Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

AC21 Stairs - Will it go over itself?

sinceV6
Advocate
Hi.

Playing a bit with the new toys, I noticed that -I assume it is by design- the stair tool won't go over itself. Is this true? I understand that in order to avoid potential problems with height clearance this could've been incorporated as a feature, or so that you can't make one single stair to build a 10 story staircase, but there are times when you have enough height between stories that you can bend the stair path to go over where it began, or a double full turn stair for a high lobby.

"Make two stairs", you might say... but how about a 1.5 turn spiral stair?

If this is how it is supposed to work, I think they revited the stair tool functionality.
Just checking things here.

Best regards.
10 REPLIES 10
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Yes, I think this is the case: the Stair cannot go over itself.
This was probably a design decision by GRAPHISOFT.
I can imagine this would be causing a lot of visibility complication for the Floor Plan Symbol of the Stair, if it went over itself.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
sinceV6
Advocate
Hi.
Coming back a bit late for this one.
Thanks Laszlo. I thought it must have been by design. So.... is there a way to create a spiral stair that has more than one turn?

Best regards.
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
This same rule of not going over itself applies to all Stairs including Spiral Stairs.
So I think you would have to model it using multiple Stairs.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
ArcAngel
Participant
So any suggestions how to make a stair of three flights between floors where third flight is coincident in plan with the first?
Carlo
AC4.5 - AC 25 (User since 1992)
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
You need to place 2 Stair instances. The Stair cannot go over itself, it is a limitation.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
ArcAngel
Participant
What about the handrail?
Will it be continuous??

This should be fixed to reflect what happens in the real world (pun intended)
Carlo
AC4.5 - AC 25 (User since 1992)
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
The Railing Tool is another story and it is more flexible in this regard. You can place a Railing that will be associative to elements on multiple Stories.

For example, let us say you have a 5 story Staircase. You place 5 Stair, then you can manually place an associative Railing that will go all 5 Stories and its Nodes will be associated to Stairs on each Story.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Anonymous
Not applicable
I am also having the same issue making a spiral staircase, it is honestly frustrating when these tools are created and you basically cant do fundamental things with them i dont really think appearance is an issue, have you seen what a full turn spiral stair looks like in plan? (its a bloody mess) you cant adjust how much of the stair above or below you want to hide.

I am also wanting to do a one and a quarter turn stair
but at this rate it might just be quicker to model the pole and make spiral stair treads out of slabs manually
it is hard enough as it is to get a spiral stair working and looking correct with the amount of settings you need to adjust
Lingwisyer
Guru
If need be, you could load the AC20 Spiral Stair object and use that. I don't think you'll have as much control over the look of each part, but you can put as many treads, making how ever many revolutions you want to achieve your desired height. It should be in your AC20 Migration Library. Not sure how the railing tool would interact with it either...


Ling.

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