Turn a Primavera P6 schedule of linear works, rail, highways, pipelines, tunnels, transmission, into an interactive time–location diagram. Almost nothing exists for this; it’s a signature tool for our sectors.
🔒 Your file is parsed in your browser and never uploaded.
A sloped line is a linear activity, its slope is the production rate (metres/day). Crossing lines are a clash: two crews at the same place at the same time. Vertical dashes are a station/structure; a diamond is a milestone.
, see the chart before mapping your own file
Drop a .xer here, or click to choose
1 · Map chainage onto activities
2 · Chart
What is a time–chainage chart?
A time–chainage chart (also called a time–location or time–distance diagram) plots time on one axis and position along a linear route on the other. Each activity becomes a line or band whose slope shows the rate of progress and whose position shows where along the route the work happens. It is the natural way to plan repetitive, linear works that a Gantt chart flattens out of view.
Where it earns its keep
Linear infrastructure — rail, highways, pipelines, tunnels, cabling and transmission lines.
Spatial clashes — two work fronts arriving at the same location at the same time, which a Gantt cannot reveal.
Production rates — a shallow line means slow progress; parallel lines mean gangs keeping pace; converging lines warn of a pinch point.
Communication — a picture of where and when, that non-planners and stakeholders read at a glance.
How chainage is mapped
The tool derives each activity’s start and end chainage from your P6 data — user-defined fields, activity codes, or a pattern parsed from the activity ID — so the diagram is built from the schedule you already have, with nothing uploaded.
What does “chainage” mean?
Chainage is distance measured along a linear route from a fixed datum, for example kilometres along a railway or metres along a pipeline. It gives every point on the works a single location value to plot against time.
When is a time–chainage chart better than a Gantt?
Whenever location matters. A Gantt shows when an activity happens but not where along the route, so it hides spatial conflicts and progress-rate problems that a time–location view makes obvious. The two are complementary: Gantt for logic and dates, time–chainage for the geography of delivery.