Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?

• What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?

Land feature can greatly influence the architecture design. Structural design, field distribution, for example, garden vs living area, are most affected by the terrain features.

When designing a project...

• Should the building adapt to the terrain?
• Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?

It depends. If the terrain is too dramatic, it's better to let the building adapt to the terrain, since the cost for changing the terrain can be huge. Otherwise, it should be acceptable to let the terrain adapt to the building.

Describe a case when it would be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit… How do you decide when customize versus using readily available components?

When you need to model something that is new or need to show your creativity, it is worthwhile to create a new custom component. If the design is not very much different from the existing components, or not frequently used in the project, it might be better to just model in place.