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 building model is to clearly visualize and coordinate the design so it can be understood and built effectively. Key stakeholders include clients, designers, engineers, builders, and regulators, each focusing on different needs like functionality, accuracy, efficiency, and safety. In short, clients want value and vision, professionals need precision and coordination, and regulators care most about compliance.
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.
Advantage to Manufacturers
Providing Revit families is a marketing strategy for manufacturers. By giving designers accurate digital versions of their products, they increase the chances that their windows, doors, or fixtures are specified in real projects. To concldue, itcan lead directly to product sales, so while it costs them time and money to create the families, it helps secure business.
Benefit to Designers
As a designer, manufacturer provided families save time and ensure accuracy. They include the correct dimensions, materials, performance data, and even energy values, so your design is more precise and code-compliant. Compared to the generic Revit library families, manufacturer families are closer to real world components, which improves coordination, visualization, and cost estimating.
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?
Manufacturer.provided Revit families are more accurate because they reflect real products with the correct dimensions, specs, and performance data. Online sites like RevitCity are good for variety and speed, but the quality and accuracy can be inconsistent. Using manufacturer families ensures your design is buildable and reliable, while shared libraries are best for quick concepts or placeholders.