119 — Build-phase views

A tilt-up panel is built on the casting bed in a set order. The form and its cuts come first, then the face treatments, then everything on the down face, then the up face and the top edge, and last the lifting and bracing inserts. A shop drawing shows all of it at once, which is a lot to read when the crew only needs one stage.

The six phase buttons redraw the panel drawing to show one stage of the build, or a few stages, and nothing else. Each stage brings its own dimensions and callouts, so the sheet is not cluttered with the others. Nothing is saved, and All brings the complete panel back.

Where it is

The six buttons are the last six on the ConstructiVision toolbar, after Pick Points and Brace Points, with a separator between them.

	button	what its tooltip says it shows	command
	1 Form	“Show phase 1, Form (foreman steps 1-3): forms, miters, steps, openings, doors, levelers, blockouts, recesses, pilasters, lintels, spandrel seats, chamfer.”	CV-PHASE-FORM
	2 Face	“Show phase 2, Face (foreman step 4): reveals and face treatments.”	CV-PHASE-FACE
	3 Down Face	“Show phase 3, Down Face (foreman step 5): down-face weld connections and the sandwich wythe.”	CV-PHASE-DOWN
	4 Up Face	“Show phase 4, Up Face (foreman step 6): up-face and inside weld connections, ledger, top plate, slab dowels and the roof line.”	CV-PHASE-UP
	5 Pick and Brace	“Show phase 5, Pick & Brace (foreman step 7): pick points and brace points.”	CV-PHASE-PICK
	All	“Show everything: redraws the complete panel. On by default.”	CV-PHASE-ALL

Every phase tooltip ends with the same rule: “From All it shows only this phase; with a view up it adds or removes it.” The 1 Form tooltip adds: “The panel redraws as a view: dimensions re-place, nothing is saved.” The 5 Pick and Brace tooltip adds: “Their placement never changes.”

One phase, two spellings. The button is labelled 5 Pick and Brace. Its tooltip, the command line and the footnote on the sheet write it as 5 Pick & Brace. They are the same phase.

What must be open: a ConstructiVision panel drawing. All is on when a drawing opens, so the first phase button you click shows only that phase.

A phase view spends no panel token. The seat ran every phase view with the account at zero tokens.

If the drawing has unsaved changes, the button changes nothing. The command line says:

[CV-PHASE] Not changed: this drawing has unsaved changes. Save it (or close it without saving) first, so a phase view can never be saved over the complete panel.

Save the drawing, or close it without saving, and click again. Opening Edit Main Panel and pressing Cancel does not count as a change: the seat clicked 1 Form straight after that Cancel, and it worked.

How the buttons combine

• All is on when the drawing opens.

• From All, a phase button shows only that phase.

• With a phase view up, the button for a phase that is not shown adds it. The button for a phase that is shown removes it.

• Removing the last phase that is shown goes back to All.

• All always redraws the complete panel.

Every click redraws the panel, the same way any redraw does. The command line always names what is shown, and so does the footnote on the sheet.

Try it on AAA039

AAA039 is a panel from the Arlington Airport A sample project. It is 28’-0” wide and its title block gives 126.2 KIPS. Here is what the complete panel carries, as the seat read it:

phase	on AAA039
1 Form	one blockout, labelled 1’-4” X 8”
2 Face	ten reveals, each 1 1/2” X 1/2”
3 Down Face	three weld plates, type A
4 Up Face	ten weld plates (types C, R1 and R2), the roof line, and a top plate
5 Pick and Brace	nothing: AAA039 has no pick points or brace points

1. Open AAA039.dwg from the Arlington Airport A project.

2. It opens showing the complete panel, with the weld schedule (Weld Connections Req.) at the top right.

Each section below starts from All. Click All at the end of each one.

1 Form

1. Click 1 Form.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: 1 Form   (not shown: 2 Face, 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face, 5 Pick & Brace)
   

3. The panel redraws. When it finishes, the command line says what the view leaves out, what it took off and where it put the footnote, then names the phase shown again:

   [CV-PHASE] your own annotation layers (CUSTOM, CUSTOM_DIM) are not shown on a phase view; All shows them
   [CV-PHASE] panel body shown without its reveal recesses; weight and CG are the complete panel's
   [CV-PHASE] removed 62 drawn entities of the hidden phases
   [CV-PHASE] footnote drawn above the title block, crossing 0 drawing entities
   [CV-PHASE] showing: 1 Form   (not shown: 2 Face, 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face, 5 Pick & Brace)
   

   Every phase view ends with the same kind of lines.

4. Read the sheet. On AAA039 it shows:

   • the panel, its overall dimensions (28’-0” across the top, 34’-6 1/2” up the side) and its elevation markers: 33’-4 1/2” ToC, 0” FF, -8” SB and -1’-2”;

   • the blockout with its size label, 1’-4” X 8”;

   • the blockout’s two elevation callouts, 28’-6 1/2” BO and 29’-2 1/2” BO;

   • the dimension chain along the bottom that places it: 2’-4”, 1’-4”, 24’-4”.

   The reveals, the weld plates, the top plate and the weld schedule are gone. The footnote above the title block reads PHASE VIEW – showing: 1 Form. All shows the complete panel.

5. Click All.

2 Face

1. From All, click 2 Face.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: 2 Face   (not shown: 1 Form, 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face, 5 Pick & Brace)
   

3. When the redraw finishes:

   [CV-PHASE] removed 46 drawn entities of the hidden phases
   [CV-PHASE] footnote drawn above the title block, crossing 0 drawing entities
   

4. Read the sheet. On AAA039 it shows:

   • the ten reveals, each labelled 1 1/2” X 1/2” FS;

   • their elevation callouts: 7’-1 3/4”, 13’-1 3/4”, 21’-1 3/4” and 27’-1 3/4” FS;

   • FS on Edge on both edges;

   • the strip spacing chain along the bottom: 3’-11 1/4”, five at 3’-10 1/2”, then 3’-11 1/4”.

   The blockout’s outline is still drawn, because it is part of the panel. Its size label and its BO callouts are not: they belong to 1 Form. The footnote reads PHASE VIEW – showing: 2 Face. All shows the complete panel.

5. Click All.

3 Down Face

1. From All, click 3 Down Face.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: 3 Down Face   (not shown: 1 Form, 2 Face, 4 Up Face, 5 Pick & Brace)
   

3. When the redraw finishes, the command line gives removed 59 drawn entities of the hidden phases and the footnote drawn above the title block, crossing 0 drawing entities line.

4. Read the sheet. On AAA039 it shows the three plates along the bottom of the panel, and a weld schedule that lists only them:

   Qty	Type	Struct ID	Fab ID
   3	A	A/S5.1	A.

   AAA039 has no sandwich wythe, so the plates are all this phase holds. The footnote reads PHASE VIEW – showing: 3 Down Face. All shows the complete panel.

5. Click All.

4 Up Face

1. From All, click 4 Up Face.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: 4 Up Face   (not shown: 1 Form, 2 Face, 3 Down Face, 5 Pick & Brace)
   

3. When the redraw finishes, the command line gives the removed line and the footnote line, as before.

4. Read the sheet. On AAA039 it shows:

   • the ten plates, with their WC elevation callouts (10’-0”, 20’-0”, 27’-8 3/8”, 28’-0 5/16” and 28’-1 3/16”);

   • the roof line, a red dashed line, with its callouts 28’-5 3/4” RL and 28’-7 1/4” RL;

   • the top plate, its callout 33’-6” Top Plate and its note 2 X 7 1/4 Top Plate - 1/2 X 8” AB offset 2” @ 3’-0” o.c. Max.;

   • a weld schedule that lists only these plates:

   Qty	Type	Struct ID	Fab ID
   4	C	C/S5.1	C.
   4	R1	1/S3.1	R1.
   2	R2	1/S3.1	R2.

   The three type A plates are not on this sheet. The footnote reads PHASE VIEW – showing: 4 Up Face. All shows the complete panel.

5. Click All.

5 Pick and Brace

1. From All, click 5 Pick and Brace.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: 5 Pick & Brace   (not shown: 1 Form, 2 Face, 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face)
   

3. When the redraw finishes, the command line gives the removed line and the footnote line.

4. Read the sheet. AAA039 has no pick points or brace points, so this sheet is the panel, its overall dimensions and elevation markers, the CG and the footnote PHASE VIEW – showing: 5 Pick & Brace. All shows the complete panel. There is no weld schedule.

   A phase the panel does not have still gives you a sheet. On a panel that has pick and brace points, such as CSB001 in the ConstructiVision Sample Building, the same button keeps its four pick points and two brace points, with their callouts 11’-1” PP, 17’-8 5/8” BP and 20’-3” PP. To place them, see lesson 113.

5. Click All.

All

1. Click All.

2. The command line says:

   [CV-PHASE] showing: All
   

3. The complete panel redraws: every phase, the full weld schedule (A 3, C 4, R1 4, R2 2), and no footnote.

All redraws even when nothing is hidden. On the seat, the first click on a freshly opened AAA039 was All, and it redrew the complete panel.

Show two phases at once

From a phase view, a second button adds its phase, and clicking a shown phase’s button removes it. This is the sequence the seat clicked on AAA039:

click	command line: showing	footnote on the sheet	weld plates on the sheet
All	All	none	13
3 Down Face	3 Down Face	PHASE VIEW – showing: 3 Down Face. All shows the complete panel.	3
4 Up Face	3 Down Face, 4 Up Face	PHASE VIEW – showing: 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face. All shows the complete panel.	13
3 Down Face	4 Up Face	PHASE VIEW – showing: 4 Up Face. All shows the complete panel.	10
4 Up Face	All	none	13

The second 4 Up Face removed the only phase still shown, so the drawing went back to All.

Reading the result

The footnote. Every phase sheet carries one red line of text just above the title block: PHASE VIEW – showing: followed by the phases shown, then All shows the complete panel. The All sheet has none. When the dimensions already fill the band above the title block, the footnote shortens and moves into the left margin, clear of them. The seat saw this on the 1 Form sheets of Water048 and Evere041, where it read PHASE VIEW – 1 Form. When the footnote is clear, the command line says crossing 0 drawing entities.

The title block is the complete panel’s. Weight, volume and centre of gravity do not change with the view. On every AAA039 sheet they read 126.2 KIPS, 31.2 Cu. Yd. and X = 14’-0 1/8” Y = 17’-3 1/8”.

The weld schedule follows the sheet. It appears on All, 3 Down Face and 4 Up Face, and lists only the plates on that sheet. 1 Form, 2 Face and 5 Pick and Brace have no weld schedule.

What stays on every sheet: the panel itself, its overall dimensions and elevation markers, the CG, the Embed Placement Key and the title block.

The date in the title block is today’s. The redraw stamps the day it ran. AAA039 was saved with 8/19/2026 and showed 10/11/2026 after the seat’s redraw. Nothing is saved, so this is on screen only.

Nothing is saved. After each phase click AutoCAD did not mark the drawing as changed, and the drawing file’s date did not move. On Evere041 the seat clicked 1 Form, then All, and later closed the drawing: AutoCAD asked nothing. The complete panel stays on disk. Click All when you are done, so what is on screen is the complete panel again.

Checked on the sample panels. The seat ran all six buttons on eight sample panels: AAA039, CSB001, CSB060, Water048, SegalP15041, ODE038, PDX014 and PDX001. On later builds it ran 1 Form and 2 Face again on those eight and on Evere041. Every DR (door), SO (standard opening), BO (blockout), PL and DL elevation callout landed on 1 Form, and none on 2 Face. PDX014 and PDX001 have nothing in any phase: each of their phase sheets is the panel and the footnote.

What this lesson does not cover

Printing a whole book in a phase view. That is done from Batch Utilities. The dialog ConstructiVision - Batch Utilities has a row headed Phase view for the printed book (each panel is redrawn, not saved) with the same six boxes: 1 Form, 2 Face, 3 Down Face, 4 Up Face, 5 Pick and Brace and All. All six are ticked when it opens. Clicking 2 Face leaves only 2 Face ticked. With only 1 Form ticked, the command line says:

[BATCH] printing in a phase view -- showing: 1 Form. Each panel is redrawn for the print and NOT saved.

Each printed sheet carries the footnote. A phase view prints the book only: with Update Drawings also ticked, the batch does not run and says so. See Print a panel book.

Watch the lesson

The video runs Try it on AAA039: 1 Form (with the command history open, as F2 shows it), All, 3 Down Face, then 4 Up Face added and 3 Down Face removed, and All again. It does not show 2 Face or 5 Pick and Brace. The drawing was never marked as changed.