by John Flanagan
Introduction
Phasing in Revit gives us the ability to apply the fourth dimension or time to our projects. Revit's approach to phasing is simple and straightforward. A simple timeline is established for your project that includes one or more points in time. Each point in time is a phase. The out-of-the-box default template includes just two phases, Existing and New Construction. You can add additional phases as the project needs dictate. The following illustration shows four distinct phases common to renovation projects.
Many large projects, such as office blocks proceed in phases, each phase representing a distinct time in the life of the project.
The following image shows a floor plan in different phases of construction: Existing building,
Phase 1-East Wing and Phase 2 West Wing.
Existing Phase
Phase 1-East Wing (Existing greyed out)
Phase 2-West Wing (Existing and East Wing greyed out)
To initiate phasing, click phases on the Manage toolbar. There are two default phases in Existing and New Construction.
In the Phasing dialogue box, we can rename and add as many phases as needed to complete our building project. The building example shown in this blog with more than one building makes it an ideal candidate for phasing.
For our purposes we will have phases that match the completion of each building. The existing phase is assigned to the central building. Phase 1-East Wing identifies the completion of the east wing building on the right and Phase 2-West Wing identifies the completion of the west wing building on the left.
Select the central building and assign it to the Existing Phase in the Properties Palette.
Repeat this step and assign the correct phase to the two building wings. You can now toggle between the different building phases in the filter section on the properties palette.
Phase Filters
3D View: Phase 1-East Wing
In a 3D view with the Phase Set to Phase 1, the existing phase is greyed out and Phase 2 does not show because it has not been built yet (it is in the future). By setting the visual style to shaded we can clearly see the new construction wing on the east site of the existing building.