Maptek Chronos scheduler uses Microsoft Excel as a platform to perform scheduling operations. This should make it easy to open the schedule on any computer that has Excel 2007 and above. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The instructions below are one method to open a Chronos workbook on any computer with Microsoft Excel 2007 and above.
To open the .chronos_xls file in
excel 2007 and above you may need to assign the default program with which this
file type opens on your computer.
When you double click on a file
type with which your computer is unfamiliar you get the ‘Windows can’t open
this file:’ error.
Click the radio button ‘Select a
program from a list of installed programs’ to specify Excel as your default
program for .chronos_xls files.
This will bring up the ‘Open
with’ panel. Alternately, you can right click on the file and select ‘Open
with’ from the context menu that pops up. This will also bring you to the 'Open with' panel.
If Microsoft Excel is listed as
one of your default programs select it and click ‘OK.’ If Excel is not an
option you will have to browse to the location where Excel is installed on your
computer. In either case be sure to check the box ‘Always use the selected
program to open this kind of file’ so that you don’t have to repeat this
procedure next time.
To browse to the location where Excel is installed click on the ‘Browse’ button. This will open the browse explorer panel in
your ‘Program Files’ folder.
This seems like the right
location until you realize that only 64-bit programs are installed into this
folder and that Microsoft Excel is a 32-bit program. Navigate to the ‘Program
Files (x86)’ folder (the place where 32-bit programs are installed) by clicking
on your C: drive on the left of the panel and then double clicking ‘Program
Files (x86).’ Now we are in the correct starting location.
From here we want to navigate to
the ‘Microsoft Office’ folder and then to the ‘Office14’ folder. Next select
‘EXCEL.EXE’ and click the ‘Open’ button.
Microsoft Excel should now
appear in your list of programs. Select it and click ‘OK’ not forgetting to
click the checkbox ‘Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.’
Excel will now open but it will
warn you that the file contents are different from the format specified by the file extension and ask you if you are
sure you want to open it. Go ahead and click the ‘Yes’ button.
According to Microsoft support there are methods you can use to avoid all warning messages when opening a *.chronos_xls file in Excel (see this link: Microsoft Support). These methods include setting group policy or making registry edits. This is more in depth than I care to go even if you could convince your IT guy to give you privileges to make it happen. Just click the 'Yes' button when opening *.chronos_xls files in Excel.
That’s it. Chronos workbooks
will now open in Microsoft Excel every time. With the exception of the file
type warning, the entire process will now be automated.
Give this a try and let me know
how it works for you.
For more information on Maptek Vulcan training and tools see: Vulcan Training
For more information on Maptek Vulcan training and tools see: Vulcan Training