v0.1.6 – Drag & Drop Simulation & Planning Diagnostics

✨ Highlights

Interactive Drag & Drop Simulation

This release introduces a major evolution of the planning engine by allowing direct manipulation of tasks on the Gantt chart.

New capabilities include:

• Transactional Drag & Drop workflow
• Automatic snap to timeline (Day / Week / Month)
• Automatic translation into TEST inputs
• Automatic TEST / SCENARIO dispatch
• Predictive registry integration
• Automatic rollback when a planning conflict is detected
• User-oriented Drag information panel

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Improved Planning Diagnostics

Planning errors are now significantly easier to understand.

Improvements include:

• Structured dependency conflict diagnostics
• Identification of the blocking predecessor
• Rich planning conflict explanations
• Multiple blocking errors consolidated into a single console page

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UX Improvements

Several usability improvements have been added:

• Fixed Gantt button flickering during TEST
• Fixed implicit TEST mode behavior
• Improved multi-mode Drag & Resize workflow
• Improved planning console readability

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Internal Improvements

Several architectural improvements were completed to support future developments:

• Transactional Scenario API
• Message Engine improvements
• Simulation mode dispatcher
• Diagnostic infrastructure enhancements

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Included Work

25 – Drag/Test Stabilization

• Audit of Drag watcher lifecycle
• Drag watcher stabilization
• TEST workflow performance audit
• Predictive Gantt registry audit
• Predictive registry implementation (Phase 1)
• Registry convergence
• TEST consistency after Full Update

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26 – Drag/Test Information Panel

• User-oriented Drag/Test information panel
• Fixed Gantt button flickering during TEST

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27 – Multi-mode Drag & Resize

• TEST / SCENARIO dispatcher
• Week Drag & Resize support
• Month Drag & Resize support
• Default TEST mode handling

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28 – Planning Diagnostics

• Dependency conflict audit
• Drag conflict diagnostic audit
• Structured planning conflict messages
• Constraint and cascade audit
• Root cause diagnostic groundwork
• Cascade execution audit
• Consolidated blocking error console

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Notes

This release represents an important milestone in the maturity of the Planning Engine.

The focus was not only on adding new features, but also on improving usability, diagnostics, transaction safety, and overall robustness.

The engine now provides a significantly more intuitive planning workflow while preserving the deterministic behavior of the calculation core.

v0.1.5 – Performance & Architecture Update

🚀 Highlights

v0.1.5 is a performance-focused release dedicated to optimizing the planning engine while preserving identical functionality and calculation results.

No scheduling logic has been modified, no workflows have changed, and no features have been removed. Every optimization was validated through profiling and regression testing to ensure identical behavior with significantly improved responsiveness.

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⚡ Performance Engineering

This release introduces a large set of internal optimizations across the application, including:

• Gantt rendering pipeline optimizations
• Timeline generation batching
• Analytics write-back batching
• Left panel generation batching
• Dependency rendering optimizations
• Reduced Excel COM interactions
• Startup architecture simplification
• Extensive profiler-driven refactoring

Together, these changes noticeably improve the responsiveness of the application, especially on large planning files.

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📅 Gantt Improvements

The Gantt engine received the largest share of the optimization work.

Highlights include:

• Faster Gantt refresh
• Faster Day / Week / Month switching
• Reduced redraw overhead
• Significantly reduced Full Update flickering
• Lazy geometry repair after Full Update to preserve perfect alignment without forcing unnecessary redraws
• Local dependency anchor caching while preserving identical routing behavior
• Faster left panel generation
• Improved responsiveness on large schedules

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⚙️ Planning Engine

Several core components were optimized without changing scheduling behavior.

Improvements include:

• Faster WBS → CALC synchronization
• Faster Analytics propagation back to WBS
• Reduced rebuilds of internal logic structures
• Faster formula restoration
• Multiple in-memory batch operations
• Reduced Excel COM overhead throughout the calculation pipeline

Planning calculations, critical path analysis, float computation and scheduling logic remain unchanged.

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🚀 Startup

Workbook startup was substantially redesigned.

Instead of rebuilding multiple visual components during startup, the application now restores its runtime state directly from the persisted settings.

Benefits include:

• Faster workbook opening
• Elimination of unnecessary visual rebuilds
• Startup VBA overhead reduced by more than 90%
• Improved overall application responsiveness immediately after launch

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🧹 Internal Improvements

Although mostly invisible to end users, this release significantly improves the internal architecture.

Highlights:

• Extensive profiler-driven optimization campaign
• New profiling instrumentation for future performance work
• Cleaner internal architecture
• Reduced technical debt
• Improved maintainability for future features

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✅ Compatibility

• Fully compatible with existing planning files
• No migration required
• No workflow changes for end users
• No changes to scheduling calculations or planning results

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📈 Expected Benefits

Typical improvements observed during profiling include:

• Dramatically faster workbook startup
• Faster Full Update operations
• Faster Gantt rendering
• Smoother Day / Week / Month switching
• Lower rendering overhead on large projects
• Improved responsiveness across the entire application

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Developer Notes

v0.1.5 marks the first release primarily dedicated to performance engineering rather than new functionality.

Following the successful validation of the planning engine on real-world projects, the focus shifted toward identifying and eliminating architectural bottlenecks through systematic profiling, targeted optimizations, and regression testing.

This work establishes a stronger technical foundation for future development while delivering a noticeably smoother experience for everyday use, particularly on large and complex planning files.

v0.1.4-beta – Drag & Drop, Settings, Localization & Performance

🖱️ Drag & Drop Simulation (Beta)

First functional implementation of direct planning simulation from the Gantt view.

Features
Task drag & drop
Task resize support
Calendar grid snapping
Automatic Test Start / Test Finish generation
Transactional TEST workflow integration
Automatic Gantt refresh after simulation
Constraint display fixes

This feature remains in Beta and is still under active development.

⚙️ New SETTINGS Sheet

New centralized SETTINGS page allowing:

Global FR / EN language selection
Per-module language overrides for advanced users
Event History visibility controls
Centralized reset actions
Dangerous action management (Armageddon, resets, etc.)

Additional fixes and cleanup completed during final integration.

🌍 Localization Improvements

Large-scale FR / EN localization update:

Gantt view
S-Curve
WBS buttons and events
Constraints
Acknowledgements
Event History
Dashboard titles and controls
SETTINGS sheet

Multiple language switching and translation consistency issues corrected.

📈 Performance Optimization Campaign – Phase 1

Following a deep profiling audit, several high-impact optimizations were implemented.

Completed
Gantt Shape Indexing
Direct Timeline Date → Column Mapping
Smart RestoreWBSFormulaColumns
Smart LOGIC_LINKS Rebuild Detection
Benefits
Faster Full Update execution
Faster Day / Week / Month switching
Elimination of unnecessary rebuilds
Reduced Excel object manipulation
Improved responsiveness on large schedules
🛠 Stability & Reliability
Fixed Gantt language-switch event issue
Fixed duplicate message console issue
Improved SETTINGS integration
Additional FR / EN consistency fixes
Multiple UX and reliability improvements
Known Limitations
Tutorial / onboarding system not yet implemented
Advanced custom calendars remain on hold
Dynamic Path Tracing remains on hold pending Drag & Drop UX evaluation

This Beta release is intended for validation on real project schedules before wider deployment.

ProjectEngine v0.1.3 Beta – Gantt Rendering & Workflow UX Hardening

ProjectEngine v0.1.3 Beta

Gantt Rendering Improvements

This release improves Gantt rendering accuracy and visual stability, especially in Week and Month views.

Added

• Fractional task positioning in Week and Month timeline scales.
• Tasks, summaries, LOE and milestones now render based on their real dates inside aggregated period cells.
• Improved visual accuracy for tasks starting or finishing mid-week / mid-month.
• Today line positioning is now also fraction-based in Week and Month views.

Improved

• Compact task markers are now used only when visually required.
• Short task markers are smaller and visually distinct from milestones.
• LOE tasks no longer fall back to compact round markers.
• Week and Month views no longer visually overstate short task durations.

Gantt Stability Fixes

• Fixed a legacy first-rebuild alignment issue after Armageddon / Safe Empty State workflows.
• The first Gantt rebuild after a reset is now stabilized before drawing shapes.
• No need to click Test or refresh again to realign the Gantt after creating a new project.

Workflow UX

• Full Update now consolidates child-module messages into a single final console.
• A single user action should now produce a single user-facing message window.

Dashboard Localization

• First Dashboard FR/EN cleanup pass completed.
• Improved Dashboard text switching between French and English.
• Added French accents to Dashboard UI labels.
• Improved snapshot / timestamp / empty-state labels.

Summary

This release focuses on Gantt rendering precision, reset-to-rebuild stability, and smoother workflow feedback. It improves the reliability and readability of ProjectEngine without changing the underlying scheduling logic.

ProjectEngine v0.1.2 Beta – Reset Framework & Safe Empty States

ProjectEngine v0.1.2

Planning Reset Framework

Added a complete planning reset framework designed to safely return the workbook to a clean project state without damaging workbook structure, settings, or reporting layers.

New Reset Features

• Added Planning Reset workflow for starting a new project from an existing workbook.
• Added Full Reset ("Armageddon") workflow for complete workbook cleanup.
• Added automatic Constraints cleanup when tasks are removed from WBS.
• Added Dashboard reset and cleanup capabilities.

Safe Empty States

Introduced dedicated safe empty state handling to improve workbook robustness and prevent residual planning artifacts.

Added

• Safe Empty State for Gantt
• Safe Empty State for S-Curve
• Safe Empty State handling for planning resets
• Improved empty-project behavior across planning views

Dashboard Improvements

• Added Dashboard reset workflow
• Improved Dashboard cleanup and snapshot management
• Improved consistency after project resets

Data Integrity

• Improved synchronization between WBS and Constraints
• Automatic removal of orphan constraints
• Improved cleanup of planning runtime tables
• Reduced risk of residual project data after resets

User Experience

• Added multilingual confirmation dialogs (FR / EN)
• Improved reset workflows for real-world project turnover
• Cleaner transition between projects using the same workbook

Summary

This release focuses on workbook lifecycle management, safe cleanup operations, and project turnover workflows. It introduces the foundation required to reliably reuse ProjectEngine across multiple projects while maintaining planning integrity and reporting consistency.

ProjectEngine v0.1.1 Beta

ProjectEngine v0.1.1

Dashboard & Analytics

• Added a new executive Dashboard designed to provide a high-level project overview.
• Added KPI cards, project health indicators, planning overview and S-Curve snapshot.
• Added dedicated Hot Spots analysis panels:
  • Top Delays
  • Deadline Health
  • Next Milestone
  • Next Critical Activity
• Added Today marker to the Dashboard S-Curve snapshot.
• Improved Dashboard usability, empty states and reset behavior.

Gantt Improvements

• Added Month view in addition to existing Day and Week views.
• Improved Summary view readability.
• Added user control over which activities are displayed in Summary mode.
• Fixed missing dotted visual boundaries in Summary mode.
• Fixed legacy behavior where 1-day activities could incorrectly appear as milestones in Summary mode.
• Reduced visual clutter for large project schedules.

Real Project Validation & Bug Fixes

Several issues discovered during validation on a real industrial project were resolved:

• Missing predecessor detection and reporting.
• Parent-to-child dependency expansion inconsistencies in analytics.
• Incorrect Free Float calculation on milestone SS relationships.
• LOE predecessor detection through parent links.
• Improved LOE configuration workflow and validation behavior.
• Fixed Gantt shape realignment issue after full schedule regeneration.

User Experience

• Removed remaining legacy technical messages from CALC_GANTT_TEST.
• Improved error diagnostics and planning validation messages.
• Fixed issue preventing modification or deletion of acknowledged warnings.

Stability

• Additional validation, robustness improvements and consistency fixes across Dashboard, Analytics and Gantt rendering.

ProjectEngine v0.1.0-alpha

ProjectEngine v0.1.0-alpha

First public alpha release of ProjectEngine.

Features

• Dependency-driven scheduling engine
• FS / SS / FF relationship support
• Working calendars (5/7, 6/7, 7/7)
• Baseline / Forecast / Actual planning logic
• Critical Path and Float analytics
• Gantt visualization
• S-Curve analytics
• Runtime diagnostics and warning system
• Live planning simulation capabilities

Status

This is an alpha release.

The engine is functional and actively used for real project planning scenarios, but architecture, workbook structure, and features may continue to evolve.

License

GPL v3