What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
◦ What does each of them need from the model?
◦ What do they care about most, and where do those priorities conflict?
*A drawing is a picture of a building. A model is a description of one.
◦ What questions can you ask a model that you cannot ask a drawing?
◦ Are there things a drawing still communicates better? Give an example.
Comment
A model knows what things are, not just what they look like. That means I can ask it questions like: How many doors are on Level 2? What is the total floor area? How much sun does the south facade get in December? If I move this wall what else really changes? A drawing can only answer what was drawn, and if two drawings disagree nothing tells/warns you. In the Revit sample house, every view (plans, sections, 3D) came from the same model so they all stay consistent automatically.
Drawings still communicate some things better for sure. A quick hand sketch is better for exploring an early idea or explaining a design intent to a person, because it shows only what matters and hides everything else. A detailed construction drawing is also easier for someone on site to read than a 3D model. Someone framing a wall wants a clear dimensioned section.
This course splits the work across Forma, Revit and Forma Data Management.
◦ What is gained by using a different tool for concept, documentation and coordination?
◦ What tends to get lost in the handoffs between them?
◦ Who on a real project team is responsible for making sure nothing is lost?
*Where should a building model actually live?
◦ What are the practical consequences of a model living on one person's laptop?
◦ What changes when the model lives in the cloud, for the designer and for everyone else?
Comment
If a model lives on one person’s laptop, it only exists when that person and that laptop are both available. Other team members work from old copies, versions and that causes them to drift apart. So basically nobody knows which file is current or the newest version. If the laptop breaks or gets lost, the work can be gone. I felt a small version of this during Module 1. I ran Revit through Apporto, so my files lived on a remote machine, and I had to download and re-upload files to move them between places.
When the model lives in the cloud, like in Forma Data Management, there is one current version that everyone can see. A good example is google drive.
The designer gets version history and doesn’t have to email files around. Everyone else (engineers, contractors, owners) can view, comment on, and coordinate with the latest model without needing Revit installed. I could open my uploaded sample house in a fresh incognito browser through a link. The tradeoff is that you depend on internet access and permission settings, and someone has to manage who can edit what.
*You will make hundreds of modeling decisions this quarter.
◦ Which ones are worth being slow and careful about?
◦ Which are worth being fast about, accepting that you may redo them?
◦ How would you tell the difference before you have made the mistake?
Comment
I’d be slow and careful about decisions that everything else depends on and that are expensive to undo: for example the site location and boundary, the building’s overall size and height, floor-to-floor heights, and where the core (stairs and elevators) goes. I was reading that module 3 even warns that the core becomes load-bearing later and carries every riser.
The thing I’d be fast with are things that are cheap to change and meant to be explored like early massing options, facade window patterns, and interior layouts at the concept stage. Like how the Module 2 instructions say a proposal shouldn’t take more than an hour, which tells me speed is the point there.
To tell the difference before making the mistake, I’d ask: how many other decisions depend on this one, and how hard would it be to change next week? If many later steps build on it, slow down. If it’s isolated and easy to redo, move fast and learn from the result.