In-Depth: Looking at AEC Software-FastTrack Schedule 10

On the eve of announcing their new update to a stalwart software program in the project management world–FastTrack Schedule–I had the pleasure of a Web meeting with Ryan Kish, Vice President of Marketing and Abigail Thornhill, Training & Support Specialist, both of AEC Software, who showed me the new features in the just released FastTrack Schedule 10.

Taking Advantage of the Mac OS

In the past, AEC Software always designed FastTrack Schedule using common user-interface (UI) elements from both Windows and Mac. This enabled users in mixed Mac/Win environments to share a common user-interface between their colleagues, but it also meant that the program couldn’t take advantage of “advances” in each respective operating systems’ GUIs (graphical user interfaces). Now with version 10 FastTrack Schedule has separated the UIs for each platform to take advantage of operating system-specific user-interface design.

This means that for Windows users FastTrack Schedule 10 has adopted Microsoft’s Ribbon Interface approach and on the Mac the program has adopted the use of Apple’s iWork suite interface elements, including the use of the innovative media browser. The Mac version has adopted Apple’s brushed aluminum interface look and the new Toolbar options allow you to create truly stunning calendars. (see image 01)

Lastly, in a nod to our world of opinion here at Architosh–you know how we feel about video instruction–AEC Software has added a new start-up Launch screen that orients the user (or new user) and includes both template and non-template ways to start the program as well as new instructional video options.

The Features

Before we delve into the many new features in FastTrack Schedule 10 it would be helpful to remind the reader of some of the virtues of this program. For starters FastTrack Schedule is the king of cross-platform scheduling apps for Mac and Windows. Files work across platform with ease. While many organizations use Microsoft Project this program was killed on the Mac platform eons ago. And despite the fact that organizations everywhere have asked for it back, and included in the MS Office for Mac suite, it simply isn’t going to happen. That’s okay because, as we said before in other articles, FastTrack Schedule has always been a better choice for Mac or Windows users.

The reason that is so is because no other scheduling software this powerful can produce Gantt charts that look so good. The graphics support in FastTrack Schedule have always been ahead of the competition, enabling its users to produce stunning presentations and win contracts and jobs. FastTrack Schedule continues to shine in these categories–offering organizations across a truly vast array of industries and sectors to do sophisticated or simple project scheduling easily and quickly on whatever platform they prefer.

The first feature we may want to talk about then is the new Image Columns support. This is a really hot feature in our opinion. With Image Columns support you can add pictures directly to task items, staff, and resources (like conference room photos) directly in the schedule view. They automatically scale to fit the column width and height and when you mouse over them they automatically enlarge. (see image below)

Combined with the feature above the new bar styles and gradient fills continue to keep FastTrack Schedule 10 out ahead of the pack on the graphics and presentation quality front.

A major new improvement in FastTrack Schedule 10 is the complete overall of the Work Calendars functionality. Ryan Kish said that this overhaul was necessary to accomplish the large-scale improvements users were asking for. New are new Base Calendars and Work Calendars. You can define calendars per resource, tasks and dependencies and can utilize an unlimited number of calendars per project. Base calendars can be things like the company or project calendar and can drive specific project, sub-project or tasks calendars.

AEC Software has always used templates to help individuals to get started but now the company has taken this further by including an online library of templates that AEC Software will continue to expand on. These are organized by industry categories and there is even a new “Green” category which contains a LEED for Homes schedule, organized and pre-populated with sample data. This would be useful to architects and builders managing green design or construction projects. (see image below)

New in FastTrack Schedule 10 is Effort Driven Scheduling. With Effort Driven Scheduling you can compress scheduled tasks by adding more resources. Ryan Kish said that customers have the flexibility to set project tasks as either effort-driven or fixed duration in FastTrack Schedule 10. This automatically adjust task durations and overall schedule durations by adding or subtracting resources while keeping the total work for a task constant. Related to this is the new Assignment Contouring which allows you to choose from eight built-in contours that apply a specific amount of effort (per applied resource) over the period of a task. These include flat, bell-shaped, back-loaded, front-loaded, Turtle and others.

Other new features include Resource Usage Graphing at the bottom of Gantt charts, enhanced resource information forms, and Address Book import (Mac only). The program still provides excellent integration with Microsoft Project and Mind Manager. You can save schedules to multiple file formats and  one of the best features of FastTrack Schedule 10 is its Consolidation feature which enables multiple FastTrack Schedules to be merged into a single file.

Ryan Kish told us that AEC Software’s FastTrack Schedule has traditionally two types of users. “Fifty percent of our customers come from an experience with intense enterprise-class scheduling apps or MS Project. The other half are “new to project management software entirely.” Ryan also said with the Mac being more popular than ever these days FastTrack Schedule is helping users embrace cross-platform project management tools.

FastTrack Schedule has been reviewed here on Architosh several times in the past becuase we are aware of its usage by general contractors and architects or interior designers. However, besides architecture (and the reference in AEC Software’s name) FastTrack Schedule is used extensively in many industries, including but hardly limited to: Aerospace, Architecture, Automotive, Construction, Consulting, Defense and Military, Education, Energy, Engineering, Entertainment, Financial, Health, Government, Legal, Manufacturing, Marketing and Advertising, Non-Profit, Pharmaceutical, Publishing, Real Estate, Scientific and R&D, Software Development, Telecommunications and Transportation and Logistics.

Trial versions of FastTrack Schedule 10 are available online. The new product is 349.USD for a new single seat and 179.USD for an upgrade.

For more information on AEC Software’s FastTrack Schedule 10 visit here: www.aecsoftware.com