Revit: Phasing Area Plans

We use Area Plans in Revit to assist in calculating the occupant load on our life safety drawings. A recent project was being done in phases, and separate life safety plans were required for each phase, showing the occupant load (and egress) at the end of each phase. Area Plan Views do have Phase and Phase Filter parameters (to show the modeled elements correctly for a given plan), but Area objects do not have Phase Created and Phase Demolished parameters, so their visibility cannot be controlled by the phase settings on an Area Plan View.

Phased Area Plans can be created - but you need to make a separate Area Scheme for each separate phase to be shown. Here is how to do that:

1. On the Architecture ribbon tab, on the Room & Area panel, select the panel title to deploy the flyout and then select the Area and Volume Computations tool.
   
2. In the Area and Volume Computations dialog, select the Area Schemes tab and then select the New button.
   
3. Give the new Area Scheme a name and description, clearly identifying the phase to which it will apply in the name. Create additional Area Schemes, one for each phase needed.
   
4. Select the OK button to create the new Area Schemes and dismiss the dialog.
5. On the Architecture ribbon tab, on the Room & Area panel, select the Area tool. On the flyout, select the Area Plan tool.
   
6. In the New Area Plan dialog, set the Type to one of the "phased" Area Schemes you just created, and then select the Level(s) for which you will need plans for that "phase".
   
7. Repeat the creation of Area Plans for the other "phased" Area Schemes.
8. In the Project Browser, select one of the Area Plan Views you just created and, in the Properties palette, set the appropriate values for the Phase and Phase Filter properties, so that the plan view of the model shows correctly for that phase. If you have (a) View Template(s) set up for these Area Plans, apply the appropriate template. (If the template controls the Phase Filter, you can skip setting that in the Properties palette.)
   

You now have Area Plans for each phase. Add the desired Areas to each. Each Area Scheme is independent of the others, so any Areas that are common to two or more Schemes will have to be created in each.

One other note, if you need to create Schedules for the Areas, be aware that you have to specify the Area Scheme to which the Schedule applies at the time of Schedule creation, and you cannot change that later. What that means is if you have multiple Area Schemes, and need the same Schedule for each Scheme, you will not be able to create one, duplicate it and then change the Scheme to which it applies. You will need to create a Schedule for each Area Scheme from scratch. (If you need multiple Schedules of the same type within one Area Scheme - for example, if you have separate Schedules for the occupant loading of each level - you can duplicate the first schedule created for that Area Scheme, and then change the filtering to show different items (such as from another level).