I've been a Revit user for an MEP firm for 4 years now and with every release I hope that Autodesk finally incorporates the ability to show content that exists on future phases. Sadly the latest release has not been updated to do so. Every project I've worked on since the beginning has been a multi phase project, and when designing large MEP systems we always have to space plan for future equipment. Ideally we want to show new equipment "by category"and have any content that might exist in the future show up as halftoned and dashed. This allows for more accurate bidding by contractors and better coordination between disciplines. The current phasing structure allows you to create future phases, and place the content on them, but the visibility filter will only show what is on the ACTIVE phase and anything PRIOR. So if I have 3 phases: (EXISTING, CURRENT PHASE, and FUTURE PHASE) and I want to print to the current phase, anything on the FUTURE PHASE, disappears. If I switch to show FUTURE PHASE all the content on CURRENT PHASE, is considered existing by revit and now has the visibility of such.
We have come up with very creative ways to work around this but any kind of user defined view filters , only apply to our model, and often becomes a coordination issue with Architectural and Structural firms. I've asked one of the Arch firms we frequently work with how they deal with this and they suggested creating duplicate views and laying them directly on top of the other on a sheet, one showing the future view and the other showing day one content, that means maintaining an excessive number of views especially in very large projects. Under Greenfield conditions (no existing work) we can simply set the "EXISTING" graphic override to show "BY CATEGORY" and have the "NEW" graphic override to show a halftoned and dashed style, then create a phase filter that shows "NEW" as OVERRIDDEN and EXISTING as BY CATEGORY. Great problem solved....until the future work needs to be done and now you need the use of that existing phase.
Point being that a third VISIBLE phase would solve all of this, NEW, EXISTING, and FUTURE
If anyone has a solution that just uses the built in phasing tool that Revit comes with and doesn't involve elaborate view filters based on worksets or duplicating hundreds of views, please reply to this post, I'm open to any suggestions, thank you in advance.
After much debate and many headaches my office has decided that the quickest and easiest solution is to set the future objects on a temporary phase (setting them to be created and demolished within the same phase).
It's not the best solution but until we are giving something useful to work with it's the best we've come up with.
I've set all my "future" walls to be created and demo'ed in the new construction phase. I then create a view filter called "Show Future" that displays all new comstruction: by category, existing: overridden, demolished: not displayed, temporary: overridden.
By doing so I get all my new construction elements as dark heavy lines, existing as thin gray lines and "future" or temporary as dasshed lines.
Phasewise it's incorrent but with a simple note to our consultants our headaches seem to be less frequent now.
I see that you have been using Revit for quite some time now. I am curious, Are you doing any piping with with the program, and tell me of your experience with the manujfactures RFA and Csv files. Are they working for you? Do me a favor if you decide to answer please use my email address(billsbz@hotmail.com)
Thank you for your comments,
Bill
I want to thank everyone trying to explain to me thier ideas. I feel I must try to explain myself more clear. I am a retired plumber teaching my self Revit.
You have many fittings, each with thier own RFA and or Csv file. The RFA files are in the Library and the Csv files are in the Look-up table. The issue is some of the look up tables are wrong. I am running Revit 2014. I have talked to some of the manufactures and they know of the problem and are hot on it to fix it. What I am really looking for is someone experiencing the same.
Thanks again
Bill
ALERT, ALERT, ALERT
IS THERE ANY ONE OUR THERE IN THE REVIT WORLD THAT IS A MECHANICAL ENGINEER WORKING WITH PIPE AND THE FITTINGS
THAT BUILD SYSTEMS IE, HOT, COLD AND RETURN WATER, HYDRONIC SYSTEMS, FIRE PROTECTION, NATURAL GAS?
billsbz, I started this forum to discuss the need for future phase filters to be built into revit and the limitations / workarounds to not having them, this is probablly not the best place to ask questions about piping. If you back out to the forums and do a search for "piping systems in revit" there are at least a dozen threads that discuss the topic.
I am about to start a phased project and stumbled on this thread. I see your solution having marit and was wondering if you have tried adding the shared perameter for future phase graphics control? and if you have any follow up comments? does it play well with consultants on linked models?
Thanks. - still no futures phase.
I concure completely. Revit will only be useful when all who claim to have product families that accually work in Revit. The need to test their product and retest.
Hey Guies,
Read through the thread, and I agree with you people, it's pretty sad that such an important feature is still missing from the package. (Using 2015 now)
The solution that I found was to simply define project parameters and make filters from them. I am still using the phasing feature because its quick and very efficient. On the visibility side the phasing feature is still weak 😞
By combining the phasing visibility and the filters based on a project parameter its easy to set up a system where the parameter itself can be the same as your phase names. and if I work in the right phases and keep it neat and tidy it is easy at any point to synchronize the phase parameter by isolating the phases and showing nothing else just the desired phase. As soon as the Parameter for the filter is up to date whatever can be set.
I set up this system but don't have experience on how badly it can be messed up by a whole team working on it. When I see it, I will keep you posted if that brings up any problem. (I think it will, as usually team work does 🙂 )
Hope this helps.
Still waiting on future visibility option. Also some phase grouping would be nice.
P.S.: Please Santa I was a good guy 😄
I put the request several year ago. No respond received yet. Should we organize a DDOS attack on the Feedback page to be heard?
So fast forward 8 years since I originally posted this and it seems that Autodesk has finally made an "adjustment" to the way Revit shows phasing. In the latest release (currently R22) You now have the ability to use the phase created as a sorting criteria in view filters.
So skip the phase filter tool altogether and start including this view filter in all view templates. The filters will also work with linked files but the phase naming will need to be matched exactly.
I see this as a small victory!