What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
The main goal of a building model is to let everyone on the project work from the same information, catch clashes before construction, and make better decisions. Owners, architects, and contractors may want different things from the model, but in the end it's all about decision-making. Where they conflict is usually during construction. Contractors and owners push for value engineering, substitutions, or constructability changes to save cost and time, while architects need to protect the design intent.
A drawing is a picture of a building. A model is a description of one.
With a model, I can see how different trades actually interact. It shows where MEP runs into architectural elements, where MEP systems clash with each other, and where they conflict with the structure. On 2D drawings, MEP is hard to read clearly, since each trade is on its own sheet and elevations are often not shown. These interferences only become visible when everything is modeled together in 3D.
That said, 2D drawings are still better for things that don't need to be modeled heavily in 3D. Detailed or flat items like floor waterproofing or door hardware are clearer and faster to show on a 2D sheet, and modeling them in full detail would add effort without much benefit.
This course splits the work across Forma, Revit and Forma Data Management.
Where should a building model actually live?
A building model should live in the cloud as a federated model, where each trade keeps its own model and they are combined in one shared environment. This way, everyone works from the same current information, and clashes between trades can be caught early. The as-built model should also be developed alongside construction, so field changes are captured as they happen rather than reconstructed at the end of the project.