Filters

A contractor's baseline can run to well over a thousand activities, and an owner's reviewer does not have time to read every row. Filters in Oracle Primavera P6 cut the list to the rows that answer one question: which activities are critical, which carry constraints, what starts in the next six weeks, what is waiting on the owner. P6 ships with a set of default filters, lets you build your own from any field, and can either hide everything else or simply highlight the matches. This lesson shows how each part works and builds four filters for Northgate's owner.

Learning outcomes

• Apply and combine default filters, and explain the difference between All selected filters and Any selected filter.
• Build a filter from parameters, operators and values, including a rolling date window.
• Choose between replacing the activities shown and highlighting matches.
• Set up a small owner's filter set and save it with review layouts.

The lesson

The Filters dialog

In P6 Professional, choose Project, Activities, then View, Filter By. The Filters dialog lists filters in four groups: Default, Global, Layout and User-Defined [1]. Mark the Select box beside a filter to apply it, or choose All Activities to show everything. Filters applied to a layout are saved with it, and Oracle suggests using layout filters to keep the global list short [1]. The Options bar at the top of the window always shows which filter is on, which is worth a glance before you trust what you see (see Lesson 16).

Default filters cannot be edited. To change one, copy it and edit the copy; Oracle recommends exactly that as a way to see how the defaults are defined [1]. The buttons let you create a New filter, Copy and Paste one, Modify or Delete global and layout filters, Make Global to turn a layout filter into a global one, and Copy as Layout to give the open layout its own copy of a default or global filter [1].

The default filters worth knowing

Oracle publishes the criteria behind each default filter [2]. The ones owners use most:

• Critical: Critical = Yes. Longest Path: Longest Path = Yes. (Lesson 11 explains the difference.)
• Negative Float: Total Float < 0.0d.
• Milestone: Activity Type is Start Milestone or Finish Milestone.
• Has Start Constraint and Has Finish Constraint: any start-type or finish-type constraint, primary or secondary, including the mandatory ones (Lesson 13).
• Level of Effort, Not Started, In Progress and Completed.

All or Any

When you select more than one filter, the Show activities that match setting decides how they combine. All selected filters keeps activities that meet the criteria of every selected filter; Any selected filter keeps activities that meet at least one [1]. Oracle's own example combines Critical and Milestone to show critical milestones [3]. With All, that is the overlap; with Any, it is every critical activity plus every milestone (Figure 1).

Replace or highlight

The second setting, When applying the selected filter(s), decides what happens to rows that do not match. Replace activities shown in current layout hides them. Highlight activities in current layout which match criteria keeps every row and highlights the matches [1]. Replace is best for lists; Highlight is best when context matters, for example seeing where negative-float activities sit among their neighbours.

Screenshot to come

Building your own filter

In the Filters dialog, click New and type a name. Each row of criteria has a Parameter (any activity field, including activity codes), an Is operator, a Value and, for ranges, a High Value. Click Add for more rows, and set the top row to All of the following or Any of the following [4][5]. The operators include "is within range of" and "is not within range of" for dates and numbers [4]. Choose Optimize from the Display Options bar to check the criteria for redundancy [4].

Two details trip people up. First, duration values are stored as you type them: 2d is kept as two days, not 16 hours, and a number with no unit takes the default time unit from your User Preferences [4]. Second, a filter you create is yours until you share it: select it and click Make Global to make it available to all users [4].

Rolling date windows

Filters can use dates relative to today, so a lookahead does not need editing every week. Oracle's six-week lookahead example uses Start "is within range of" a value of CD (current date) and a high value six weeks later, plus Activity % Complete "is not equal to" 100 to drop finished work [5]. Oracle's tip shows typing a relative value directly, such as CD+6w [5]. Because CD is the computer's date, review a lookahead on or near the update's data date, or the window drifts away from the progress it should reflect.

In P6 EPPM, filters are part of a view: the Manage Views dialog on the Activities page has a Filtering tab alongside columns, grouping and sorting [6].

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse in Vaughan, Ontario, under CCDC 2-2020, with Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional) building for Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional). The owner's scheduler has the activity codes from Lesson 15 and the five review layouts from Lesson 16. Now the filters behind those layouts are built and saved as global filters, so every layout and every reviewer uses the same definitions. Contract milestones come from the Northgate fact sheet; the thresholds are BRC suggestions.

Replace for lists, highlight for context

For the first update, NDC-UP01 (data date Mon Apr 5, 2027), the reviewer wants to see the critical slab work from Lesson 14 in context, after Halvorsen split the slab into west and east pours. Applying the Critical filter with Replace would show only the critical rows and hide the activities around them. Switching to Highlight keeps the WBS 3 sequence visible and marks the critical ones, so the reviewer can see how the path runs through the stage (Figure 3).

Saving the set

Each filter is created with New, tested with Apply, then made global with Make Global so other reviewers can use it [1][4]. Each review layout is then reopened with its filter applied and saved, which stores the filter with the layout [7]. When the owner exports the layouts as .PLF files for Halvorsen, the filters go with them.

Screenshot to come

Screenshot to come

Owner's move

• Start every review with the default filters. Negative Float, Has Start Constraint, Has Finish Constraint, Level of Effort and Longest Path each answer a standard question in seconds.
• Make owner filters global and named. A prefix such as NDC keeps them together, and global status means every reviewer uses the same definition.
• Filter on codes, not names. Activity names change between updates; code values specified by the owner do not.
• Check the Options bar before you report a number. A forgotten filter is the most common reason two people count different totals from the same file.
• Use Highlight when you need the drivers. A list of late activities is a start; the logic around them is the explanation. Our schedule review guide covers what to look for next.

Common mistakes

1. Leaving a filter on. The next person opens the layout and thinks the schedule has 40 activities.
2. Using Any when you meant All. Critical Any Milestone returns far more than critical milestones.
3. Entering float thresholds without units. A bare number takes your default time unit, which may be hours [4].
4. Editing a default filter. You cannot; copy it and edit the copy [1].
5. Trusting a CD-based lookahead weeks after the data date. The window moves with the calendar, not with the update.

Quick quiz

1. In P6 Professional, which menu path opens the Filters dialog for activities?

   1. Enterprise, Filters
   2. View, Filter By
   3. Tools, Schedule, Options
   4. Project, WBS

2. With Critical and Milestone selected and All selected filters chosen, P6 shows:

   1. Every critical activity plus every milestone
   2. Only critical milestones
   3. Only non-critical milestones
   4. All activities, highlighted

3. What does the default Negative Float filter check?

   1. Free Float < 0
   2. Total Float < 0.0d
   3. Critical = Yes
   4. Longest Path = Yes

4. Which option keeps every activity visible and marks the matches?

   1. Replace activities shown in current layout
   2. Highlight activities in current layout which match criteria
   3. All Activities
   4. Copy as Layout

5. How do you share a filter you created with all users?

   1. Export it as an XER
   2. Select it and click Make Global
   3. Rename it with a prefix
   4. Apply it in Highlight mode

Show answers and explanations

1. B. Choose Project, Activities, then View, Filter By [5][4].
2. B. All selected filters requires activities to meet every selected filter's criteria [1][3].
3. B. The default Negative Float filter is Total Float < 0.0d [2].
4. B. Highlight keeps all rows and highlights those that match [1].
5. B. Make Global makes a filter available to all users [4].

Key terms

Filter

A set of criteria that selects which activities a layout shows or highlights.

Default filter

A filter supplied with P6 whose criteria cannot be edited; copy it to change it.

Global filter

A filter available to all users.

Layout filter

A filter stored with one layout, which keeps the global list short.

All selected filters / Any selected filter

Whether activities must meet every selected filter or at least one.

Lookahead filter

A filter on a date window relative to the current date, such as the next six weeks.

References

1. Oracle. Filters dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
2. Oracle. Default filter criteria. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
3. Oracle. Combine filters. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
4. Oracle. Create a filter. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
5. Oracle. Create a lookahead filter. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
6. Oracle. Manage Views Dialog Box of the Activities Page, EPS Page or Assignments Page. Primavera P6 EPPM Help, Version 26.
7. Oracle. Import Layout As dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.

Verified on November 6, 2026.

Next lesson in this trackGrouping and sorting