Task Linking

In the realm of large scale construction it is standard to maintain a full project lifecycle schedule usually spanning several years. Relatively speaking, optimal output from Fuzor requires micro scheduling, a more detailed and specific scheduling of tasks.

To make a realistic schedule with Fuzor, tasks must be broken down into individual operations. When this is done properly it allows for a holistic and approach to project planning. IDD Teams can perform a detailed and visual audit of the construction simulation before the project begins. This is an opportunity to avoid scheduling issues, safety hazards and modeling errors.

A holistic approach to schedule integrations allows for faster and more accurate turn around time for an ensuing construction simulation audit. After loading new schedule data, each detailed step in a procedure can be reviewed with the revision to the schedule.

Because schedule updates are so integral to Fuzor project management it is important for a Fuzor user to know the best practices to ensure schedule updates run smoothly.

Fuzor enables users to control this by clearly defining the difference between tasks that are imported from other software and should be updated directly by a schedule update and tasks created in Fuzor.

A Macro Task is a task imported into Fuzor from another software. A macro task can also be created in Fuzor but is not recommended if expecting the task to update sensibly when changes are made to the macro schedule.

A Micro Task can only be created in Fuzor. macro tasks have special scheduling logic that responds to the macro task they are linked to.

By default, micro tasks are created instead of macro tasks when using the create construction task button. A macro task needs to be selected in order to add a micro task to the schedule.

Adds a construction micro task to the currently selected macro task. Other Task Types also create micro tasks, by default.

When a micro task is created it is created as the child of the currently selected macro task. This allows users to easily understand the relationship between the micro schedule and the macro schedule. If a micro task is selected when the new task is created it will becreated as a sibiling of that task and a child of the macro task parent.

Micro tasks update start and end dates based on the offset that is introduced to an associated macro task. If the 4D Setting, Scale Micro Task Duration is enabled micro tasks will also scale their durations when the duration of the macro task is changed.

By default, the user cannot edit the macro schedule. Task names and dates of macro tasks appear grey instead of black. The default background color of construction micro tasks is also different. This enables the user to easily distinguish between the micro tasks and macro tasks. The default background color of construction micro

When a change is made to ‘Macro Task’ that changes the start of the ‘Micro task’ Chain all start dates are adjusted by the same amount.

There are two ways to create multiple micro tasks linked together

Creates multiple linked together in a chain as children of the currently selected task. Can be used when creating Micro or Macro Tasks.

Micro tasks can also be created separately and manually linked together using predecessor and successor relationships.

In some situations a user may need to relink a micro task to a new macro task. This may happen due to changes in the construction methodology or because of a mistake. Additionally during schedules updates some tasks may become orphaned. Orphaned tasks need to be relinked to a new macro task before continuing.

Selected to relink a micro task. All micro tasks contain the icon in the relinking column allowing you to relink them at any time.

Selected to relink an orphaned micro task.

After the relinking column in the micro task is selected a macro task is needed to relink the micro task too. The same column is used to select the macro task. A different Icon is used to denote a macro task.

Selected to denote the macro task that the micro task is being relinked too.

Chains of micro tasks are always linked together. only a sequential chain can be relinked at a time. a micro task with multiple predecessors or successors cannot be relinked. Predecessors and successors may need to be temporarily removed before relinking a specific chain of tasks.

In some situations the user may need to edit task data in the macro schedule. The user also may be creating a schedule entirely in Fuzor and does not need to use the Macro-Micro relationship.

The Micro and Macro radio button toggle between macro and micro scheduling modes. When in the radio button is set to micro the user can only create and edit micro tasks. when the radio button is set to macro the user can edit any task, but can only create macro tasks.

A Construction task is the only task type than can be created as a macro task. However the task type of a macro task can be changed to any Fuzor task type after it is created.

A macro schedule is updated by importing a XML or CSV or by Column Mapping a spreadsheet. For both methods micro tasks update thier durations based on changes to thier associated macro task.

When a XML or CSV is imported the gantt chart is automatically filtered to only display tasks associated with changes to micro tasks in the schedule. During the session the update is conducted the Show Merge Changes checkbox controls whether this filter is active.

The Show Merge Changes checkbox toggles whether microtasks and associated macrotasks with changes are isolated in the gantt chart.

Importing and Updating Schedules provides general information about updating by importing entire schedules using a new XML or CSV.

Column Mapping provides general information about updating by column mapping in data from XLSX and CSV Spreadsheets. Column mapping does not enable the Show Merge Changes filter.

Sometimes tasks are deleted when a schedule update is made. This means that there are macro tasks in Fuzor that do not exist in the updated XML.

When Using Merge By ID there is an option to delete tasks with assigned objects. macro tasks that have no objects assigned will always be deleted if not included in the XML update.

When a macro task is deleted the user is prompted to decide whether they would like micro tasks with deleted macro task to automatically relink to another macro task with the closest date or if they would like to manually relink micro tasks back to the macro schedule.

If manually relinking is desired any micro tasks that are children of deleted macro tasks will become orphaned.

Orphaned micro tasks always appear at the top of the gantt chart. In order to continue working the micro tasks need to be remapped to new macro tasks. The relinking column is used for to remap the micro task to a new macro task.

Selected to relink an orphaned micro task. for more information see Relinking Micro Tasks.