Further Improving Performance of P6 Professional Cloud Connect

There are further possibilities for improving the performance of P6 Professional when using Cloud Connect. All of these suggestions are optional and might not be suitable for specific users' circumstances. Because the Primavera Cache Service uses a local copy of portions of the database stored on the cloud, these suggestions focus on reducing the amount of data that must be downloaded from the server when the user logs in. After the user has logged in and P6 Professional opens, the application refers mostly to the local database, so login time is when the majority of data transfer between the user's computer and the database stored on the cloud occurs.

User Security

Login performance is affected by the amount of data that needs to be loaded during the login process. If a user has access to more data than they need, P6 Professional will load unnecessary data from the server when the user logs in. Evaluate user privilege assignments to ensure that your users have access to only relevant data.

Redundant Data

Regularly remove unused global objects from the system, including unused UDFs and Code assignments. Most pages in the Enterprise Data section of P6 allow you to analyze the usage of the data type managed on that page and delete data that is no longer needed.

Use the Welcome Dialog

Enable the Welcome dialog from User Preferences dialog box to allow users to select the project they intend to work in at application startup. Selecting a project at startup ensures that P6 Professional does not load data for projects the user does not intend to work in at the beginning of their session. If the user opens a different project later in the session, the application will download the relevant project's data at that time.

Only enable the Welcome dialog if the user works on multiple projects. If a user works on the same project consistently, having to select a project in the Welcome dialog will unnecessarily add an extra step to their login process.

To configure the Welcome dialog:

Log in to P6 Professional.
From the toolbar, select Tools and then click User Preferences.
In the Application Startup Window menu, under the Application tab, select None.
Select the Show the Welcome dialog at startup checkbox.
Exit the User Preferences dialog box.

Portfolios

If your users use the All Projects portfolio, P6 Professional will load all the projects in the database to which the user has access. Instead, you or the user can create a new portfolio that includes only the projects they need. When the Welcome box is enabled, the user can then select the relevant limited portfolio. There is also a No Projects portfolio a user can open when logging in to the application.

To create a new portfolio:

Log in to P6 Professional.
From the toolbar, select Enterprise and then click Project Portfolios.
Click Add to create a new portfolio.
Add the required projects to the portfolio.
From the toolbar, select File and then click Select Project Portfolio.
Select the portfolio.

Note: Ensure EPS bands only for projects in current portfolio option is selected when opening a portfolio.

Configuring Startup Options

Startup options allow you to specify that P6 Professional should load only the resources, roles, OBS structure, activity codes, and cost accounts applicable to the current project at start up time. This can considerably reduce the amount of data being retrieved from the cloud connect server. It is also possible to specify that P6 Professional should not load all the summary data for all the resources you have seleced to download.

To configure the startup options:

Log in to P6 Professional.
From the toolbar, select Edit and then click User Preferences.
Under the Startup Filters tab, clear the Resource Summary Data checkbox.
Select the current project data; this only applies to for Resources, Roles, OBS, Activity Codes, and Cost Accounts.

Improving Functional Performance

The following suggestions can also improve functional performance:

Use Exclusive mode to open projects to perform actions, such as updating the schedule. Only the user that opens a project in Exclusive mode can edit it; other users are prevented from making changes.
Use filters wherever possible to reduce the amount of data that is loaded or displayed.
Import new data from Excel when there is a need to create a lot of data items (for example, populating a new project with activities). P6 Professional commits data whenever a new row is added. If your network or Internet connection experiences high latency, it can take longer for data to be committed. To reduce this time, create a local Excel file and then import then data using XLSX import.
Alternatively, you can use a Standalone SQLite database to enter the data and use XML export/import to move the data to main database. See the P6 Professional Installation and Configuration Guide (Standalone) for details.
Import layouts separately from projects when doing XML import. This allows the import to run in the background.
Schedule recurring tasks in P6. For example, you can configure P6 to summarizer, apply actuals, and schedule your projects during off-peak hours.
Avoid frequently scheduling projects.
Use Refresh (F5) only when necessary because it forces P6 Professional to reload data from the server.

Resetting User Preferences

When a user has become locked out of P6 Professional Cloud Connect, the cause is sometimes that the record in the database which stores their user preferences has become corrupt. Administrators can delete user preferences on the User Administration page for those users to allow them back into P6 Professional Cloud Connect. When you delete a user's preferences, that user's preferences will be reset to the defaults so they might choose to re-configure their preferences when they are able to log back into P6 Professional Cloud Connect. If the user has access to P6, they can delete their preferences themselves on the My Preferences page.

To reset users' preferences:

Log into P6 as a user with administrative privileges.
Click Administration.
On the Administration navigation bar, click User Administration.
On the User Administration page, click Users.
On the Users page:
1. Select the users whose preferences you want to reset.
2. Click Row Actions and click Reset User Preferences.
On the Users page, click Save.
Note: Users must be logged out of P6 Professional Cloud Connect before you reset their preferences. When they log back into P6 Professional Cloud Connect they must select the Reinitialize local cache option for the database.

Last Published Tuesday, April 1, 2025