Example Project to Illustrate Phasing

When setting up phases in Revit you need to understand the Phases of the project establish a timeline for work to occur.  Your Revit views are then assigned a point in the time line when they are “looking” at the project.  When you are “looking” at the project establishes if an element is “New” or “Existing”.  When an element is placed in the model it is “new”.  If you change the view to look at a phase further along in the timeline then this same element is now “existing”.  The phase of the view at the time the element is placed controls when the element is considered “new”.   “Demolished” and “Temporary” states of elements are established by the state (existing or new) of the element when the demolish tool is used.  If the demolish tool is used on an existing element then the element’s state is changed to “demolished”.  If the demolish tool is used on a new element then the element’s state is changed to “temporary”.   This designation is important when it comes to apply the phase filters which control how elements look in a view.

Once you establish when along the timeline the view is looking at the project, you can then decide what you want to see and how it will be displayed by using phase filters.  Each phase filter has a setting for the 4 possible states (Existing, New, Demolished, and Temporary) an element can be assigned.   Each state has 3 possible visual settings.

• By Category– All elements assigned to a state using “By Category” will be displayed as set in the visibility and Graphics settings for the view.
• Overridden – Elements assigned to a state using “Overridden” will have their display controlled by the settings in the Graphic Overrides tab of the Phasing dialog.  These settings are like visibility and graphics controls but will be applied globally to all elements no matter the category.
• Not Displayed – Elements assigned to a state using “Not Displayed” will not ever display in the view no matter the category or settings from the visibility and graphics controls.

The attached file is an example of a very small renovation project which illustrates how phasing can be set up in Revit.  The project is done in 2 phases where a room is added in each phase to the existing one room building.  Each phase has a demolition plan and a plan for the new work.  Each phase also includes a “complete” plan that might be used for a presentation.

The views and schedules in the example project follow the rules listed above.  The view is first set to look at when along the time line the view is “seeing” the model.  Then the view has a phase filter set to establish what needs to be seen and communicated in the view.  The phase filters in this example project are slightly altered to be clearer about what will be shown when the filter is used.

 A new Project Browser organization was created and applied to organize the views of the project into phases.  Organizing the Project Browser can help when working with phasing in Revit.  It helps by keeping you aware of which phase, or where along the time line of the project, you are currently working in.

For more information on Phasing in Revit visit the Revit Clinic blog post on the subject.