What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
The key stakeholders are the owners, employees as well as the architects and engineers working on the build. Creating a building model allows for the entire workforce and client (both owners and employees) to be able to visualise the space and demand what they need or want. For the engineers and architects, they work on and around these ideas and evaluate the possible constraints and opportunities of their desires - and it it’s even possible.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
As you develop your initial design, I think the detail levels can be relatively basic - just getting all your ideas onto the page and seeing what works. It is when you begin to build on the design and plan you have that you should include more details. In the final product - the more specific you can be in the details the better the result. Some key stages that we covered in Module 2 occurred right at the beginning with orientation and the location of the walls thinking ahead for rooms. This will determine the functionality of the space, flow of the rooms. The door and the windows will determine the amount of natural lighting or ventilation that you would be able to get. What are the size and placements of these components? does it fit the environment with the materials we are using. Then you pick the floors - what material and what thickness? Than the roofs. By creating the roof plan you can design a roof and how it slopes which will determine the dimensions of the inside height and space of the rooms. The last step in adding the furniture and appliances to your design. How best can you add to the space to make it efficient and functional. When uploading the plans, you should put as many measurements as you can to help the architects and engineers with the model to make the next part of the build easier.
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?
Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.
By manufactures providing Revit family doors and windows, it benefits them as possible customers are allowed to use their doors/ windows in the designs with realistic measurements. This should hopefully create a larger consumer base as they have visualised your product in their space, and now they can go buy and implement it in their new home or space. It is a greater level of connection and as the designer, it is much easier to model something that is a tangible product as it will be more realistic for the client, easier to grasp measurements for you and the architect and the engineers will be able to trust the appliances easier than ones that are provided by the Revit library.