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 goal of creating a building model is to make the process of planning, design, and construction of buildings highly efficient and collaborative. Key stakeholders, such as engineers and developers, materials manufacturers, and potential investors, are able to estimate and plan appropriate amount of money and manpower accordingly. Models can also help prevent mistakes in construction of buildings, which can be costly (from minor damages to lawsuits). From the construction side, engineers and developers need information on how the building will be constructed. Materials will need to be ordered, and the manufacturers need information regarding "what, how many, and by when". Potential investors need information on if the model is feasible and worth the time and money to go forward with. Overall, creating a building model provides information to many players involved so that results will be achieved without wasting any resources.
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?
{speaking solely from Assignment 1 experience because i have no other experience} As I develop my initial design, I put in the most essential details (area, rooms, furniture, etc) that need to meet a certain requirement. By this stage, the only numeral detail I keep in mind is the area of the building. As I continue to iterate and develop on my design, I start to "settle" into features that I like (south-facing wall being the longest, bath and storage next to each other, etc). Only after seeing that all the features I want is where I want them, I start to measure and put numeral details down and adjust as needed (area of the desk area for researchers, height and spacing of windows and solar panels, etc). However, in general, I think details of measurement regarding doors, windows, walls, and rooms as well as orientation of essential furniture should be included at bare minimum in any building model. I am guessing the answer might differ if we are talking industrial model building process.
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...)
- When manufacturers provide Revit families, it acts like an advertisement. If designers and engineers come across their products and feel that it fits the model, the products is likely to be ordered and used in the end of the production line. Making their products - as well as the extensive information that comes with the families - available in the early model building stages makes these products more familiar and trustworthy as opposed to other manufacturers that don't provide Revit families.
- 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?
- As the designer, I would be more comfortable moving forward in the designing process with these manufacturer-provided families. Even though Revit library features are very general, anxiety hangs over me as I wonder if these designs would have to be custom-ordered which will be generally more expensive. The knowledge that I am using materials that actually exists and have been produced gives me the confidence I need to not sweat over door and windows so that I can focus on some other features in the model.