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 a building model is to provide a visual aspect that supplements the design. Oftentimes, when performing a design, the numerous equations and codes that are implemented help dictate the minimum requirements of a suitable design. However, with a building model, it is easier to recognize what might be lacking within a design and/or what can be considered for user comfort. The key stakeholders might include the public agencies that are funding the design projects, private owners who own the property the building will reside on, or even the cities that need designs focusing on their constituents’ needs. Many of these key stakeholders might not be licensed engineers, so the building model produces a visual component that can easily be checked by the technical and non-technical within the key stakeholders.
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?
When determining the level of detail on a building model, the project phase plays a crucial role. As the initial concept of the project is being developed, a building model will be pretty rudimentary, with the basic components being added. However, as the design progresses, the level of detail will increase as well, as engineering judgement comes into play and certain design choices are implemented within the model. For instance, at the 60% phase of a project, the structural and architectural systems should be largely well-defined, with the material and sizing of various components determined. Then, at the 90% phase, the design should be mostly finalized, with only minor changes being done to the model. With each phase, the key stakeholders could give comments or insights into specific aspects they would like included, which might cause some changes in the design and model. Usually, though, each iteration of the design should be more and more detailed, as the vision of the final product becomes more clear.
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?
When acquiring component families from the manufacturer directly, one advantage could be that the properties of that family are clearly defined, so there is no inaccuracy in the parameters of the component. Additionally, the component families from manufacturers have their real-world counterparts, so contractors can easily install the correct components when following the design. Lastly, since the component families are released directly from the manufacturer, there is a guarantee of quality assurance and credibility, since the components must be up to industry standards.