Considerations When Converting a Project to SDEF
Primavera Cloud projects can store far more data than the SDEF specification requires. For example, the SDEF file structure allows for only one application of a resource per activity, while Primavera Cloud enables you to apply a resource to an activity repeatedly using assignment lags and durations.
Primavera Cloud projects intended for use with the SDEF interface should comply with the SDEF specification. There is no requirement to utilize the additional capabilities that Primavera Cloud offers because the SDEF file structure cannot store the additional data.
The following explains what you should expect and how you should structure your data when exchanging projects between Primavera Cloud and SDEF formats.
Restrictions Relating to Fields and Data Types
- Activity description: The SDEF file structure only allows activity descriptions up to 30 characters long. When converting XER files exported from Primavera Cloud to SDEF, only the first 30 characters of the description are exported.
- Activity ID: The SDEF standard does not support activity IDs longer than ten characters, while Primavera Cloud projects may contain activity IDs longer than ten characters. Activity IDs are truncated to the first ten characters when converting a project to SDEF. Due to this truncation, it is possible that duplicate activity IDs will be encountered during the conversion; if so, the conversion is aborted. To ensure that conversions to SDEF are not aborted, ensure projects do not contain activity IDs longer than ten characters. If activity IDs must be longer than ten characters in Primavera Cloud, the first ten characters must be unique.
- Activity limit: SDEF files cannot contain more than 10,000 activities. When converting XER files to SDEF, only the first 10,000 activities are exported.
- Activity totals: The SDEF file structure does not store individual resource budgets as XER does. Instead, SDEF stores total budgeted cost and total budgeted units for each activity. The conversion utility totals costs and units for each activity's resources in conformance with the SDEF standard.
- Calendars: Calendars names in SDEF are only one character; therefore, calendar names from XER are truncated to one character. You are limited to 36 calendars in SDEF (A through Z and 0 through 9).
- Cost per unit: The SDEF standard uses a calculated cost per unit for each activity. SDEF calculates the cost per unit as the activity's budget cost divided by its budget quantity. The Oracle Primavera SDEF conversion conforms to this standard.
- Durations: The SDEF standard does not support durations longer than 999 days. If your Primavera Cloud project contains durations longer than 999 days, these durations will convert to zero in the SDEF file.
- Expenses: The SDEF standard does not support expenses, so expenses are not exported to SDEF.
- Milestones: The SDEF standard does not recognize the use of activities as milestones. If your project uses milestones, the converter stores these as zero-duration activities.
- Suspend and resume dates: The SDEF standard does not recognize suspend and resume dates, so suspend and resume dates are not exported to SDEF.
Data mapping
The following table describes how some XER data is converted to SDEF.
SDEF Field | XER Field or Calculation |
|---|---|
Total Qty | Planned Units for the activity assignment. |
Cost Per Unit | Planned Cost divided by the Planned Units for the activity assignment. |
Qty to Date | Actual Units for the activity assignment. |
Activity Cost | Planned Cost for the activity assignment. |
Cost to Date | Actual Regular Cost for the assignment plus the Stored Material Cost (STMA) amount for the activity. Note: The Stored Material Cost is derived from the Activity UDF named 'STMA'. Refer to Required Configured Fields for more information. |
Required Configured Fields
Some data fields required by the SDEF format do not exist in the XER format by default. You must create these fields as configured fields Primavera Cloud. These configured fields will be exported to user-defined Fields (UDFs) in the XER file.
When converting an SDEF file to XER, if these fields do not exist as UDFs in the XER project, they will be created automatically during the import process. If the configured fields were previously defined in Primavera Cloud (to be used for a different purpose), you should rename the pre-existing configured fields before importing an SDEF file.
When converting an XER file to SDEF, if these fields do not exist as UDFs in the XER, the SDEF fields will be blank when you convert the exported XER file to an SDEF file.
Configured Field Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
STMA | Number | The stored material cost data associated with an activity. |
Contract Number | Text | The identifying number of the contract. Note This field cannot be longer than six characters. If any values in this field are longer than six characters, the data will be truncated to the first six characters when you convert to SDEF. |
Contractor Name | Text | The name of the contractor. Note This field cannot be longer than 36 characters. |
Required Codes
The US Army Corps of Engineers requires all projects to use a predefined activity code structure. This structure specifies the name and maximum length of each activity code in the project. The SDEF format adheres to this structure; therefore, all Primavera Cloud projects being exported to SDEF format must have an activity code structure that exactly matches the predefined structure.
The following table shows the required activity code structure:
Code | Max Length | Description |
|---|---|---|
WRKP | 3 | Workers Per day |
RESP | 4 | Responsibility |
AREA | 4 | Area |
MODF | 6 | MOD or Claim # |
BIDI | 6 | Bid Item |
PHAS | 2 | Phase |
CATW | 1 | Category of work |
FOW | 30 | Feature of work |
Note
- The Description column is for your information only. XER does not support activity code descriptions, and SDEF does not require them. When creating the activity code structure, you only need to create each code and specify the maximum length. You also need to make sure you define each activity code as an activity code in the workspace to which the project belongs.
- When converted, the code value for the Feature of Work activity code displays in the Activity Codes Description column of the XER file, and a unique code value is generated by the converter. For all other activity codes, the code value displays in the Activity Codes Code Value column of the XER file.
Last Published Monday, August 18, 2025