What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
- The primary stakeholders are a group of research scientists (assuming at jasper ridge). The main goal would be to create a space that communicates to these scientists the type of work space they could expect and provide input on. A building model helps us show that construction in 3d space, as well as to help centralize design planning. This means our stakeholders would be the building owners, funders, and the scientists involved, as well as the design and construction team, who use the building model to guide the creation process.
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?
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...)
The advantage for manufacturers is that by providing the designs for use, their product is directly integrated into the design. If a builder wants to stay true to a design, they must purchase that product. By providing the designs, manufacturers get to lock in sales of product at a much earlier stage, where it would be difficult or impossible to replace during construction.
- 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?
A designer benefits from manufacturer providing models since it guarantees that everything will work as envisioned in the design. The door will be the same, down to every detail, as will the chair, and the window. This reduces last minute changes during construction and simplifies procurement. The advance of using manufacturer families is that those models represent real products, which can be ordered easily, instead of having to find a similar looking or sized product later on.
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?
The main advantage is that a component family straight from the manufacturer is not modified and likely up to date. An online sharing website can have people making their own models of real products. However, they may miss key components and dimensions that would change the behavior of the final product in real life vs the design. They also may represent an older version. A manufacturer has every incentive to update designs as soon as they change, as it establishes good relationships with designers. An online sharing website has no incentive, and may not document what model year the design comes from. As a result, those models may no longer represent real products, eliminating the benefit to designers of using manufacturers’ models.