Rotated columns do not take up space in the database unless they are assigned values; assigned values are stored as records. When the records are accessed, they are “rotated” logically into the more familiar field structures. This method reduces the amount of database storage used when a code column is used sparsely, but may increase the amount of time needed to load and save data, especially if a column of data is densely populated. Unrotated columns require database storage, even when there is no value for a particular record, but reduce loading and saving times.
You (as a system administrator) must identify Open Plan codes 1 through 90 and any user fields (such as user date, user character, or user number fields) in the PM Compass User-Defined Data form before you can use them in PM Compass. There are 10 default user character/date/numeric fields, however, you can create more and name them to follow the pattern.
Each time you add a code to the list, a new index is added to Open Plan. If you have too many code fields, it may hurt Open Plan's performance.
When you add fields to User Defined Data, they are moved to the activity table in Open Plan in a process called unrotating the fields. Open Plan stores all of the codes and user characters in a separate table from the activity table. When these fields are populated on the majority of activities, this causes performance problems.
To improve performance, PM Compass unrotates the codes when you click Save in User-Defined Data. If there are a 1000 or less activities in the database, PM Compass unrotates the fields automatically. If there are more than 1000 activities, PM Compass creates and emails you a script to be run by your database administrator. Although you can save the fields in User Defined Data, you will not be able to use these fields until the script has been run.
All users will need to exit Open Plan while the script is running. If you have a large database, the script may take several hours to run.
After you enter the fields in User-Defined data and they have been unrotated, you can use them on the Project Schedule Integration tab to identify the link between the cost and schedule system, and add to the grids in the progress views, among others.
When you are not using Open Plan, the schedule data is imported into the Open Plan tables. Therefore, you must identify the WBS, WP, ID, and other codes in User-Defined Data before importing your schedule.
Tip: Consider using Global Edits to standardize the use of the codes and user fields across all projects before adding the codes to User-Defined Data.
For more information about unrotated codes, see Knowledge Base Article 41932 on the Deltek Customer Care Site.