Scheduling Calendars

Scheduling calendars are applied to the project and are used to configure the following using the corresponding tab along the top of the screen:

General - Define standard working and non-working hours for each day of the week - the default is a 24-hour working day, seven days a week. You can specify weekends as working or non-working. This represents the 'shift pattern'. You set this up using the Generate a Custom Scheduling Calendars screen.

The settings of this screen are described further below.
Holidays/Exceptions - Mark a date or range of dates as a non-working period (for example, public holidays and shut-down periods) even though those dates are working days by default. Exceptions are any specific date to have different working hours to the standard working hours. These periods are also defined using the Generate a Custom Scheduling Calendars screen.

See Scheduling Calendars: Holidays/Exceptions.
Shifts - Define the general shifts that apply if a more specific shift pattern doesn't exist.

See Scheduling Calendars: Shifts.

Note: The screens above can only be used for calendar editing if Detailed Downtime is inactive.
Detailed Downtime - Display a detailed breakdown of non-working time over the scheduling calendar.

See Scheduling Calendars: Detailed Downtime.

Warning: If you display Detailed Downtime, you can only use this screen to edit the calendar from that point onwards.

The calendar details specify when work can take place, what the working hours for each day are etc. The duration conversions determine how DTS will interpret the duration units days, weeks, months and years.

These calendar events can be generated according to logical patterns (by clicking Generate), but can also be entered manually (by selecting a calendar date and setting it to Default, Work or Non-work.

How Durations are Stored in DTS

On the General screen, there are Duration Conversions settings.

These are important settings that determine how durations are converted between different interval types (days, weeks and so on).

DTS stores durations internally in minutes. Hence, if you enter a duration or a rate in days, DTS uses conversion factors to convert the entry into minutes. If you were to change the duration conversions afterwards, the number of minutes would still be identical, but could be shown as a different number of days.

For example, consider a calendar that works 24 hours per day Monday to Friday and 12 hours per day on Saturday and Sunday.

Intuitively, you would expect that 1 day equals 24 hours, and 12 hours equals half a day. If your duration conversion was set that 1 day equals 24 hours, then specifying a task duration of 5 days would result in a duration of 5 x 24 x 60 = 7,200 minutes. If you now change the duration conversion by clicking Reset from calendar, DTS sets the number of hours per day to 20.57 which is the average number of hours per day in a standard week.

Consequently, the task duration, which was entered as 5d with a conversion factor of 24h/d, i.e. 7,200 minutes, would now report a task duration of 7,200 / 60 / 20.57 = 5.83d. The content of work (7,200 minutes) has not changed, just the representation.

The General Screen

Note: If Detailed Downtime is not being displayed, you can edit the contents of the table on this screen (otherwise, the Detailed Downtime screen must be used instead).

<name> – The list of defined scheduling calendars. By default, the <Standard> calendar is listed.
<calendar panel> – The calendar displays a portion of the overall scheduling calendar. Use the scrollbar on the right to adjust the displayed time period.
Shift Start – Specifies the starting time for a working day. By default, this is 0:00. To modify the standard starting working time, enter the time that you want in the required format.

Note: The time format is set in the Date/Time screen. Remember that changes to the scheduling calendar are reflected in the project schedule.
Shift End – Specifies the ending time for a working day. By default, this is 24:00. To modify the standard starting working time, enter the time that you want in the required format.
Locked – Select this field to lock the filter. When this field is selected, the filter displays with a lock next to it and grayed out so that you cannot adjust the settings until you unlock the screen:
Default – Set dates that currently have edited working hours (dates displayed in yellow) to normal working dates.

Note: You cannot use this button if the range of dates is selected using the day of the week.
Work – Set dates that are currently set as non-working dates (displayed in gray) to normal working dates.

Note: This button has no effect on dates that have defined working hours (Edited working hours).
Non-work – Set selected dates or selected days of the week, to non-working days (displayed in gray).
Generate – Display the Generate Custom Calendar screen which allows you to generate huge calendars with multiple shift patterns.
Duration Conversions – This grid specifies the duration conversions that will be used when you enter durations or rates anywhere in DTS.

These conversions are the number of hours per day, number of days per week, number of days per month, and number of days per year.
Reset from calendar Recalculate the duration conversions from the current calendar settings. See "How durations are stored in DTS" before you do this, to avoid unexpected outcomes.