Visual Planning Time Line
General
The Time Line functionality shows the Trip-window on the Visual Planning Screen as a visual-time-line.
Tip
Switch between the editable grid and the Time-Line at any moment using the action: Switch to Timeline / Switch to List. The active filters will be applied in the selected view.
Functional
Version: List vs. Timeline
Besides the windows-based layout described in this article, Business Central also offers an editable grid and a Timeline (Gantt-style) planning experience. Which one a planner sees depends on two settings:
- The company-wide field Default Activity Calculation Type on Transport Setup. When this isn't set to Default, planners get one of the two experiences below instead of the windows described further down in this article.
- The per-user field Version on Visual Planning - User Setup:
- Default — an editable grid: the Trips and Section Sequence windows can be edited directly (no separate Edit list action is needed), and sections or sequence lines can be dragged and dropped directly onto a trip or another position — see Drag and drop.
- Timeline — trips are shown as bars on a timeline, with stops as blocks on those bars — see Timeline.
Drag and drop
In both the editable grid and the Timeline, a planner can drag:
- An unplanned section — from the map or the Unplanned Sections window — directly onto a trip, to plan it. This replaces selecting the section (F7) and clicking Add to Trip.
- A section sequence line onto another position to reorder stops, or onto a different trip to move it there.
Timeline
Each trip is a row on the timeline; its stops are shown as blocks on that row, colored according to the applicable Timeline Setup — for example: not yet executed, late, in progress, ready, or in conflict.
Note
- Click a stop to open a popup with its details.
- Drag an unplanned section onto a trip's row to plan it — see Drag and drop.
- What information is shown in the sidebar, on a trip's bar, and in the stop popup can be configured per Timeline Setup.
Change the sorting template while planning
A planner can switch to a different Sorting Template at any moment from Visual Planning Timeline, without losing the current filter:
- On the Unplanned Sections window, choose the action Change Unplanned Section Sorting (shortcut: Alt+S).
- Select the Sorting Template to apply.
Tip
Use shortcut ALT+S to select an other sorting template on the unselected sections. Any filter that is already applied to the Unplanned Sections window stays in place.