Release Notes
Activity Symbols for the Bar Chart
Recording Notes and Progress History Against Activities
Associating other Applications Files to Activities
Fisheye Bar Chart Report
Extended Support for Free Float
Other Revisions

The ability to add a couple of standard symbols and/or a short text message to annotate the bar chart report was introduced to Hornet Windmill in earlier releases. The facility allows one or two symbols to be associated to an activity bar, positioning each symbol at early start date, early finish date, or various other locations. The colour and style of the symbol can be specified. In a similar way, a text string can be added which will be drawn (in a selected colour) above, alongside, in front or behind a particular date.

This feature provides a very useful method of annotating a bar chart at given dates in the schedule. By associating the symbols to activity dates then the symbols will be automatically re-positioned when the scheduled dates on the activity are changed. In this release the following enhancements have been made:-

1. The data values have been moved from the Activity Notepad data fields to a new section in the Activity Memo data fields. This internal change removes any conflicts between the Symbols and other uses of the Notepad fields; a conversion utility is provided for projects using the earlier data format.
2. Access to the symbols may now be achieved from the activity data grid - click the mouse in the cell showing a flag icon (or press the key F11 or select the item Set Activity Symbols... from the View menu). The flag icon will be red if symbols have been defined for the activity, grey if not.
3. Symbols may be shown on the screen bar chart display; a selection check box is shown on the Bar Chart Options... panel accessed from the Layout menu.
4. The Standard Reports include an option to show Activity Symbols on the bar chart (located on the Barstyle tab); for custom report instructions use the BARLINE command.

Further details on Activity Symbols are included on a separate help page.

A new Notes section has been created as part of the main activity data values. This section is designed to allow you to record notes against activities on an ongoing basis, e.g. to jot down key points to be resolved, progress issues as the task is undertaken, reasons for delays, references to drawings or other documents. Each note entry is a single text string of up to approximately 120 characters; entries are automatically timed and dated when entered or modified. The number of notes entries is dynamic allowing you to record virtually any level of detail on the progress of each activity.

You can access the new notes data panel by moving the marquee on the Activity Data Grid to the column showing the notes icon (a pen tip and line design); click in this cell to display the pop-up panel containing the notes data. The notes icon will be shown in grey if no notes have been defined or coloured if entries have already been made. The panel can also be accessed by pressing the F9 key, or by selecting Progress Notes... from the View menu.

Within the Standard Reports the Activity Data Listing report has been extended to include a format that lists the Notes entries.

Further details on Activity Progress Notes re included on a separate help page.

This new section to Hornet allows you to link or associate the files or objects from other applications on your computer to activities in your project. These associations may be made to any application type, for example word processing documents (letters, reports, memos etc.), spreadsheet worksheets, drawing files etc. Any number of associations may be entered for each activity and you can access the target file directly simply by clicking on the Run button on the pop-up panel. Access to other application files uses the standard Windows 'Associations' as created within the File Manager.

You can access the new associations data panel by moving the marquee on the Activity Data Grid to the grid showing the associations icon (an arrow and door design); click the mouse in the cell to display the data. The panel can also be accessed by pressing the Ctrl + F9 key, or by selecting Associations... from the View menu.

The data panel includes command buttons for Run... and Browse... which give direct access to the creation of new associations, or to access existing file entries.

There is a wide range of possibilities in the application and further details on Activity Associated Files are included on a separate help page.

When a project duration is long, covering several months or years, the normal bar chart report does not always give an ideal overview to the project.

In order to get the report to fit a single sheet the horizontal timescale is so compressed that you cannot get a detailed view of what is happening now. In order to show the current time period in sufficient detail either you have to print only part of project period, or print several sheets and stick them together to give a grand overview.

This new report, the Fisheye Bar Chart will overcome this problem. The report is very similar to the Quality Bar Chart, but an extra tab on the settings mask lets you define a series of sections to the time-scale. So:

• show the first completed six months of the project as a narrow strip on the first 20% of the sheet;
• show the current working two months over the central 60% of the sheet;
• show the final 2 years of the project in the right most 20% of the sheet.

Print the report out - one sheet showing current work in full detail whilst still showing an overview of past and future work schedules. For more details see the help page on the Fisheye Bar Chart.

The calculation of Free Float for an activity has been extended within Hornet and is now available in all the following sections and displays:-

• The schedule button on the main Activity Data Grid will calculate free float for all activities in the project and show this value in the data grid displays;
• Any free float period that is part of an activities total float period will be drawn as a double line on the screen bar chart display panel;
• Free float has been added to all graphics bar chart utilities (GBS utility files) and will be included on all printed reports. If this is not required then you should remove the item FR_FLT from the current GBS file (all float will then be shown as Total Float).

Other options and facilities that have been revised in this release of Hornet Windmill:

1. The LOAD [/LGD] report instruction command has been extended to allow multiple legend files to be loaded. This allows for extended legends to be built up for complex custom applications, or for legends to be compiled on a 'multiple-choice' basis where several permutations on legends are required.
2. The report format designs may now include compound legend statements directly (rather than two separate legend statements). The following example will reduce the space needed for the full entry:
       [lgnd$(1) + tlgnd$(1) ]
3. The PREPORT command has been extended with new options /X and /Y; this simplifies the printing of reports when the footer area is reached and extra items like logos are required.
4. Resource histogram profiles may now be calculated with a /% option to convert the values to total 100% - used in some applications of s-curves. Also an existing profile may be converted to an s-curve or percentage basis by combining the /N option (do not calculate) with other options /S, /% and /T. See Resource Calculation Options help page.
5. As each new resource is defined under the Resource Management section, Hornet automatically creates a Select and Sort file (SAS) that will select all activities allocated to that resource.
6. New functions with the Report Instructions have been added to both read and write the new memo class data records (these are used for notes, symbols, associations and other custom applications). See functions LOADMEMOS, MEMOITEM$, SETMITEM.
7. The Report Instruction functions DCOORD$( ) and COORD$( ) have been extended to support incremental row/column numbers (and not just integer values). This extension is useful in applications that require specific co-ordinate positioning of items on bar charts.
8. A new Report Instruction function RALLOC has been added to the system that will add values directly into a resource profile. This function can be used when calculating resource usage from stored data files (e.g. historic timesheet data) or from other activity data parameters.