Copy/Paste data into Baseline vs. Baselining

[M Colodzin]

Hi,

I'm working on a project that has a 3500+ line MSP 03 project schedule.
We've have encountered a serious file bloat problem that causes the file to
grow by approximately 10x each time we create a new baseline.

We've experimented with copying and pasting the baseline columns as follows:
- highlight Baseline Duration column and hit Cntrl-C to capture the data
- highlight the Baseline1 Duration column and hit Cntrl-V to paste the data
- repeat the process for the other baseline fields

We then copy the Duration column into the Baseline Duration column, etc...
to create a new baseline for the entire schedule.

I realize that this is not the same as using the Tools -> Tracking -> Save
Baseline process and that it does not update all of the baseline tables in
the database.

However, using this copy/paste process does not cause the file size to grow
signficantly.

My question is: what are the implications of performing this copy/paste
process vs. using the formal baseline process. If we only use the baseline
data to compare against our start, finish, duration and work values, is this
a safe process to avoid the file bloat problem we've been experiencing?

If not, what problems can we anticipate?

Thanks!!

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

No problems with copy and paste. When you first open a file, immediately
select File, Save as this forces project to do house keeping on the .mpp
file. See if this gets rid of some of the bloat.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Ray McCoppin]

The reason for these file size increases is the timephased data is captured
with a baseline (its more than just a copy of Fields). Each time you
baseline the timephase data is captured for work and cost, on a large
project like the one you have can be very large in size.

On a large project like yours I would suggest to keep baselining to a minimum.

Hope this helps
--
Ray McCoppin

http://www.randsmanagement.com
SRS gantt charts

Hi,

No problems with copy and paste. When you first open a file, immediately
select File, Save as this forces project to do house keeping on the .mpp
file. See if this gets rid of some of the bloat.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[M Colodzin]

My thanks to both of you.

This was very helpful information.

Since we don't care about the timephased baseline data (we're not using it
on this project) it looks like the copy/paste will work fine in our
situation.

We'll be sure to document what we're doing in our schedule management plan
so that there is no confusion about what information is being captured and
what is not.)