) and the Task Creation Bar appears.
Swipe from the start to the finish of the new task you wish to create.
The new task will appear in the timeline, which is ordered by sequence of start date. You may have to scroll down to find it.
It will be named New Task which means if you have a filter active, you will not see it.
You can edit the name of the new task with the pencil icon, and start typing to overwrite. Press Enter to finish editing.
Tasks you create will remain in Tobe for everyone regardless of a program being refreshed. To remove these tasks they must be deleted individually using the bin, or the whole programme can be deleted.
Editing Task Names and Dates
To edit a task name use the edit pencil beside the task. Start typing to overwrite, press Enter to complete. Reminder, this is only possible for Task and SubTasks created in Tobe.
Main Programme Tasks can only be edited in the main programme (Asta, P6 etc).
To change the dates of a task, grab the hand icon. The date picking icons will appear. You can move either end of the task, or click in the middle of the task to slide the entire task without changing the duration.
You can only edit tasks and subtasks created in Tobe (by anyone with access).
Creating and Editing SubTasks
Creating SubTasks uses a similar technique to creating tasks, except you click and drag on the Task instead of the blank bar at the top.
SubTasks will be created in the timeframe on which you drag. These can then be edited and deleted in the same manner as the created Tasks above.
SubTasks must be created within the timespan of the main task.
The number of SubTasks created will appear in a dropdown to the left of the task name. Turn this down to see the tasks if they are not already visible.
When the program is updated, the Sub Tasks will remain the same timeframe from the start of the Task as they were before the update. If this is not possible (i.e. Task has been shortened) the Sub Task will finish at the same time as the Task. In edge cases, this can result in zero length subtasks that you will have to adjust manually.
Resource Timeline
Changing the Timeline to the resource tab will display a full list of resources that are used in your project.
From this menu you can see the use and duration of a resource. From this menu you can also select a task that a resource appears in by clicking the duration bar of the resource.
Resource Timeline of a project
If you want to see a breakdown the days that a resource is allocated to a task then you can click the clock icon above the list to change the task bars from a solid duration to a work day breakdown of a resource.
From the resource timeline you can also edit the animation states of a resource by clicking the camera icon above the resource list.
Note that most animation is best done without using the Resource Timeline, but to work directly in the world using the Animation State window of the Inspector.
Devices Timeline
From Version 2.3 and above, Tobe Builder also can stream in live and historical IoT device locations from Tobe Twin. This means locations, alert and alarm states and other connected information can be displayed within the scene view.
Users can interact with the devices timeline to navigate forward and back in time, the if a devices is selected it will also display a line showing its historical movements over time. The view settings can be updated to show the full history of the device, or weekly, daily or hourly time spans. A full description of the feature can be found under the Tobe Twin features section of the help system.
