Firms pay for models. It's unusual for an individual to do so.

Sorry, I meant Architecture Firms.

Depends, I'd say a few day's worth of your lowest paid intern's wage per project sounds about right.

on fiverr, you can outsource your model to a child labor sweatshop in north korea...only $5!!!

:)))  That way the cost of shipping is greater than the cost of the model.

I was wondering, in general,  what percentage out of their yearly profit do architecture firms or offices spend on models... 0.1% or up to 20%

physical or digital?  my experience is that usually the client will pay extra for physical models and any high-end 3D renderings for marketing.  most firms where I am usually have people who do 3D stuff in-house and it's part of regular design services.

I meant physically models, scale models of the future building. I know offices that outsource this task and charge extra for this but a lot of them do this in-house as a design service to look more professional or because is part of their working method. By doing that they have an additional cost. What I am interested is how big this cost might be in rapport with their earnings.

I am looking for a general approximation in %, would it be 1% or up to 20% out of their income?

0%

I guess it depends on the size of the firm and the size of the project, and the pockets of the client. For a large scale commercial development project my firm is working on (59 stories), the client asked us to build a model to explain some of the public realm concepts. We generated a wood & 3D printed model with dimensions around 1m x 3.5m. This cost around $3500, plus labor. The projected budget for this development is 106 million. So far, this model is costing the client 0.000003% of the projected budget.

So, I think you shouldn't be looking at whole percentage points, or even a couple decimals... 

i don't believe that the cost of a model and the building/design fee are related much

Its should be per project. Why you spend on 3d model its batter you can sepend money for 3d images or 3d animation.

many clients prefer a 3d model

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/realestate/a-translator-of-blueprints.html?_r=0

ok by the way are you providing your customer 3d rendering also.

I worked in an office with its own model shop. We had 1 full time professional model maker, plus a couple rotating interns. The total staff in the office was about 100, and I the model maker was certainly paid less than the principal architects or partners. So maybe 1% for salary+benefits. Figure overhead and materials, maybe 3-5% of total office costs.

But we billed for materials and labor on models made for the clients, so that offset some of the costs. If a client really needed something difficult and fancy we outsourced it and charged them with markup. Often over $10,000 for table-top size models that light up.

Outsourcing a good render costs between 1K to 5K USD.

Depends on how many projects a firm has, and how many renders per project they need. (Annually)

3D modeling is normally more expensive depending on the context of the model. 5K to 8K for a commercial building let's say.

Still, nowadays proper firms have employees who are hired to do all these. + Lumion is a user-friendly software to use for anyone who works with 3D softwares, so by learning this program architects could save up a lot of money on visualization part.