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 goals of creating a building model is to serve the people who will be building the building and the users of the building. In the case of this project, our building model needs to serve those who will be building the field research station as well as the field researchers. Those who are building the station care about the feasibility and ability to understand the design. Those who will be using the building will care mostly about its functionality.
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?
In the initial design phases you should include very minimal details. Focus on rough dimensions / schematics. As you continue to iterate your design, you can add more detail such as key materials and assemblies / furniture, more refined dimensions, structural elements, and building flow. You can also refine your choices for the building envelope and opening, windows, and doors. The key stages are the initial design phase, the development phases, constant iteration after receiving feedback and returning back to the development stage and then going to the final stages. The final stages should include all design details and information for construction.
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 can use this to their advantage because if their Revit family is already included in your BIM plans, then it is more likely to be included and used in the actual building. That in turn would allow them to make money because the builder would purchase their specific family for doors and/or windows. As the designer of the building, manufacturer-provided families allows for access to accurate and specific families that can also be calculated in a cost-estimate versus using the generic families that Revit provides.