XER 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 XER enables you to apply a resource to an activity repeatedly using resource lags and durations.
XER projects intended for use with the SDEF interface should comply with the SDEF specification. There is no requirement to utilize the additional capabilities that XER offers because the SDEF file structure cannot store the additional data.
Consider the following items when exchanging data between the XER and SDEF formats:
- Activity description: The SDEF file structure only allows activity descriptions up to 30 characters long. When converting XER files 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 XER 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, projects should not contain activity IDs longer than ten characters. If activity IDs must be longer than ten characters in XER, 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 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 defined as the activity’s budget cost divided by its budget quantity. The Oracle Primavera SDEF conversion conforms to this standard.
- Data mapping: The following table describes how some XER data is converted to SDEF.
SDEF Field | XER Field or Calculation |
|---|---|
Total Qty | Planned/Budgeted Units for the activity assignment
|
Cost Per Unit | Planned/Budgeted Cost divided by the Planned/Budgeted Units for the activity assignment
|
Qty to Date | Actual Units for the activity assignment
|
Activity Cost | Planned/Budgeted 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 User-defined Field (STMA)” for more information |
- Durations: The SDEF standard does not support durations longer than 999 days. If your XER 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.
- Required User-Defined Field Named STMA: SDEF files use a numeric field named STMA for the stored material cost data associated with an activity. By default, this field does not exist in XER. When converting an SDEF file to XER, if the STMA field does not exist as a user-defined field (UDF) in the XER project, it will be automatically created during the import process. If the STMA UDF was previously defined in a project (to be used for a different purpose), you should rename the pre-existing UDF before importing an SDEF file.
To store this data in an XER project before you convert it to SDEF, you must create an Activity UDF named STMA. This UDF must have a Data Type of Number. If you do not create this UDF, the STMA field will be blank when you convert an XER file to an SDEF file.
- Required User-Defined Fields Named Contract Number and Contractor Name: SDEF files contain fields named Contract Number and Contractor Name. These fields do not exist in XER by default. When converting an SDEF file to XER, if the Contract Number and Contractor Name fields do not exist as user-defined fields in the XER project, they will be automatically created during the import process. If the Contract Number and Contractor Name UDFs were previously defined in a project (to be used for a different purpose), you should rename them before importing an SDEF file.
To store this data in a project before you convert it to SDEF, create Project UDFs named 'Contract Number' and 'Contractor Name'. These UDFs must have a Data Type of Text. If you do not create these UDFs, the Contract Number and Contractor Name fields will be blank when you convert an XER file to an SDEF file.
In SDEF files, values in the Contract Number field cannot be longer than six characters. When a Contract Number UDF value is more than six characters, this value is truncated to the first six characters when you convert to SDEF.
- Suspend and resume dates: The SDEF standard does not recognize suspend and resume dates, so suspend and resume dates are not exported to SDEF.