Reliance (on a model)

The act of making a decision or building work directly from a model's information — taking quantities from it, fabricating from it, operating a building on its data. BIM erodes the old drawing caveats ('don't scale, verify on site'), so good practice states explicitly what each model may and may not be relied upon for, at what level of development, and who verifies. LOD is partly a reliability statement; the danger is a model that looks authoritative being relied on beyond what its makers checked. Liability for reliance is still legally developing.