Module 2 - Points to Ponder

What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?

Creating a building model is useful for the engineers to visualize a project design and how a space can realistically be designed to fit the problem or objective. Building models are also useful for planning out materials and how much materials would cost, as well as estimated the time it would take to build the design. 

Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.

While it may come at a cost to create and provide manufacturer-specific Revit families for their products, if engineers have access to the model for an existing product that they can plan to purchase, it would be easier to involve that specific model into the Revit design to ensure it works for the design. This benefits the manufacturers because they can ensure business if engineers plan around purchasing their products, and benefits engineers because they do not have to use a theoretical placeholder of a generalized object provided by the Revit library. 

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?

Getting the Revit families directly from the manufacturer could ensure that dimensions are accurate and up-to-date if there were any changes to the product design or manufacture. This could also ensure that the component actually exists and is currently available to order instead of being a potentially out-of-date model that does not end up being accessible.