What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
- I think the most important goals of a creating a building model are maximizing the efficiency and the precision of the project we envision to construct. This can help us visualize key components of the project, minimize errors, find cost-effective solutions and alternatives as well as ensure effective communication amongst the many parties involved in the project. The main stakeholders are the architects, the structural engineers, the contractors, the clients, as well as any federal or national governmental agency that dictates regulations on any components that may be off-limits in terms of construction.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
At the early stages of building modeling, as you develop a more conceptional/”rough” design, I believe it is important to brainstorm as much as you can and focus on visualizing a more general concept on the project, i.e. the big idea, leaving detail as a secondary concern. It is easier to go into specifics once you have created an overall, feasible design than working the other way around, as the details tend to change virtually every time a bigger, structural change in design is made. Having said that, it is important to come into the project with a previous notion on some of the key limitations that will potentially constraint your design, such as budget, square footage, and material availability).
As you advance through your project, you should decide whether or not to include some specific detail based on its importance and essentialness. If a specific detail could drastically change your design, then it is critical to consider it. Once you have a more concrete design and structure for your model, it will become progressively easier to modify and include non-essential detailing. At these later stages of development, I think it is important to include any type of information that enhances the perception and understanding of the modeling without sacrificing any visual images
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?
To begin with, Revit component families are guaranteed to be accurate in terms of proportions, size and functionality. While RevitCity can offer high-quality component families, we cannot assure that every component is going to function perfectly or that they are representative in size and proportionality. This might bring some substantial issues in later stages of design. Secondly, Revit families might bring greater amount of components than a RevitCity library that might be more limited or only include specific items or components. Additionally, if one uses components from RevitCity, the issue of running into legal trouble due to copyright issues will be present- Revit component families will always be the safer alternative.