How do i setup/create float using Premavera 3

Hi Renz
Float is calculated (in P3 if you press "F9"), so no setup required. There is a total float and a free float. You can use them in the constraints.
For the definitions, e.g. have look here:
http://www.planningengineers.org/knowledge/glossary.aspx#f
Regards
Dieter

^ what Deiter says

also; if you want to manually add float to the programme, there are 4 ways to do it (I list in my order of preference, best first)

Wear the float on your sleeve
Add an activity inline with the critical / near critical path labled "float activity". The most honest way, but depending on your audience you may well want to filter these activities out of your presentation. This is my preferred method, as the gap is clearly labelled. you need to maintain control of these though, if discovered by the client they will be eaten like candy.

hide it in the activities
Increase the duration of the activity you want the float on. Sneakier, but still dangerous. A sharp eyed client will likely see that you don’t need 10 days to build that scaffold and argue the duration down. Pop goes your float

Constrain starts
Constrain the start date of a CP activity to be later than it needs to be, this will open up float. Dangerous and inflexible for the same reasons as adding lags is (see below)

hide it in the links
Add lags to your links to create gaps. Very dangerous as you’re likely to forget that they’re there adn there’s no way to notate them (in P3)

Hi all

Following James concept you can label your "Float Task" - Contractors Risk Contingency. This is quite valid and supported by the SCL Protocol.

In PowerProject you can reduce the work hours from 9 a day to 8 and thus increase every activity on the calendar - I don’t know if P3 is this flexible.

I do this in reverse when sending out Sub-Contract tender programmes so that the Main Contractor has a built in buffer.

Sneaky or what?

Best regards

Mike Testro

Mike, yes you can control working calenders at this level in P3.1. It does have the constraint that you can only choose 1 planning unit (Months, weeks, days or hours) but within that you can schedule differnt workday shifts and work days per week as well as holidays etc, all of which could be pressed into service as artificial duration extenders.

Hi,
you have some options in P3 concerning the Total float calculation:

under Tools, Schedule, option:
Show open ends as Critical or as Noncritical
Calculate total float as: Most critical or Start float or finish float.

Regards
JK