You can access the Gantt view for a project via the Gantt View button on the ribbon within the Project Explorer.

This will open the Gantt View interface in its own window.

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Any task initially added to a Gantt chart is considered a "Planning Task" and is not the same as a Task in SI used for scheduling. However, SI tasks can be created from planning tasks.

Both the Add and Insert menus provide similar functionality, except that:

All the examples in this article use the Add option.

When you add or insert a task to the Gantt view, its name will default to "Task [X]" where "X" is the next available number in the list.

In the example above, you can see that the duration came in at 8 hrs, which is the default value in the Task Settings in the Control Panel.

You can manually edit the Duration field and Start and End dates directly in the Gantt View grid. You can enter your duration in hours or days.

Task durations also factor in the weekdays, weekends, and holidays specified in the Business Hours and Holidays setting and will span the chart accordingly.

You can use the Indent button to create summary tasks. A Summary task is any task with at least one other task indented beneath it (a subtask) in the grid.

The duration of a summary task is a combination of the duration of all of its subtasks (the ones indented beneath it) and is also dependent on the start dates and the Business Hours and Holidays settings.

Example: In the example below, Task 2 with a duration of 2 days and Task 3 with a duration of 1 day were indented, and now Task 1 is a summary task.

Notice that the duration for the summary task is 2 days.

This is because the start date for the subtasks has not yet been set, and each subtask is set to start on the same day.

In the screenshot below, Task 3 was dragged to next week, and now the duration of the summary task is 4 days. This is because the start date of Task 3 is after the weekend, and the weekend was ignored as per the Business Hours and Holidays settings.

A "Predecessor" is an indicator you add for a task to signal that it is dependent on a previous task. The task that is a dependency is called the "Predecessor task," and the dependent task is called the "Successor task."

Predecessors can be of different types.

In SI, you can add any of the four types of predecessors. To add a predecessor, you should have a minimum of 2 planning tasks.

To add a predecessor:

1/ click in the Predecessors cell of the task for which you want to add the predecessor, and click the gray button on the right side.

This will open a dialog with the following columns to add predecessors.

2/ Add the predecessor(s), and click Select.

The following screenshot shows three tasks, numbered 1, 2, and 3. We added two FS predecessors for Task 3: Task 2 with a lag of one day, and Task 1 with a lag of 4 days. So, the Predecessors (With Lag) column for Task 3 reads "2FS+1d, 1FS+4d.

If you want to see the successor values (in terms of the lag) for the predecessor tasks, select Display Successors in the Options group on the ribbon.

You will see a new column "Successors" with the successor values.

Any task can be marked as a "Milestone" by checking the box in the grid. A milestone can be useful to mark achievements.

Milestones technically don't have a duration and are denoted by a diamond shape on the Gantt chart. When you check the box to make a task a milestone, the duration value will not change, but you can manually set it to zero if needed.

You can assign resources to tasks in the Gantt view. The resources are on your users' list in SI.

This is the last of the manually editable fields in the Gantt view. This field synchronizes to and from planning tasks converted to SI tasks.

You have the option to add or insert tasks from a project's list of phases, systems, and locations to the Gantt view.

You can add up to three levels, but you have the option to choose only one.

When you add multiple selections, the previous level will be created as summary tasks.

You can always change this via the Indent and Outdent functionality once they have been added to the Gantt view interface.

In the next step, you choose which items from your levels you want to add to the Gantt view, and you can position them in any order you choose using the Move Up arrow and the Move Down arrow.

Notice that the hours for each item are displayed. If you have chosen more than one level, there will be multiple tabs for you to make your selections.

The final step is verification of your selections, and click Finish.

When these are added to the Gantt view, notice that the Budgeted Hours column is populated with the hours from the project. This field is read-only and can be used for reference when adjusting your duration.

These columns are read-only and are also for reference that the tasks were created from project data, if you rename the tasks.

A powerful feature of the Gantt view interface is the ability to use your own custom Checklists to add or insert a list of tasks.

In the next step, you can choose the items you want to add to the Gantt view.

Click the Finish button when ready, and your selections from the checklist will be added or inserted into the Gantt view list of tasks.

Notice that in this example, the hierarchy of the checklist was respected, and the "Rough-In" task was created as a summary task.

If any of the items on the checklist were assigned a role, the planning task added to the Gantt view will be assigned to the resource matching the role within the project.

You can move or copy selected planning tasks (one or multiple at a time) once they've been added to the Gantt view.

Once you select the planning task you want to move or copy, click the appropriate button, and a form similar to the one shown below will be displayed.

Choose a task position and then choose to move, or copy, above or below.

You have the option of converting any planning task in the Gantt view interface to an SI task used to schedule work to be completed. Summary tasks and milestones cannot be converted to SI tasks.

Select the tasks you want to convert and click the Convert button.

You will see a message similar to the one shown below letting you know what will happen.

Once you save the Gantt view, the tasks will be created as SI tasks. If resources have been assigned to the task, these assignments will sync to the SI task.

When you click Yes on the message above, the selected tasks now display with a checkmark in the SI Task column, but they do not yet exist in SI and won't be created until you save the Gantt view.

Once you save the Gantt view, the planning tasks will be created as SI asks, and the SI Number column will display the SI task number.

The SI Task Status field will also populate. This read-only field syncs from the SI task to the Gantt view.

One additional feature exists when converting planning tasks to SI tasks from planning tasks that were added to the project. Since these tasks comprise stand-alone or combined groupings (phase/system/location), you will be prompted whether or not you want all of the corresponding items from the project to be added to the SI tasks automatically.

There is a Quick Filter feature to allow you to filter planning tasks by Duration or Budgeted Hours.