Phasing in Revit is an essential tool for projects that involve renovation or construction in stages. This feature allows you to differentiate between existing, demolished, and new construction elements within a project. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to set up and use phasing effectively for a simple renovation project.

Tutorial Objectives:

– Understand the basics of Revit phasing.
– Set up phases in a Revit project.
– Assign elements to different phases (Existing, Demolished, New).
– Adjust phase filters to control the visibility of elements in views.
– Create a phase-specific view (Existing Plan, Demolition Plan, New Construction Plan).

Step 1: Understanding Phases in Revit

Revit uses phases to manage different stages of a project’s lifecycle. By default, Revit includes two phases:

Existing: Represents the current state before any new work begins.
New Construction: Represents elements that are added during the project.

You can add more phases if needed (e.g., “Demolition”), but in most renovation projects, these two are sufficient.

Step 2: Setting Up Phases in Your Project

  1. Open your Revit project.
  2. Go to the Manage tab on the ribbon and click on Phases.
  3. In the Phases dialog box, you will see two default phases: Existing and New Construction.
  4. You can add more phases by clicking Insert if your project requires it (e.g., adding a “Demolition” phase).

Step 3: Assigning Phases to Elements

Every element in Revit can be assigned a specific phase:

  1. Select an element in your project (e.g., a wall).
  2. In the Properties palette, find the Phasing section.
  3. Set the Phase Created property. For existing elements, set it to Existing.
  4. For new elements, set the Phase Created to New Construction.
  5. If an element needs to be demolished, set Phase Created to Existing and Phase Demolished to New Construction.

Step 4: Using Phase Filters in Views

Phase filters control the display of elements based on their phase status:

  1. Select a floor plan view (e.g., “Level 1”).
  2. In the Properties palette, find the Phase and Phase Filter settings.

Phase: Set this to the phase you want the view to represent (e.g., “Existing” or “New Construction”).
Phase Filter: Choose a filter like Show All, Show New, or Show Demo based on what you want to display.

  1. Try switching between different phase filters to see how the elements change visibility.

Step 5: Creating Phase-Specific Views

To effectively communicate your renovation project, set up separate views for each phase:

  1. Duplicate your floor plan view (Right-click the view > Duplicate View > Duplicate).
  2. Rename the views according to the phase (e.g., “Level 1 – Existing,” “Level 1 – Demolition,” “Level 1 – New Construction”).
  3. Set the Phase and Phase Filter properties for each view:

– For Existing views, set the Phase to “Existing” and the Phase Filter to Show Complete.
– For Demolition views, set the Phase to “New Construction” and the Phase Filter to Show Demo.
– For New Construction views, set the Phase to “New Construction” and the Phase Filter to Show New.

Step 6: Annotating Phase Views

  1. Add tags, dimensions, and annotations as needed in each view.
  2. Ensure that demolished elements are properly indicated with a dashed line or other visual style (controlled by the Phase Filter settings).

Step 7: Creating a Phase Schedule (Optional)

You can also create schedules that list elements based on their phase:

  1. Go to the View tab and click on Schedules > Schedule/Quantities.
  2. Choose a category (e.g., Walls) and click OK.
  3. In the Schedule Properties dialog, add the field Phase Created.
  4. Use filters to separate existing, demolished, and new elements.

Tips:

– Use graphics overrides in the Phases dialog to customize how different phases appear (e.g., existing elements in gray, demolished in dashed lines).
– Check the Phase Filter settings carefully, as they control what elements are visible in each view.

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