Subprojects not rolling up (at all)

[Martin Wilkinson]

I have a master project with 4 sub projects (Proj 2000).
The sub projects have summary tasks.

When open a sub project stand alone, I can update a task's % Complete value
and the Summary Task's % Complete is updated/calculated.

When I open the sub project from within the Master project, and update the
same task's % Complete value, the Summary task's value stays at zero. It
seems that nothing I do will make the Summary task's values budge from 0.
I have auto calculation on.

Anyone seen this behaviour with sub-projects before?

Cheers

martin

 

[John]

I have a master project with 4 sub projects (Proj 2000).
The sub projects have summary tasks.

When open a sub project stand alone, I can update a task's % Complete value
and the Summary Task's % Complete is updated/calculated.

When I open the sub project from within the Master project, and update the
same task's % Complete value, the Summary task's value stays at zero. It
seems that nothing I do will make the Summary task's values budge from 0.
I have auto calculation on.

Anyone seen this behaviour with sub-projects before?

Cheers

martin

Martin,
First (I don't know if this will make any difference), do you have SP1
installed? Second, what exactly do you mean when you say, "when I open
the sub project from within the Master..."? Do you simply mean that the
subproject is expanded? When the master is opened, all subprojects are
automatically opened (in the background, that is, they don't show up
under Window/New Window unless the master was specifically opened that
way).

I tried various option settings on my test master with multiple levels
of inserted subprojects. The only way I could get the behavior you
describe is with Calculation set to manual.

If you have SP1 installed and Calculation is indeed set to automatic but
it simply doesn't want to work and no one else has any suggestions,
would you be willing to zip the file and send it to me?

John
Project MVP

 

[Martin Wilkinson]

Thanks for taking the time to reply..

My version of Project 2000 is 9.0.2001.0219 SR-1
Is this what you mean by SP1?

Yes I do mean when I expand the subproject from within the Master project.
Calculation is set to automatic, and manually recalculating doesn't have any
effect either.

None of the values are re-calculated. Even setting a task's Work to zero
doesn't affect the Summary task's Work value - it stays stuck at what it was
when the file was opened.

I'll try another couple of things and try to reproduce it on a simple
project, as the real one is rather large and will also need sanitising. If I
can repeat it then it will eliminate the actual project as the cause of the
problem.

If no luck I appreciate your offer to take a look at it.

Regards

Martin

 

[John]

Thanks for taking the time to reply..

My version of Project 2000 is 9.0.2001.0219 SR-1
Is this what you mean by SP1?

Yes I do mean when I expand the subproject from within the Master project.
Calculation is set to automatic, and manually recalculating doesn't have any
effect either.

None of the values are re-calculated. Even setting a task's Work to zero
doesn't affect the Summary task's Work value - it stays stuck at what it was
when the file was opened.

I'll try another couple of things and try to reproduce it on a simple
project, as the real one is rather large and will also need sanitising. If I
can repeat it then it will eliminate the actual project as the cause of the
problem.

If no luck I appreciate your offer to take a look at it.

Regards

Martin

Martin,
My error, yes I did mean SR-1. Project 2003 identifies the first update
as SP1. However, when I ran my tests I was using Project 2000, just so
we would be looking at the same version.

Thanks for answering my questions directly. Unfortunately I find that
many people either don't answer at all or only give partial answers.

Your description of trying the Work field almost sounds like you are
looking at Baseline Work because that's exactly how it will act.
However, that idea doesn't apply for % Complete because there is no
baseline value for % Complete.

If you need to desensitize your file for sending, I can send you a
desensitize macro or you can find an equivalent version on fellow MVP,
Jack Dahlgren's webstie at: http://masamiki.com/project/macros.htm
Jack's macro is called "scrub". You shouldn't need the whole file
(although sometimes size DOES matter). As long as the problem still
shows up with just a single Summary Line and subtasks, that's all I need
for review.

John
Project MVP

 

[Martin Wilkinson]

I’ve found out what was wrong. You were absolutely correct, it was due to
calculation being set to Manual, but in a rather obscure way.

On opening the Master project, I get a “circular references†error (perhaps
I should have mentioned this). This appeared to switch off recalculation for
the entire editing session (“Calculate†is shown in the status bar at the
bottom left). Nothing I did during that session seemed to have any effect
(i.e.“Calculate†stayed displayed). I tried expanding subprojects, saving,
manually recalculating, the lot. Also, calculation showed as “automatic†in
tools/options, which threw me a little.

The “circular references†error was erroneous, and I managed to clear it as
follows:
ï‚· Open Master
ï‚· Expand all subprojects and subtasks
ï‚· Save all
 Don’t collapse projects
ï‚· Close Master

Following this, the Master project fires up fine (no “circular referencesâ€
error on opening, no “Calculate†in the status bar, rollups all work OK).

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Regards
Martin