How to Export the Gantt Chart as an Image in EDGEBIC

Exporting the Gantt as an image in EDGEBIC by User Solutions produces a PNG of exactly what the Gantt is showing at that moment, including the visible date range, the zoom level, the color coding, and the bar labels. Everything the image says is decided on screen before you click. Here is the task and the setup that makes it worth sending.

Every task in this library is mapped on the EDGEBIC how-to hub. For the schedule concept behind the picture, see what production scheduling is.

Before You Start

• The plan is current. An image of a stale schedule is worse than no image, because it looks authoritative.
• You know the audience. A shop floor board, a management meeting, and a customer update each want a different view.
• You have decided what must be visible. The export cannot add anything the screen was not showing.

Step 1: Filter to the Jobs That Belong in the Picture

Start here, not with the export. Use the job filter to narrow the Gantt to the jobs the audience should see. Method is in how to filter the job list.

For a customer update this is not optional. A plant-wide Gantt shows every other customer's work on the same image.

Step 2: Set the Zoom and Date Range

The export captures the visible window. Zoom until the span you want fits across the width.

If the whole span will not fit legibly, do not force it. Two images at a readable zoom beat one image nobody can read. Zoom controls are covered in how to zoom the Gantt timeline.

Step 3: Set the Colors and Labels

Two settings change what the picture communicates more than anything else.

• Color coding. Coloring by operation state gives an at-a-glance progress read. Coloring by work center gives a capacity read. Pick one for the audience.
• Bar labels. A long descriptive label is fine on a monitor and unreadable on a printed board. Shorten it for print.

Both are covered in how to change the Gantt color coding.

Step 4: Export

Use the Export option in the Gantt toolbar and choose the PNG option. Pick a location, name the file with the date, and save.

The date in the file name matters more here than almost anywhere else, because a Gantt image carries no visible timestamp of its own. An undated schedule picture found in a folder six weeks later is unusable.

Step 5: Check It Before You Send It

Open the file. Three checks take fifteen seconds.

1. The full span you wanted is present. Not truncated at either edge.
2. The labels are legible at the size it will be viewed. Zoom to 100% for a screen audience, or print a test page for a board.
3. Nothing is in the picture that should not be. Especially for anything leaving the plant.

How to Check It Worked

• The image opens and matches what you saw on screen. The bars, the colors, and the dates should be identical.
• A colleague can read it cold. Hand it to someone who was not standing next to you and ask what it shows. If they cannot say, the zoom or the labels are wrong.
• The date range is unambiguous. Either the axis labels are legible or the file name says the window.

Common Mistakes

• Exporting at the default zoom and assuming the whole plan is in it. It captures the visible window only. This is the single most common surprise.
• Sending a plant-wide image to a customer. Filter first, then confirm on screen.
• Trying to edit the image afterward. It is a raster render. Set the view, not the file.
• Using an image where a report was needed. If the reader needs dates they can copy, a report exported to PDF or Excel is a better document than a picture of bars.

See how EDGEBIC visualizes a finite capacity plan on the EDGEBIC product page.