What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
My primary goal during the creation of my research station was to represent all of the necessary features within my building, to make sure that it would serve the students/researchers who would hypothetically be using it. So, I would say that building models serve to communicate details of a project to stakeholders and to confirm that the building being modelled will serve the purpose that it is meant to.
The key stakeholders in building modelling would be the designer, the construction managers, the construction workers, and the people who will, one day, be using the building.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
- As you develop your initial design?
Broad ideas, necessary/key details and inclusions, floor plans
- As you continue to iterate and develop on your design?
How key details will be incorporated, how the design will act to fulfill necessary operations. How important aspects such as plumbing, materials, and floor plans will come together.
- What are the key stages?
Conceptual, design, construction
- And how much detail should you include at each stage?
Each stage should be approached with an increasing amount of detail
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
Broad ideas, floors plans, no need to think about materials or thicknesses
- Preliminary design
Begin to consider materials, thicknesses, plumbing and lighting
- Design development
Decide how key details will be incorporated and work nicely together
- Construction documentation
Should already have all details of design mapped out
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...)
If a certain type of door or window can be easily included into a design program that many designers use, the designers are more likely to include that exact specimen in their final design.
- 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?
The advantage is that the model is more realistic, and includes real windows/doors with exact specifications that may be actually used in the final design.
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?
It would provide me the option of using exact components with realistic proportions in my design. If I modelled my design with only exact replicas of real-life objects, my model would be as close to perfect as possible.