1.) How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
In a building model, it is important to include only the detail necessary to convey your ideas to your intended audience. When developing an initial design, only the bare minimum is necessary in terms of detail. However, as you continue to develop your design, adding more detail is typically important as you close in on your final idea for construction. The key stages of building modeling in my opinion are the following: generating ideas, creating an initial design, revising your design, producing a final version, and then sharing your creation. As these stages progress, each successive iteration should contain more and more detail (as is appropriate).
2.) 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: During the conceptual design stage, little to no information about the composition is important/necessary; all that is needed is a simple concept sketch to convey and idea
- Preliminary design: in the preliminary design, it is important to start considering specifications when it comes to composition, but again, it is early enough in the design process so it still isn’t necessary; however, I think that having at least a general idea of your composition is important in the preliminary design
- Design development: during the design development stage, decisions regarding composition and materials should be made; these might not be the final choices, but the designer should have a pretty finalized idea of their design at this stage
- Construction documentation: all composition decisions should be set in stone by the time of construction documentation; materials need to be ordered and the construction team needs to know the specifics of the design in order to start building
3.) Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.
I think that many door and window manufacturers provide Revit with door and window families for their component library to gain clients. Although it might cost them money to create and provide these services to Revit, they end up making money because designers and architects select the windows and doors provided by these companies in their models. As a designer, the advantage of using these specific families of windows and doors is that there is a guarantee that these products are reliable and actually exist in the real world.