Time-distance planning · Horizontal construction
Plan the whole line, by day and by chainage.
Roads, railways, tunnels, cable routes and pipelines are built along a line, so the programme should be drawn along one. Ti-Di Studio shows every crew, every day and every kilometre on one diagram, and reads and writes your Primavera P6 files.
Imports P6 .xer and MS Project XMLRuns in the browserPDF, Excel and read-only links
Time-distanceGanttLedgerMass-haulResources
P6 file in syncdates and float match
Paving crew catches earthworkskm 7+400 · day 128
Example project drawn from sample data.
ChainageTime-distance diagramFloat and critical pathMass-haulPrimavera P6 XERResource loadingEarned valueClash and weather viewsChainageTime-distance diagramFloat and critical pathMass-haulPrimavera P6 XERResource loadingEarned valueClash and weather views
Who it is for
See where your line fits.
Five kinds of linear work, and what changes once the programme is drawn along the route. Pick one, or let them play.
Four views, one plan
Every view reads from the same schedule.
Move a crew on the diagram and the Gantt, the ledger and your P6 file move with it. There is one set of dates behind all of them.
01 / 04
Time-distance diagram
Chainage runs one way and time the other. Crews show up as sloping lines, so clashes, idle stretches and trailing gaps are visible before they cost you.
- Drag a line to re-sequence a crew
- Weather and possession windows drawn behind the work
- Export the sheet as a vector PDF for the site office
See example projects
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Gantt and critical path
The same activities as bars, with relationships, float and resources. Filter to what the foreman needs this week, then print it.
- Critical path and total float on every bar
- Roll-up by section, crew or contract package
- Print layouts with page setup and a frozen Activity column
Pipeline · welding spreadLive
03 / 04
Mass-haul and earthworks balance
Cut and fill along the route, with the balance line and haul distances, next to the schedule that moves the material.
- Cumulative volume curve along the chainage
- Balance points and borrow or spoil needs at a glance
- Linked to the earthworks crews on the diagram
Highway · km 0 to 12m³ ×1000
04 / 04
Two-way Primavera P6 files
Open an .xer, edit durations, links or constraints here, and export it back. Only the cells you changed are touched, and an unedited file comes back byte for byte.
- Import P6 .xer and Microsoft Project XML
- Edits reschedule and write back to the same file
- Spreadsheet export and paste-in for the ledger
Round tripIn sync
Ti-Di ledger
A1020Clear and grub20d
A1030Bulk earthworks45d
A1040Drainage30d
A1050Subbase25d
P6 .xer
A1020Clear and grub20d
A1030Bulk earthworks45d
A1040Drainage30d
A1050Subbase25d
A1030 changed from 40d to 45d. Successor dates and float were rescheduled and written to the file. Everything else is unchanged.
Worked examples
Four jobs, planned along the line.
Each example is fictional but uses the numbers a real job has: lengths, production rates, drum lengths and possessions. See the route, the programme, and what changed once it was drawn on one diagram.
Fictional projects. Maps are schematic and drawn from made-up coordinates.
Example projects
Programmes laid out along the line.
Four sample programmes we use in demos.
All four are sample data, not client projects.
Why Ti-Di Studio
Made for people who build the line.
ASpeaks your planner's file format
Your planning office stays in Primavera. Site teams get the diagram. Both read the same file, so nobody retypes a date.
BYour project stays on your machine
The studio runs in the browser and keeps your projects in local storage. Nothing is uploaded unless you export or share it.
CEasy to hand over
Send a vector PDF, an Excel sheet, a review package or a read-only link. The reader sees what you see and cannot change it.
Industries
Wherever the work moves along a route.
The same method fits every kind of horizontal construction, from a single trench to a national rail line.
Bring what you have
Open the file you already use.
You do not need to rebuild the programme. Import it, draw it along the line, then send it back or out.
In
- Primavera P6 .xer
- Microsoft Project XML
- Excel and CSV ledgers
- Pasted tables
Ti-Di Studio
- Time-distance diagram
- Gantt, ledger and resources
- Mass-haul and earned value
- Clash and weather views
Out
- Updated P6 .xer
- Vector PDF sheets
- Excel, CSV and images
- Review package, read-only link
Guide
How to read a time-distance diagram.
Time runs across, chainage runs up. Every crew is a line. Four things on the chart tell you most of what you need to know.
- 1
Slope is production rate
A steep line is a fast crew. Earthworks here move 12 km in 110 days, about 109 m a day. Flatten the line and the crew is slower.
- 2
The gap is your lead
The vertical distance between two lines is how far ahead one crew is of the next. Keep enough of it and the following crew never waits.
- 3
A crossing is a clash
Where two lines cross, two crews want the same chainage on the same day. Here paving catches earthworks at km 10 on day 102.
- 4
Shaded bands are stops
Weather, possessions and exclusion zones sit behind the lines. A line that crosses a band is work that cannot happen.
Compare approaches
Three ways to programme a road.
| Excel bar chart | Generic Gantt tool | Ti-Di Studio |
|---|
| Shows where each crew is on each day | No | No, bars only | Yes |
|---|
| Spots two crews in the same place | No | Not by location | Yes |
|---|
| Keeps logic, float and calendars | No | Yes | Yes |
|---|
| Reads and writes Primavera P6 files | No | Depends on the tool | Yes |
|---|
| Production rates and mass-haul | By hand | No | Yes |
|---|
| Easy to hand to site | Prints badly | Dense bar charts | Vector PDF, Excel, read-only link |
|---|
Glossary
The words on the chart.
ChainageDistance along the route from its start, written like 7+400 for 7.4 km.
Production rateHow much a crew builds each day, such as metres of trench or kilometres of subbase.
FloatHow many days an activity can slip before it delays the finish.
PossessionA booked window when a rail line is closed to trains so work can happen.
LeapfrogGangs that jump past each other along the route so no one waits for the one ahead.
Mass-haulA curve of cumulative cut and fill that shows where earth moves and where it is short.
Lead distanceThe planned gap in chainage kept between one crew and the next.
XERThe file format Primavera P6 uses to export and exchange programmes.
Pricing
One subscription. No free tier.
Ti-Di Studio is a paid product. Book a demo to see your own programme drawn on the diagram before you buy. Prices in US dollars, excluding tax.
Solo
One planner, one seat.
$59per month, billed yearly
$79 billed monthly
- Time-distance diagram, Gantt and ledger
- Import and export P6 .xer and MS Project XML
- PDF, Excel and image export
- Saved projects in your browser
Book a demoMost teamsTeam
Three or more seats.
$49per seat per month, billed yearly
Minimum 3 seats, $1,764 a year
- Everything in Solo
- Review packages and read-only share links
- One admin to manage seats
- Email support within one business day
Book a demo
Project pass
One job, up to 10 seats.
$1,490per project, 12 months
Priced for how contracts are bought
- Everything in Team
- Onboarding session on your own programme
- Templates set up for your route
- Invoice and purchase-order billing
Book a demo
Need custom terms, procurement paperwork or more than 10 seats? Ask in the demo.
Questions
Straight answers before you start.
Still not sure it fits your job? Book a demo and we will run a sample programme for you.
What is a time-distance diagram?
It is a chart with chainage along one axis and time along the other. Each crew or activity is a sloping line that shows where it is working on each day. It is the standard way to programme work that moves along a route, and it makes clashes and gaps easy to see.
Does it replace Primavera P6?
No. Keep P6 for the enterprise programme. Ti-Di Studio opens your .xer, adds the linear view, and writes your edits back to the same file, so the two stay in step.
Which projects is it for?
Anything that is built along a line: highways, railways and metros, tunnels, electrical cable routes and transmission lines, pipelines, drainage and canals.
Is there a free version or a trial?
No. Ti-Di Studio is a paid subscription. Instead, we run a live demo on your own programme or a sample one. You see the diagrams and the PDF sheets it produces, without getting access to the app itself.
Where is my project data kept?
In your browser. The studio keeps projects in local storage and only leaves your machine when you export a file or create a share link. Read-only links never contain your original P6 file.
Can I share a plan with someone who has no licence?
Yes. Export a PDF or Excel sheet, a review package with a built-in viewer, or a read-only link. The reader can look at the diagram and Gantt but cannot edit the plan.
Book a demo
Have a line that needs a better programme?
- Tell us the job. Route length, type of work and the tool you use today.
- We draw it. Send a P6 .xer or a spreadsheet and we lay it out along the chainage.
- You see the result. A 30-minute screen share of your diagram, clashes and PDF sheets. We run it, you watch.
hello@tidiplan.com
Book a demo and we will lay your own programme out on one diagram.