topic Re: Stairmaker Queries in Modeling

Stairmaker Queries

Bruce — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 21:25:21 GMT

Hi,

I'm using the built-in stairmaker and want to know if there is a way to:

1. Show balustrades in plan
2. Adjust where the break line occurs
3. Adjust individual tread sizes (eg for a top 'dummy' tread).

Cheers.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

TomWaltz — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 22:04:38 GMT

1) not that I know of.
2) Drag the break line in the preview window of your Stair Maker menu (when you are in the Overall Settings panel, along with floor-to-floor height)
3) not that I know of.

#1 and 3 sure would be nice though!

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Bruce — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 22:15:47 GMT

As fast as your avatar suggests (BTW - I collected him - the Wally one - until issue #50)

Thanks for that Tom. I guess I'll just have to fudge the balustrades in 2d until we get a better stair builder.

Cheers.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Erika Epstein — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:36:06 GMT

You might want to look at Archistair by Cigraph.
All their addons have free trial demos downloadable from their website.

http://www.cigraph-store.com/html/home/CIG-INDEX.htm

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Bruce — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 17:41:01 GMT

Yes.

Unfortunately I am stuck with the ArchiCAD included stair options for this project (complexities of sharing with the whole office & getting purchases approved in the time frame needed etc etc)

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Erika Epstein — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:05:28 GMT

Alas, perhaps next time.

In the meantime, try using solid fills in plans to show railings. Quick, easy and effective.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Bruce — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:45:22 GMT

However, this raises a very pertinent question, I think: Why is the supplied stairmaker inadequate? Why do we have to pay extra for an external stair builder? Revit's stairbuilder is 'out of the box' and works fantastic.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Haneef Tayob — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:36:23 GMT

I share the same sentiments. It does not sound right when you spend months trying to convince the guys upstairs why we should switch to ArchiCad and then having to tell them we need to purchase an add-on to achieve better stairs.

I recently, but reluctantly, just purchased StairBuilder after reaching some dead ends with Stairmaker. I'm reasonably happy with the product, but feel that such an essential requirement to produce good staircases should be adequately covered by ArchiCad.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

TomWaltz — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:46:15 GMT

I feel that the Archicad one is so-so, StairBuilder is a little better, but neither one is really what it should be.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Bruce — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:16:23 GMT

Although I've yet to look into it (now that I've finished uni - woo hoo - it's top of my list) I understand the one supplied by Cadimage is very good.

http://www.cadimagetools.com/home.php?page=products&productID=170

But as I said - I've yet to look into it.

Re: Stairmaker Queries

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 12:55:32 GMT

Erika wrote:
Alas, perhaps next time.

In the meantime, try using solid fills in plans to show railings. Quick, easy and effective.

You can also go into the AC9 library and use the stairmaker handrail on the plan then hide it when modeling. it is under concrete in the stairmaker handrails list.