Phasing Question

[jcoe]

I have been through the tutorials and did some reading on the forum regarding phasing and I thought I had a handle on it until I started modifying and improving our office template. What I am trying to do is set up typical phases that are constant with almost any project we work with and organize the project browser by phase. I have made three phases (phase 0 - existing conditions; phase 1 - demolition; and phase 2 - new construction). This is the dilemma.

When making my view templates I set the view properties to the correct phase and named them accordingly and poof, the project browser organized them as expected. To test and make sure the phasing was correct I drew a generic wall in the view set to phase 0 with my phase filter set to "Show existing only." Now I get the dreaded message "None of the created elements are visible in Floor Plan: First Floor - Exg Conditions View. You may want to check the active view, its Parameters, and Visibility settings, as well as any Plan Regions and their settings." When I check the other views, the walls are displayed properly and when I check the properties of the walls, they tell me that the walls were created on Phase 0, which is correct. My thinking is that the "Show existing only" phase filter was set incorrectly, but regardless of my changes to the phase filter, I still was not able to get the walls to show.

In addition, none of the phase filters have been changed - they are still the default settings.
I have attached some screen shots to illustrate.

Am I approaching this incorrectly, or is it just a phasing "bug?"

Thank you in advance.

[patricks]

Ah yes, phasing strikes again. I have seen this several times among newer Revit users. You don't have to set up a separate Demolition phase. All you need is an existing conditions and new construction phase. If an object was created on the existing phase, and demolished in the new construction phase, then Revit will treat it as Demolished if the view's phase is set to New Construction. Let me see if I can run through some of them (going from memory here, I'm not at the office right now).

Show New - shows only objects created on whatever phase is set to current, either existing or new. Objects are displayed without phase overrides.

Show Previous - Shows objects created in the phase previous to the view's current phase, and displays with the Existing graphic override. I *think* only objects that remain in the new phase will be displayed with this setting, but I can't remember for sure.

Show Previous + Demo - Shows objects created in the phast previous to the view's current phase. Existing to remain objects display with the Existing graphic override, and objects that are demolished have the Demo graphic override.

Show Previous + New - Shows objects that were created in the previous phase and remain in the new phase, with the Exsiting graphic override, and of course the new objects created in the New Construction phase.

Show All - Shows all objects with no overrides, I think.

Show Complete - shows how it will look when the project is complete. I don't think there are any graphic overrides, but objects demolished in the current phase will not display.

Keep in mind that if a view's phase is set to Existing, then that becomes the current phase for that view, and so objects created in the Existing phase will display as new objects in that particular view, with no graphic overrides. The phase filters are relative to the view's phase setting.

[beegee]

>>>I drew a generic wall in the view set to phase 0 with my phase filter set to "Show existing only." >>>.Your phase filter for this phase is set to display 'existing" by category with all other phases set to not display. Revit looks for something that is already existing ( ie created in a phase before this one,) and since their isn't a phase before this one, there is nothing for Revit to display. The wall was, in fact, created in this pahse - it's new to this phase, so reset your filter to display new only for this pase and it should work.

[jcoe]

patricks,

Thank you for the timely response and taking the time to write a nice explanation, especially on a Sunday night. I changed the phase filter in my phase 0 view to Show New and it worked.

The name "Show new" is a little misguiding, which is probably why it kept throwing me off. I seems that "show new" would be used to only show that which is new construction - just judging by its name. Show Current Phase might make some more sense. Anyway, what is the purpose of the "Show Existing Only" phase filter if nothing shows up on it?

Thanks again.

[patricks]

Well you have to remember that the Show New is not a setting of which phase displays, but a filter applied to whatever phase to which the current view is set.

I would suggest before doing anything else that you delete that Demolition phase, since Demolition isn't actually a phase. It's a part of New Construction where Existing objects are removed. If you leave that phase in there it will just cause further confusion, I think. Go to a 3D view, set the display to your Demolition phase and set the filter to Show New so you will only see objects created on that phase (if any) and then change them to one of the other phases, and then delete the Demolition phase.

You really just have to change your mindset depending on what phase the view is set on. For example, if the view is set to Existing, then it's like looking back in time. You have to go back to when the existing stuff was first completed, at which point it would have been "new". Show Previous on the Existing phase shows nothing, since there was nothing before those existing elements were created. Show New and Show Complete, I believe will work the same if the view is set to Existing.

To display a Demolition Plan, you would need to set the phase to New Construction and set the filter to Show Previous + Demo. To display simply an existing conditions plan, you would use either the New phase w/ the filter set to show Previous, or set the view to Existing and use either Show New or Show complete, depending on whether you want the existing conditions plan to have graphic overrides applied to it.

[beegee]

A separate Demolition phase is necessary when Room Tags are to be used in a situation when room names change between phases.

You probably would want the original room names to appear in the Demolition plan and the New room names in the New phase.

Even though Revit now has phase aware room tags, if you attempt to use only a New and a Existing phase, and then set the phase to New and the filter to “ Show Previous and Demo “ the room tag will use the New Phase tag name.

[rod.74246]

I haven't found a need to change the default phasing settings unless a project has a staged construction process. The standard out of the box settings work great for exisitng / demolition and single stage construction phases.