Pinning dates on the timeline

Lock specific blocks to fixed dates that recast won't move — for concrete pours, inspections, customer deadlines, and any commitment you can't reschedule.

Some dates can't move. The concrete pour is scheduled with the batch plant. The inspector is coming Thursday. The customer needs the lot by the 15th. Pinning locks a block to a specific date — recast schedules everything else around it but never moves the pinned block.

How to pin a date

Click a block on the timeline to open its detail panel
Click the pin icon next to the start date (or end date, depending on which you want to lock)
The block shows a pin indicator on the timeline
Recast now treats this block as a fixed constraint

Pin start vs. pin end

You can pin the start date, the end date, or both. Pin the start when you know exactly when work begins (equipment delivery day, subcontractor arrival). Pin the end when you have a hard deadline (inspection date, customer commitment). Pin both for blocks with zero flexibility (concrete pour that must happen on exactly that day).

Pinning and conflicts

If a predecessor block finishes after a pinned block's start date, recast can't resolve the overlap — it flags a conflict instead. The conflict appears as a warning on the timeline with a description: "Block X finishes on the 12th, but pinned block Y starts on the 10th." You decide how to resolve it: shorten the predecessor, add resources, or negotiate the pinned date.

Pro tip

Only pin dates that are truly immovable — external commitments, contractual deadlines, third-party coordination. Over-pinning defeats the purpose of automatic scheduling. If you pin every block, you're doing manual scheduling with extra steps.

Unpinning

Click the pin icon again to unpin a block. On the next recast, the block becomes movable again and may shift to a new position based on its dependencies. Unpin blocks when external constraints are removed — the inspection was postponed, the concrete pour was rescheduled, or the customer extended the deadline.

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Automatic rescheduling (recast)

How Gradeworks automatically recalculates your project schedule when changes happen — respecting dependencies, pinned dates, and the work week calendar.

Working with work blocks

Create, configure, and manage work blocks — the individual units of work that make up your project schedule.

The project timeline

Visualize and manage your entire project schedule on the timeline — create blocks, set dependencies, assign crews, and watch the schedule respond to changes in real time.

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