BRC Academy · Primavera P6

Bars and Gantt formatting

Lesson 19 of 60 · Beginner · 12 min read · Ben Abbasi, PMP

A Gantt chart looks like a picture of the schedule, but in Oracle Primavera P6 it is a stack of rules. Each bar is a pair of dates, a filter that decides which activities get it, and a style. Change one rule and negative float can vanish from a monthly report without anyone touching the logic. This lesson explains how P6 builds bars and how an owner sets a bar legend that means the same thing every month.

Learning outcomes

  • Explain the three parts of every P6 bar: timescale, filter and style.
  • Add, change and order bars in the Bars dialog, and set labels, rows, necking and collapsed display.
  • Format the chart itself: timescale, relationship lines, legend, data date line, curtains and settings copied from another layout.
  • Specify an owner bar legend for Northgate reports and check a contractor's bars before trusting their colours.

The lesson

A bar is three settings

Open the Bars dialog with View, Bars, or click the Layout Options bar and choose Bars [1]. Each row in the list is one bar definition, with four things to read [2]:

  • Display: whether the bar is drawn. Clearing it hides the bar without deleting it.
  • Name: a label for you; it does not show in the chart.
  • Timescale: which pair of dates the bar spans.
  • Filter: which activities get this bar.

Below the list, three tabs finish the definition: Bar Style, Bar Settings and Bar Labels [2]. The buttons let you Add, Delete, Shift Up and Shift Down bars, apply the Default set, open chart Options, and Copy From another activity layout [2]. Bars are drawn in the order they are listed, so order matters when two bars share space [3]. Figure 1 shows how the parts fit.

Anatomy of a P6 bar definition Three input cards feed one bar. Timescale answers which dates, for example Early Start to Early Finish or primary baseline start to finish. Filter, highlighted in orange, answers which activities, for example critical activities that are not complete; activities that fail the filter do not get this bar. Style answers how it looks: shape, colour and pattern for the start point, the bar and the finish point, plus a row from 1 to 3. Below, two finishing tabs: Bar Settings, with show bar when collapsed, show bar for grouping bands, and necking for calendar nonwork time and activity nonwork intervals; and Bar Labels, which attach a field such as Finish at a position around the bar. The result row shows a blue bar with a finish date label to its right. 1 Timescale: which dates? Early, Late, Remain, Actual, Float, baselines, % Complete and more 2 Filter: which activities? e.g. critical and not complete fail the filter, no bar 3 Style: how does it look? shape, colour, pattern for start, bar and finish; row 1, 2 or 3 Bar Settings tab show when collapsed show for grouping bands necking: calendar nonwork necking: nonwork intervals Bar Labels tab a field, e.g. Finish a position, e.g. right add several per bar Result in the Gantt chart Fri May 14, 2027
Figure 1. Every P6 bar is a timescale, a filter and a style, finished by bar settings and labels. The filter is the part most often overlooked. Source: BRC, based on Oracle Primavera P6 Professional Help v26, Bars dialog box and its Bar Style, Bar Settings and Bar Labels tabs [2][4][5][6].

Timescale: which dates the bar draws

In an activity layout, the Timescale column offers these date pairs [7]:

  • Current Bar (Start to Finish), Early Bar and Late Bar.
  • Remain Bar (remaining start to remaining finish) and Actual Bar (actual start to actual finish).
  • Float Bar: from the remaining finish to the late finish, where the remaining finish is earlier. Neg Float Bar: the same span where the remaining finish is later than the late finish.
  • Primary Baseline Bar, Project Baseline Bar, Secondary and Tertiary Baseline Bar: the baseline's planned dates.
  • Plan Bar, % Complete Bar, Performance % Complete Bar and User Dates.

Figure 2 draws the most useful ones for one in-progress activity. The float and negative float bars are what make float visible on paper; without them, a reader sees when work is planned but not how much room it has.

Bar timescales for one in-progress activity A ten-week grid with a vertical data date line at the end of week 3. Case A, an activity with positive float: primary baseline bar, grey, weeks 1 to 6; actual bar, navy, weeks 1 to 3 up to the data date; remain bar, blue, from the data date to the end of week 7; float bar, thin grey, from the end of week 7 to the end of week 9, the late finish. Case B, the same activity running late: remain bar from the data date to the end of week 9; late finish at the end of week 7; neg float bar, orange, from the end of week 7 to the end of week 9. Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9 data date A. Positive float Primary baseline Actual Remain Float late fin. B. Running late Primary baseline Actual Remain Neg float B: late finish end of wk 7; remaining finish end of wk 9
Figure 2. Bar timescales for one illustrative activity, before and after it starts running late. The float bar runs from the remaining finish to the late finish; the negative float bar covers the same span when the remaining finish is later. Source: BRC, based on Oracle Primavera P6 Professional Help v26, More Detail: Specifying a bar's timescale [7].
View the data
BarCase A spanCase B span
Primary baselineWeeks 1 to 6Weeks 1 to 6
ActualWeek 1 to data date (end of week 3)Week 1 to data date
RemainData date to end of week 7Data date to end of week 9
FloatEnd of week 7 to end of week 9 (late finish)None
Neg floatNoneEnd of week 7 (late finish) to end of week 9

Filter: which activities get the bar

Double-click a bar's Filter cell and mark one or more filters; only user-defined filters can be viewed and modified from there [8]. A typical layout has separate bars for remaining work and critical remaining work that differ only by filter. So a critical bar is only as good as its filter and the project's definition of critical, by total float or longest path (Lesson 11). Filters themselves are built in Lesson 17.

Style, rows and labels

The Bar Style tab sets the shape, colour and pattern of the start point, the bar and the finish point, and the Row, 1, 2 or 3 [4]. Rows let bars stack one above another, for example the current bar on row 1 and a thin baseline bar on row 2, or share a row so that only some are visible [3].

The Bar Labels tab attaches database fields to positions around the bar; you can add several labels to one bar [6]. A finish date to the right of every remaining bar and the activity name to the left of milestones is a common, readable choice.

Bar settings: collapsed views and necking

The Bar Settings tab controls two things [5]. Under grouping band settings, Show bar when collapsed keeps a bar visible when you collapse to summary level, and Show bar for grouping bands makes it a summary bar only. Oracle advises using the collapsed option only for essential bars, because it slows large layouts. Under necking, the bar can narrow during the activity calendar's nonwork time, or during nonwork intervals caused by out-of-sequence progress or suspend and resume. Necking does not apply to summary bars.

These settings work with the grouping from Lesson 18: a WBS summary view only shows bars on its bands if at least one bar is set to show on grouping bands or when collapsed.

Screenshot to come
Screenshot to come: P6 Professional v26, project NDC-BL00 (EPS NDC.SUB), Activities window, View > Bars dialog with the owner's bars listed (Display, Name, Timescale, Filter, Preview columns visible), the critical remaining bar selected and the Bar Style tab showing its colour and row

The chart around the bars

Several settings sit outside individual bars:

  • Relationship lines and legend. Choose View, Bar Chart Options, General tab, and mark Show Relationships or Show Legend [9][10]. The legend can be dragged to a new spot in the chart [10].
  • Data date line. From the Bars dialog, click Options, then the Data Date tab, to set its style, a thickness of 1 to 10 pixels and its colour [11].
  • Timescale. Click the Layout Options bar and choose Timescale: two or three lines, a Timescale Start, and either calendar dates with a date interval or ordinal dates counted from a start you set [12].
  • Curtains. Layout Options bar, Attachments, Curtain, Add Curtain shades a date range in a chosen colour and pattern. Curtains belong to the layout, not the project [13].
  • Copy From. In the Bars dialog, Copy From applies another layout's Gantt Chart settings to the current one [14]. This is the quickest way to give every owner layout the same legend.

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse in Vaughan, Ontario, under a CCDC 2-2020 stipulated price contract with Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional), who schedules in P6 and submits XER files (see the Northgate fact sheet). The owner's scheduler has NDC-BL00 open in the NDC.SUB branch. Halvorsen's own layout uses eleven colours and no legend. Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional) puts a bar standard in its schedule specification instead.

The owner's bar standard

  • Remaining work: blue, Remain Bar timescale, filter for activities not complete.
  • Critical remaining work: orange, same timescale, filter for critical activities not complete, listed after the remaining bar.
  • Actual work: navy, Actual Bar timescale.
  • Primary baseline: grey, thin, row 2, so updates can be compared with NDC-BL00 at a glance.
  • Float and negative float: thin grey float bar; orange negative float bar.
  • Milestones: navy diamonds with the activity name on the left and the date on the right.
  • Labels: Finish to the right of every remaining bar. Legend on, relationships off for printed reports.

Figure 3 shows the standard on WBS 3, foundations and slab-on-grade. For illustration, footings and the slab are assumed to be on the longest path to M4.

Northgate owner bar standard applied to WBS 3 A legend at the top: blue remaining work, orange critical remaining, grey primary baseline on row 2, navy diamond milestone, navy thin bar summary. Below, a Gantt from March 1 to mid-May 2027. M3 Site mobilization, a diamond on March 1. WBS 3 summary, a thin navy bar from March 15 to May 14. 3.1 Footings and piers, an orange critical bar March 15 to April 9 with a grey baseline bar beneath and the label Apr 9. 3.2 Slab-on-grade, an orange bar April 12 to May 14 with a baseline bar beneath and the label May 14. QC and testing, foundations, Level of Effort, a blue bar from March 15 to May 14 with a baseline beneath. M4 Foundations and slab complete, a diamond on May 14. On a baseline, current and baseline bars match; they separate once updates arrive. Remaining Critical remaining Baseline (row 2) Milestone Summary Mar 1 Apr 1 May 1 M3 Site mobilization WBS 3 summary 3.1 Footings & piers Apr 9 3.2 Slab-on-grade QC & testing, foundations (LOE) M4 Foundations & slab complete Fri May 14, 2027 On a baseline the grey bars match; they separate after updates.
Figure 3. Northgate's owner bar standard on WBS 3 (illustrative contractor dates from Lesson 7; footings and slab assumed critical for illustration). Source: BRC, based on the Northgate fact sheet and Oracle Primavera P6 Professional Help v26, More Detail: Specifying a bar's timescale and Bar Style tab [4][7].
View the data
ActivityBarStartFinish
M3 Site mobilizationMilestoneMon Mar 1, 2027None
WBS 3 summarySummaryMon Mar 15, 2027Fri May 14, 2027
3.1 Footings & piersCritical remaining + baselineMon Mar 15, 2027Fri Apr 9, 2027
3.2 Slab-on-gradeCritical remaining + baselineMon Apr 12, 2027Fri May 14, 2027
QC & testing, foundationsRemaining + baselineMon Mar 15, 2027Fri May 14, 2027
M4 Foundations & slab completeMilestoneNoneFri May 14, 2027

Checking Halvorsen's bars

Before the owner trusts any colour in a contractor print, the scheduler opens the contractor's layout and reads the Bars dialog row by row. On this submission she finds three things worth a comment:

  • The negative float bar exists but its Display box is cleared, so negative float would never show on a printed update.
  • The critical bar's filter is a user-defined filter for total float of 10 days or less, so "critical" in Halvorsen's prints means something wider than in the schedule options.
  • The baseline bar uses the Project Baseline timescale. That is fine for now, but the specification names the Primary Baseline so comparisons stay consistent across users.

None of these change a date; all of them change what the owner's board sees.

Screenshot to come
Screenshot to come: P6 Professional v26, project NDC-BL00, Activities window with the owner layout applied, grouped by WBS and expanded to WBS 3, Gantt chart showing remaining, critical remaining and primary baseline (row 2) bars with Finish labels and the legend visible; timescale Month/Week, March to May 2027
Screenshot to come
Screenshot to come: P6 Professional v26, View > Bar Chart Options dialog, General tab, with Show Legend marked and Show Relationships cleared, and the Data Date tab visible behind it

Owner's move

  • Specify the legend, not just the schedule. Name the bars, timescales, colours and labels that every submitted print must use, and require the legend to be shown.
  • Insist that negative float is visible. A Neg Float bar in a contrasting colour, displayed, on every update print.
  • Read the filters behind coloured bars. Ask what the critical bar's filter is, and whether it matches the project's definition of critical.
  • Use Copy From to keep owner layouts identical. One master owner layout, copied to the rest, means a red bar means the same thing on every page.

Common mistakes

  1. Hiding a bar by accident. A cleared Display box removes a bar from the chart without deleting it, so it is easy to miss.
  2. Trusting colour without reading the filter. Two bars can share a timescale and differ only by filter.
  3. Turning on Show bar when collapsed for every bar. Oracle warns this slows large layouts [5].
  4. Too many colours. More than five or six bar colours and readers stop decoding them.

Quick quiz

  1. Which setting decides which activities receive a given bar?

    1. Timescale
    2. Filter
    3. Row
    4. Name

  2. A Float Bar in P6 spans:

    1. Early Start to Late Start
    2. Remaining finish to late finish, where the remaining finish is earlier
    3. Baseline finish to current finish
    4. Actual start to data date

  3. You want a thin baseline bar drawn under the current bar. Which setting places it there?

    1. Necking
    2. Row, on the Bar Style tab
    3. Show bar for grouping bands
    4. Copy From

  4. Where do you turn on the Gantt chart legend?

    1. Page Setup, Options tab
    2. Bar Chart Options, General tab
    3. Group and Sort dialog
    4. Timescale dialog

  5. A curtain attachment is saved with:

    1. The project
    2. The layout
    3. The baseline
    4. The user's global preferences
Show answers and explanations
  1. B. The Filter column sets the activities the bar represents [1][8].
  2. B. The Float Bar runs from the remaining finish to the late finish where the remaining date is before the late date [7].
  3. B. The Row setting (1, 2 or 3) on the Bar Style tab positions a bar [3][4].
  4. B. Show Legend is on the General tab of Bar Chart Options [10].
  5. B. Curtains are added to the open layout, not the open project [13].

Key terms

Bar timescale
The pair of dates a bar spans, such as Early Start to Early Finish or the primary baseline's planned dates.
Bar filter
The filter that decides which activities receive a bar.
Neg Float Bar
A bar from the late finish to the later remaining finish, showing how far an activity is behind its late dates.
Necking
A narrowed section of a bar showing calendar nonwork time or nonwork intervals in progress.
Curtain
A shaded date range drawn across the Gantt chart and saved with the layout.
Data date line
The vertical line at the data date, whose style, thickness and colour can be set in Bar Chart Options.

References

  1. Oracle. Change a bar in the Gantt Chart. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  2. Oracle. Bars dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  3. Oracle. Position a bar in the Gantt Chart. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  4. Oracle. Bar Style tab - Bars dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  5. Oracle. Bar Settings tab - Bars dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  6. Oracle. Bar Labels tab - Bars dialog box. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  7. Oracle. More Detail: Specifying a bar's timescale. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  8. Oracle. Change a Gantt Chart bar's filter. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  9. Oracle. Show or hide relationship lines in the Gantt Chart. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  10. Oracle. Show or hide the Gantt Chart legend. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  11. Oracle. Customize the data date line. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  12. Oracle. Change a layout's timescale format. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  13. Oracle. Add a curtain attachment in a Gantt Chart. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.
  14. Oracle. Apply Gantt Chart settings from another layout. Primavera P6 Professional Help, Version 26.

Verified on November 6, 2026.

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