Modeling Phased Projects in Autodesk Revit
Phases are distinct, separate time periods or “milestones” within a project. Every project includes at least one phase, and by default, Autodesk® Revit® software defines two phases (named Existing and New Construction) in new projects. The project team can rename these phases or add as many phases as needed to accurately describe the project.
All elements in the building model have two properties that control the time periods during which the element is considered to be present—Phase Created and Phase Demolished. In project phases before the Phase Created or after the Phase Demolished, the element is ignored and will not be displayed in model views.
The visibility of model elements in any view is determined by a combination of the Phase property for that view and a Phase Filter that determines how elements will be displayed based on their creation and demolition state relative to the current phase. Every element is assigned a status relative to the phase of the current view:
- New—If the element was created in the phase of the current view
- Existing—If the element was created in an earlier phase and continues to exist in the current phase
- Demolished—If the element was created in an earlier phase and demolished in the current phase
- Temporary—If the element was created and demolished during the current phase
Phase filters control the appearance of elements based this phase-based status by specifying how elements of each status should be displayed:
- By Category―The display settings in Visibility and graphics for that view will be used to display any objects in that Phase Status.
- Not Displayed―Any object that is that Phase Status will not display in the view.
- Overridden―Any object that is that Phase Status will use the Graphic override that is set on the Graphic Overrides tab of the Phases dialog box.
This phase information and phase filters are commonly used to create phase-specific views of the building model that present or hide the model elements in a way that is most appropriate for that project phase. The following table illustrates one scheme for using phases and phase filters to create views for specific project uses.
