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 main stakeholders are the customers of the building and those that seek to build it (in this case the students who will be building and operating out of the building). In the case of the research station, student researchers deserve a comfortable workspace that is innovative as the students who seek to inhabit it, hence the building incorporates sustainable design practices (such as optimal and minimized window placement, solar panels, window based ventilation). Due to the individual and collaborative natures of research, the building is subdivided into a collaborative space (lab and whiteboard area) and series of desks near the entry of the building. All the desks are mobile to allow for reconfiguration of the lab space in the case that research/workforce needs change in the future.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
- As you develop your initial design?
- As you continue to iterate and develop on your design?
- What are the key stages?
- And how much detail should you include at each stage?
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?
Manufacturers want to facilitate adoption of their products, these models help facilitate purchases by enabling customers to visualize/become familiar with their products and incorporate them into their design plans. When these customers go on to publish their work, the models they use can serve as advertising for further customers.
Deisgners want to work with the most accurate information, as manufacturers are incentivized to sell their latest products the families they post can be expected to be kept up to date. Designers can then utilize the latest models and integrate them into their own designs.
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?
You can take advantage of the latest updates from the manufacturer, online sharing websites may be outdated and not have as large a catalog as the manufacturer itself. Manufacturers may also have a means for Q&A on specific models.