/tilos/faq/
Eighteen questions, in the order a genuinely new visitor tends to ask them.
What is TILOS and who uses it?
TILOS is time-location scheduling software used to plan and control linear infrastructure — rail, highways, pipelines, water networks and tunnels. It’s used by planners and schedulers, and read by project managers, contracts and claims managers, project risk managers, document controllers, PMO support engineers and cost engineers.
Is TILOS better than Primavera P6 for linear projects?
For visualising physical progress along a route, yes. For whole-programme network logic, P6 remains the stronger tool. Most major programmes run both — see the full TILOS vs Primavera P6 comparison.
Do I need Primavera P6 experience before learning TILOS?
No. TILOS is its own tool with its own logic, and plenty of planners learn it first and pick up P6 later, or the other way round.
How long does it take to learn TILOS?
Enough to build and read basic charts confidently: a day or two of focused training. Full working proficiency is realistically a few weeks of practice on real project data after that.
Can TILOS import my existing Primavera P6 or MS Project schedule?
Yes. TILOS supports import and export with both, so an existing schedule can be brought in as a starting point rather than rebuilt from scratch.
Is there UK-based, on-site TILOS training for teams?
Yes — corporate TILOS training is delivered on-site or virtually for teams anywhere in the UK. See the corporate training page.
What industries use TILOS?
Rail, highways, water & sewerage, oil & gas pipelines, and tunnelling most directly, plus major infrastructure programmes more broadly.
Where can I buy or trial TILOS software?
TILOS is licensed directly through its vendor, RIB Software. This site focuses on training and using it effectively once you have access.
What’s the difference between Line of Balance and Time-Location Scheduling?
In practice, very little — see the full explanation on the What Is Time-Location Scheduling? page.
Can TILOS handle resources and costs, or is it just a scheduling tool?
It handles both. Activities can be assigned resources and costs, and TILOS generates resource and cost histograms from those assignments automatically.
Does TILOS support baselines and progress tracking?
Yes. A baseline is saved as a reference snapshot, and progress is then updated against it at each reporting cycle — see the advanced example on the Examples Library page.
What file formats does TILOS import and export?
Excel, Microsoft Project and Primavera P6, in both directions.
Is TILOS used outside the UK?
Yes — widely used across continental Europe, particularly on rail programmes.
I already know Primavera P6 — what’s the learning curve like?
Faster than starting from nothing, but thinking in chainage and sectors rather than pure logic is a genuinely different skill.
Can training be tailored to our project’s real data?
Yes — corporate training is normally built around your own (or an anonymised version of your own) project data.
Do you offer a certificate of completion?
Yes, both the corporate training and the recorded course include a certificate of completion.
What’s the difference between corporate training and the recorded course?
Corporate training is live, delivered to your team, and built around your own project data. The recorded course is self-paced with a fixed curriculum. See corporate training or the course.
Who delivers the training?
A Senior Planning Engineer with 15+ years across nuclear, rail, oil & gas and infrastructure, and 500+ professionals trained at organisations including HS2, Hinkley Point C, Alstom, Strabag, Technip, Vinci and Fluor.
Still have a question that’s really about booking training? See corporate TILOS training →