What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
- What do they need?
The primary goals of creating a building model are to communicate a vision for a project with a minimal margin for error. The stakeholders include the clients who are commissioning the work of the architect as well as the engineers and contractors in charge of realizing the project.
- What do they care about most?
They care most about accuracy and consistency in order to have a complete picture of what the final product will be. A well made model can also help avoid structural errors in the building process.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
- As you develop your initial design?
You should only provide a minimal level of detail here because the chances of major changes being made are high and it would be a waste of time to have to redo details that cannot be moved easily. Walls should suffice in most cases.
- As you continue to iterate and develop on your design?
Developing materials and their thickness can be important as well as establishing a roof shape and type. As more details become final, so can the level of complexity in the model.
- What are the key stages?
The key stages are adding walls, adding the roof and the floor and details, and finally going back and ensuring that floors and walls are connected and a level of cleanness and precision is maintained. F
- And how much detail should you include at each stage?
In the first stage, the areas of rooms and their relationships are most important.
In the next stage adding furniture and permanent fixtures can be helpful in finalizing the organization of space and making sure there aren’t any missing pieces.
Finally, once every wall and window is in its proper place, you can go back and “close the seams”- make sure that the model is clean and connected.
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?
What are the advantages of getting the Revit component families (for furniture, equipment, and fittings) directly from the manufacturer versus from an online sharing website like RevitCity.com?
The quality of the families and the level of detail they can provide. The manufacturer might also include families that have IRL versions that can easily be integrated into the actual build project and comply with typical standards.