Many people have a problem with phases in Revit because they are so misunderstood. What phase do I need to draw on? Do I need to add new phases? How do I use phase filters? Do I use phases for alternate bids? These questions and many more often confuse people. So, here is a summary of phases:
- Ask yourself, do I have an existing building? If so, phases are probably for you. All of the existing building construction needs to be drawn in a view that is in an existing phase. If not, things won't show up correctly on demolition and new construction drawings.
- Do you have portions of a building that will be built at a later date? If so... phases could be your best way to show this.
- Alternate bids... if you have alternate bids you want to show as part of the project in an as-built or for construction set... then Design Options may be a better way to go.
Below is an image of how the phases in Revit (Existing and New Construction) can be filtered by view. This may take some "fiddling" to get it to show what you want. For New Construction plans, I typically use Show Previous + New and set the Phase to New Construction. For Demolition plans, I typically use Show Previous + Demo and set the Phase to New Construction. And of course if you add Phases, you'll have additional settings to consider. Like a lot of things in Revit, phases are view dependent. They aren't "graphic overrides" like some other items... think of them exactly as they are called... Phases. If it something that is in an existing building... then it's Existing... not New Construction. Here's how to show existing room names on demo views and not have them show up in your room finish schedule Existing Room Names.
From Autodesk, here are the standard phase filters:
Each Revit Architecture project contains the following default phase filters:
- Show All. Shows new elements (using the graphics settings defined for that category of elements) and existing, demolished, and temporary elements (using the Graphic Overrides settings for each phase defined using Manage tab--Manage Project panel--Phases--Graphic Overrides tab).
- Show Demo + New. Shows demolished elements and all new elements added to the building model.
- Show New. Shows all new elements added to the building model.
- Show Previous + Demo. Shows existing elements and demolished elements.
- Show Previous + New. Shows all original elements that were not demolished (Show Previous) and all new elements added to the building model (+ New).
- Show Previous Phase. Shows all elements from the previous phase. In the first phase of a project, existing elements are new to that phase, so applying the Show Previous Phase filter causes no elements to be displayed.
Each view can show one or more phases of the construction. You can specify different graphic overrides for each phase status.
- New. Element was created in the phase of the current view.
- Existing. Element was created in an earlier phase and continues to exist in the current phase.
- Demolished. Element was created in an earlier phase and demolished in the current phase.
- Temporary. Element was created and demolished during the current phase.
Alternate Bids
If you have alternate bids you want to show as incorporated into a project at some point, you may want to use Design Options. It's an easy, 1-click change to make one of the alternate design options current. Here's a good link to read more about Design Options. If you don't want to use Design Options, keep in mind that rooms and room tags are phase dependent as well and this could cause problems. If you do place alternate bids on a separate Phase, you can always use a shortcut and Combine With Next or Combine with Previous from the Phase Dialogue Box. This will alow you to place all of the content that was on the alternate bid phase onto the New Construction phase.
Using Phases in Revit takes a little bit of planning at the beginning of the project. If you plan ahead and have a good understanding of how the project will be built, then Phases should be a very useful tool!
