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 are to be able to communicate with others and to collaborate with others. These “others” are also known as stakeholders. The key stakeholders are typically owners (the ones paying for whatever is being built), designers, engineers, and builders. Owners probably care most about cost and getting what they want. This is where the building model can convey and communicate the end product in a very effective way. The designers are able to see the vision of what the product will be and ways they can best achieve the vision. Engineers need to ensure the vision and end product are buildable and achievable, and the model is able to communicate that to the Engineers. The Builders need to be able to look at the model and build the product.
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?
There are many different design stages while engaging with the different stakeholders of a project, and each design stage will dictate the detail of the model. The key stages could be the concept design, where you’re working with just a site plan, and perhaps a rough building size and shape. Then there may be the 15% design stage (preliminary design), which includes a good site plan, building orientation, specific square footage and shape. From there, the stages get more detailed and specific and go down to the exact components of all the disciplines - plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc. - throughout the building. These would be the detailed construction design/models.
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?
This is a great question. I suppose it has something to do with network effects and marketing. They provide their components to Revit users, which use them in their designs. Designers, engineers, and builders see these components are know that these components “fit” into the design and may be more likely to use them in the build.
Perhaps a benefit is accuracy in design. Understanding that these components have dimensions that are accurate from the manufacturer enables a designer to accurately communicate their design.