1 Introduction

An Architect would like to the topography profile that existed before a house pad was placed on it. One way to accomplish this is to make use of the phasing functionality in Revit.

2 Create Custom Phase

Although the original topography may be placed on the “Existing” phase, for demonstration purposes a new phase is created.

Note the numbering of the phases indicate the chronological order.

3 Create Topography

Create a duplicate of the Site view so there are two of them – one for the “Gaia” phase and one for the “New Construction Phase”.

Create a 3D view for each of the phases as well.

Create the original topography on the “Gaia” phase. Copy it in place and place the copy on the “New Construction” phase.

Split the Gaia topography so that only the projected profile of the pad is able to be kept visible in the view, while the rest of the topography is either hidden in relevant views or deleted

4 Place Pad

In the site drawing for the “New Construction” phase, change the view filter from “Show All” to “Show new” (the Gaia surface will no longer be visible). In the “New Construction” 3D View notice how the pad cuts and fills the topography. This is evident when the view filter is set to “Show New”.

However, if the View Filter is set to “Show Previous Phase”, only the Gaia topography is visible.

5 Create Section

Create a section through the building pad in the “New Construction” phase and set the view filter in this section to “Show Previous Phase”.

Override the graphics of the Gaia surface by element in this view to show no cut or surface pattern. Set the surface transparency to 100. Make the projection lines unobtrusive and set the cut lines to red.

Switch the View Filter to “Show All” and notice how the Gaia Surface now indicates the profile of the original topography on the section.