What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
- What do they need?
- What do they care about most?
The primary goal of creating a model is to bring everyone's visions together to ensure the architects and construction team can accurately and quickly accomplish the task set forth by the clients. They will need strong communication, as well as an established and streamlined process on how to
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
The level of detail should evolve as the model evolves - as the project progresses, more detail will be necessary to ensure the building's integrity and integrate the client's potentially changing preferences. The key stages could include the pre-design, schematic, construction plan, negotiation, and construction commencement phases. During the pre-design phase, parties should discuss larger objectives (not too much detail, just non-negotiables alongside general visions). More detail will come to life in the initial plans of the schematic and construction phases. Those details will be scrutinized and possibly changed after parties review the model, so at this stage, the details must be both accurate and precise.
How much detail should you include about the composition (layers, materials, thicknesses) of your wall, floor, and roof assemblies at different stages of your design process?
- Conceptual design
- Preliminary design
- Design development
- Construction documentation
Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.
- What is the advantage to manufacturers for providing these families? (it's not free to create and provide them...)
- What is the benefit to you as the designer of using these manufacturer-provided families? Is there an advantage to using them versus the families provided in the Revit library?