Release Notes: Windmill V7.2.1e and 7.2.1f

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Standard Reports and Report Instructons
The following topics within the Reporting sections have been revised for releases 7.2.1e and 7.2.1f of Hornet Windmill.
  1. New standard report style of Combined Bar Chart and Histogram. The report shows a bar chart display and includes a standard histogram panel in the footer section of each page of the report. The histogram may include up to 8 different resource profiles and all the standard style options are supported.
  2. The calendar style on all bar chart and histogram reports has been upgraded; dates are shown left justified on the display and tick marks have been added to show day or week intervals. It is recommended that you set the font style on your GraWin configuration to give a 'Bold' style for Font 1 (used for all general text) and a 'Normal' style for Font 2, which is used specifically for the calendar display. The result is to tone down the weight of the calendar text giving a neater style to the report. You could also try an 'Italic' style of text if you wish to add a distinctive appearance to the report.
  3. The use of line styles has been extended for all reports with thicker lines used for border outlines and ruled lines, and thinner lines for grid lines on bar charts, histograms and within calendar scales. The result has been to lessen the impact of the calendar grids on a bar chart whilst enhancing the thickness of logic links when added to the report. Line styles and colours can be adjusted by changing the settings within the current GDV utility file.
  4. The setting of Minimum Calendar Division on reports has been extended to include new settings Months, Quarters and Years. This gives increased control over the style of bar chart reports; the setting is shown on the BarStyle tab.
  5. A new line type style has been introduced (code reference 106) to access the default Windows line styles. These lines are useful for adding background grids to bar charts as the line is guaranteed to be a width of only one pixel. Various styles are supported including solid, dotted, dashed etc. and may be configured using the current GDV utility file.
  6. The use of Coarse Bitmaps for the printing of fill styles within GraWin has been upgraded. In Windows all bit map styles are drawn as a pixel based style on the target device, e.g. screen or printer. The result is a chunky design on screen displays but the design merges to a uniform grey scale on a high resolution printer (600 dpi laser jet or colour printer/plotter). GraWin now substitutes a range of internal hatching and cross hatching styles when this option is selected on the Control Settings panel of Options pull down menu. Unfortunately the substituted style do not match the standard Windows fill styles, however the results are guaranteed to be distinctive. You should also check your printer configuration options, some drivers do support options to prevent the grey scale effect of bit maps which will give you an ideal result.
  7. The Notes entry on the report control mask for all Standard Reports (the Notes tab) has been upgraded to support a single multi-line text box control. Enter the required text as one or more paragraphs (use CTRL + RETURN to start a new paragraph) and Hornet will format the text to fit the available space.
  8. The inclusion of Company Logos has been made much easier on all Standard Reports by the inclusion of a BMP class file selection for both logos (replaces the previous INS file entry). To include a logo ensure the required bit map file (.BMP) is held in the Hornet UTIL.HOR directory, then select the required entry on the report Output tab. Hornet will scale the logo image to fit the available space whilst preserving the aspect ratio of the design.
  9. On an earlier release the depiction of the Project Date (or time now) on a bar chart report was extended to show a vertical line. This has now been extended further to show as a zigzag line when the report is drawn in a progress style - an archive schedule with current progress marked on the bars.
  10. The use of Global Select and Sort to prepare a report that spans a series of sub-networks has been improved for all Standard Reports. If this type of report is required given a Select and Sort file that includes a network range selection (similar to the standard GLOBAL.SAS file), then use the check box and selection list box at the bottom of the reports General tab to prepare your reporting selection. You can extend this by enabling either the Main or Sub Headings (on the Headings & Groups tab) and typing the word NETWORK into the adjacent list box (you will need to type the entry). This will instruct Hornet to show the network title as the required heading control on the report.
  11. A new option Highlight Critical Activities has been added to the Barstyle tab on standard bar chart reports. This option will draw a red border outline to activity bars that are classified as Critical. This option is useful when the bars are drawn using the task colour/fill styles and is similar to the display shown on the main bar chart screen display.
  12. The default settings for Headings and Sub Headings text on reports have been changed. First the colours have been reversed to reflect those on the main Activity Data Grid display (Red for Main Headings, Blue for Sub Headings). Second the default text heights have been reduced slightly to give a better fit to the report page and avoiding the need to add extra lines above and below the headings. These values are set in the current GDV utility file and if you prefer to use the previous size settings then select the file STD_COLL (instead of STD_COL) as the Graphics Device Control File on the report Output tab. The maximum length for heading text has been increased to 48 characters to avoid the clipping of longer titles.
  13. The Time Location report has been extended to support the display of different holiday calendars (shutdowns) for activities in the project (formerly only one calendar could be used). The report now reflects the display styles used on standard Bar Chart reports.
  14. The above changes have required a series of enhancements to be made to the general use of report instructions and controls. For users with their own custom reports the following features are added to the system:-
    1. Improved display of error trapping within the instructions (particularly display of parameter names and use of block IF commands).
    2. The maximum number of entries in a GDV utility file has been increased to support the extended range of settings for bar charts etc.
    3. The BARLINE command supports a NOZIGZAG option to disable the Zigzag display described above.
    4. Activity numbers can be shown after a bar line by setting BARLINE NUMBERAFTER.
    5. The BARLINE command includes a new option CRITICALOUTLINE, which will add the border outline to all bars classified as Critical. The style of the outline is determined by the entry for CRITOLIN defined in the current Graphics Bar Chart report (GBS) utility file.
    6. The drawing of poly-lines in a double line style (solid or dashed) is now supported.
    7. The inclusion of bit map images within a report (IB command within a GRA file) has been extended to support a range of layout options.
    8. The use of multi-line text for notes is supported through new commands in the GRA file language. The MT command is used within footer areas and can be used elsewhere within reports.
    9. A new PZ command has been added to the GRA file language to extend the range of printer control from within a report; this is to be introduced to the Standard Reports in a later release.

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Other Revisions
The following topics and functions have been revised for releases 7.2.1e and 7.2.1f of Hornet Windmill.
  1. The MPX Data Import Export has been extended to support a wider range of activity numbering options between the Hornet Windmill data and other applications using the MPX data format.
  2. The Network Drawing utility that is run in conjunction with the report instructions (NETDRAW.EXE) to produce Network Diagrams has been upgraded to run as a true Windows application rather than a DOS application.
  3. The Calendar Definition has been extended to support the definition of week lengths that include an odd half or part day (e.g. defining calendars in half days and requiring a five and a half day week length). Details on this are included in the help pages.
  4. If Hornet Windmill is configured to log users on to the system (including password settings) and the Load Project prompt is enabled then the message will include a warning if the selected project is already being accessed by any other user on the system.
  5. International Date Settings. The use of dates from the computer system date are not used extensively by Hornet, however some date formats were not supported for installation and running of the system (e.g. year first options). This has been corrected and all date formats are supported.
  6. A new Resource Calculation Option /H has been added to convert resource values from "man hours per day" into "men per day" for reports. The default value assumes 8 hours per day although this can be changed if required. Details on this option are included in the help pages.
  7. New control options have been added to the main Bar Chart display on the Activity Data Grid. The user can now select the following functions:
    1. Enable or disable the actions of dragging/stretching bars, updating progress on bars and drawing of logic links.
    2. Enable an auto-reschedule option to recalculate all activity dates after bars have been stretched or dragged. An option to update all displayed histogram panels is also included.
    3. Options to set activity Hard Dates automatically when dragging/stretching bars have been added; this enables bars to be dragged with the mouse and then stay put as the network is rescheduled.
      The options are controlled from the Options... button on the Bar Chart Options panel which is selected from Layout pull down menu.
  8. The options to set or release Activity Proposed Dates selected from the Schedule pull down menu have been extended to operate using the current activity row on the grid (formerly the option operated on marked or selected rows only).
  9. A new option Show Target Dates has been added to the Bar Chart Options panel to allow the display of activity target start and target finish dates on the display.
  10. The GraWin utility has been extended to include a link to e-mail allowing completed GRA report files to be posted into your e-mail system.
  11. A new Sub Project Management Wizard has been introduced under the project Database Utilities menu. This Wizard aids the management of multiple or sub-projects within an overall project plan by allowing individual projects to be isolated and used for editing and revision as a single or stand alone sub-project. This allows users to access and revise a single project and is particularly useful where different people have responsibility for the range of projects undertaken by an organisation. The facility can also be used to undertake an exercise of re-planning a particular section or project - re-introducing the revised plan into the main project once an acceptable solution has been established. For more details consult the help page on this topic.
  12. Project scheduling with Percentage Complete values specified for activities starting after the current project date (in the future) has been revised. Hornet now ignores the percentage complete figures for all activities where the actual start date is specified as being after the project date (in theory activities should not have actual dates set for the future). The result is that the activity will always be scheduled based on the specified Estimated Duration (formerly this value was reduced by the percentage figure) and thereby ensures the display of the bars on the screen is consistent with the final scheduled dates.