Primavera P6 Alternative for Construction Programmes (Opens XER Files)

A Primavera P6 alternative for construction programmes

Primavera P6 is the standard on large projects, and if you are a main contractor's planner on a major scheme you will probably keep using it. But plenty of people who have to work with P6 programmes - subcontractors, consultants, clients, smaller contractors - need to read, update and check them without a P6 licence and the database behind it. Here is what to look for in an alternative, and how Metre2 Programme Studio covers it, gaps included.

Published 9 Nov 20265 min readBy metre2

What a P6 alternative has to do

Open XER and P6 XML properly: the WBS, calendars with their exceptions, activity codes, user-defined fields, resources, baselines and progress, not just the activity list.
Schedule like P6: retained logic or progress override, the calendar for lags, total float as finish, start or the smaller of the two, critical by float or longest path. Otherwise the dates move just by opening the file.
Save back to P6: so the programme can be imported into the main contractor's P6 database again.
The planning tools you actually use: progress updates against a data date, baselines, schedule checks, delay analysis, printing.

How Programme Studio compares

Files: opens P6 XER and XML, MS Project XML, .mpx, Excel and CSV; .mpp and Asta files with your agreement through a server conversion. Pro saves XER, P6 XML, MS Project XML, MPX, Excel and IFC 4.3.
Scheduling: the critical path method on each activity's own calendar, with P6's options. Its tests compare the dates with the ones P6 saved in its own files.
Planning tools (Pro): progress updates, 11 baselines, revisions, time impact and windows analysis, the 14-point check and an NEC4 checklist, resources with levelling, cash flow and earned value, Monte Carlo risk, line of balance and time-chainage, A1 printing.
Where it runs: in the browser, with nothing to install, and the programme stays on your computer.

Where P6 is still the right tool

Programme Studio works on one programme at a time on your own computer. It has no shared enterprise database, no portfolio of projects with a common resource pool, no user permissions or check-in and check-out, and no timesheets. If you run many linked projects with a planning team in one P6 EPPM database, keep P6 and use Programme Studio where a licence isn't justified: for subcontractors, reviewers and site teams.

Moving a programme between them

Open the .xer in Programme Studio, work on it, and export an .xer or P6 XML file; in P6, import it with File > Import as a new project or to update the existing one. Activity codes, user fields, calendars, resources, baselines and progress go both ways.

Price

Oracle sells P6 Professional per user, as a perpetual licence with annual support or as a subscription through its cloud services, usually through resellers; check current prices with Oracle or a reseller. Programme Studio is free to open and view programmes of any size and to build or edit programmes of up to 50 activities; Pro, with every planning tool and no activity limit, is £29.99 a month or £249 a year, with a 7-day free trial.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free alternative to Primavera P6?

Programme Studio is free for opening and viewing P6 programmes of any size, with the critical path, float, schedule checks and A4/A3 printing, and for building and editing programmes of up to 50 activities. Saving back to P6 and the advanced planning tools are part of Pro.

Can I edit a P6 programme without P6?

Yes. Open the .xer in Programme Studio, edit it (free up to 50 activities, any size with Pro) and export it back to XER or P6 XML.

Will the dates match P6?

Programme Studio uses the same critical path method and scheduling options as P6, and reads the options saved in the file. If the programme was saved without being rescheduled in P6, its stored dates may differ from what the logic gives; Programme Studio shows what the logic gives.