What's New in Aphex: October 2022

Coming to you slightly later this month as we've been tinkering away at a release that will make planning easier, right away.

The new features include better WBS views (nested Packages and better WBS visibility), and an overhaul of creating and allocating resources.  

We're extra excited as these new features are things you ask about daily, so we hope you find them useful 💙

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New Resource Editors

1 - Editors

Resources are faster to assign and easier to see. Here are what has changed with the editors:

• Assign all resources (materials, plant, labour) straight from the Gantt
• Adjust the quantity from the Gantt Table in 2 clicks
• Select multiple resource types for a single task
• Expand the columns to see every specific resource allocated

2 - Resource Types

In preparation for further updates to resource planning, you can now group your new Labour and Materials into types:

• Materials: Concrete, Piles, Earthworks, Roadworks, Electrical, Drainage, Steel and Other
• Labour: Individual Resource or Crew

3 - Create from Gantt

Instead of navigating away from the plan and opening the back-end page to add a new asset, you can now create new resources while still on the Gantt.

4 - Material Actuals

We heard from teams using Aphex to accurately track production that, rather than making it easier, our approach of assuming planned = actual made it difficult to trust the actual metrics. This update is a bold change to how actuals are treated in Aphex to address this issue directly but also to set up the delivery of more tools for production tracking going forward. Here is what is new...

1. Separation of planned and actual quantities: Actuals are no longer tied to a corresponding planned day to remove the previous annoying behaviour of deleting your actuals if the plan changed. If you log that 45m3 of concrete was poured on Tuesday 3rd and the plan changes, the logged amount now sticks.
2. Assume nothing about actual quantities: Actuals are no longer assumed to match the plan. This means that logged actuals are trustworthy records from your team. Whilst this will mean that for most teams less "actual" data exists it enables users to decide exactly what they are reporting. In other words, rather than reporting last month's planned quantities against an untrustworthy hybrid of assumed actuals and actuals, users can either report against the changes to planned quantities 1 month later (which will be close to the prior measure) or report against true actuals.
3. Lay the foundation for more tools and integrations: Teams track actual quantities in a range of tools. Some in Aphex, others in spreadsheets or site diary apps. The changes released today enable us to build ways to connect planned tasks and quantities in Aphex with actuals generated across a range of tools and avoid double entry of data. We are also working on some useful tools to visualise which tasks have and haven't had actual data logged so keep watch for that.

New WBS View

1 - WBS > Package

Switch to WBS > Package to see Packages nested within the WBS tree. Everyone in your team will now have the freedom to add their own headers alongside the WBS, with zero changes to the WBS itself - perfect for bottom-up teams using a WBS!

2 - Empty WBS Visible on Gantt

In WBS view, turn off the new 'Hide Empty Structures' toggle to reveal your entire WBS - empty codes and all.

Faster Loading and New Loading States

1 - Faster

We've been busy optimising and refactoring, so next time you log in, you'll hopefully notice a considerable difference in load time - especially for larger projects!

2 - Loading States

Alongside the performance improvements, we've jazzed up the loading states and given them a bit of extra colour. Switching between apps has never been as fun!

Planner Improvements: Weather + Import Logic

1 - Weather Forecast

If you've been around a while, you may recall seeing the weather forecast on the Gantt. By popular demand, it's back! Check it out by hovering over an upcoming calendar day.

1 - MS Project Import Logic

We heard that teams who have been importing multiple MS Project files into Aphex have a tricky time with duplicate external IDs. So, we've tweaked the logic for MS Project imports - now each file will have an exclusive set of IDs. 

Admin App Refinements

1 - Organisation Asset Management

Resource management at an organisation level has been retired. Resource lists will be kept at a project level, and assets will no longer be shared between projects within the same Organisation.

Bug Fixes

In our continued effort to make the most reliable platform for you, we’ve been pedal to the metal eliminating some key bugs in the tool.

• • Import Summary Error preventing a successful import
  • Some logic links are hidden in the Modal
  • Changing owner of a public package from the gantt removes all tasks
  • Imported one day milestone tasks negatively impact the schedule
  • Organisation logo missing from PDF printouts
  • Cannot change Locations while viewing a Shared Plan
  • Timezone issues in Field
  • Timezone issues in Planner
  • Deleted users don't show up in the owner grouping on the Gantt
  • Duplicating a Subtask removes the External ID from the original
  • Subcontractor colours are non-editable
  • Empty 'No WBS Assigned' header is always visible in PDF printouts
  • Assignees unable to make edits via the Gantt Columns
  • Drawing a link from a new task creates the incorrect link type
  • Task list on Map PDF print out does not align correctly
  • Date pickers crashing app when user is in a negative timezone
  • Unable to edit user settings in Organisations using the AU data centre
  • Locations not fully loading in Work Area Model when zooming out

   

  
  Most of these were caught by some of our eagle-eyed users - thanks for helping us keep Aphex as robust as possible!