Curved Stair Help Needed

[Anonymous]

Hi, folks, can someone help me make some curved stairs? I'm getting close, but not close enough.

I've got a 30' circular atrium that goes through four floors of the building, and I want a curved stair that ascends less than half the perimeter, and outside its outer edge, requring walking to the next flight, so that each floor's stair is a mirror image of the one below, but so that they don't meet in plan. In other words, each flight will be less than 180 degrees. I'm still playing with the design, so I don't know by how much exactly.

I've been messing around with the angle in Stairmaker, and I'm getting close, but I just can't get the stair to align with the edge of the opening in the slab. I've tried doing it with Stairbuilder, too, but something about the settings I'm using is crashing that and not producing any stairway. Or was it Stairbuilder that allows setting the angle? I can't remember. Either way, it's not working very well.

I'm afraid I really don't know very much at all about stair design in the first place, and coupled with the cryptic selections in Stairbuilder in particular, I'm at a bit of a loss for an easier way to do this - and to ensure proper cuts out of the slab or additions to it, or whatever is needed in a situation like this.

TIA for any assistance.

Wendy

[Anonymous]

Steve wrote:
As far as changing the width of treads and progression of risers,

I am afraid you may be in trouble with blind monks and building inspectors.

True, I'm afraid, so I've abandoned that idea. A girl can dream in the delirious wee hours of the night, can't she <g>?

But what am I missing with the fills? I cannot for the life of me draw one in the shape I need. I've read the manual section(s), and still can't get them to work.

I've tried drawing it freehand as well as laying down a circle with a 5' larger radius outside the hole and then putting in lines to mark the ends, but no go either way. The image I posted above is one example of what happens.

I did actually manage to draw the fill one time (although it wasn't quite right so I erased it - and of course, I don't remember exactly what I did), and thought I'd put in the direction of travel line as required, but then couldn't get it to convert. It's been close to a week since I've tried it since I've been sick in bed, so I don't remember the exact command that comes up after clicking the first point, but I don't understand what it means. No matter where I click after that first click, though, the whole process just ends.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Wendy



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[Steve Jepson]

Try this... place a hot spot at the center of your stair radius. Draw a curved wall the width of your stair with the center of the diameter at the same spot, explode the wall and you will have your fill. Draw an arc with radius that passes through the center-line of the fill, trim off the ends of the arc at the ends of the fill. Select the fill and the arc and click Tools-Create Stair Using Selection, select the stair from the pop-up menu that looks the most like the stair you want to make and click ok. You can probalby take it from there.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Steve, I'll give it a shot and let you know how it worked out.

Wendy

[Anonymous]

Another easy way to get an unusual fill is to construct the area using any shapes you want (i.e.: 2 concentric circles) and then draw lines from the center of the circles to enclose the desired area. Then select the fill tool, hold space, and click inside the area. A fill is automatically constructed to the edges delineated by lines, circles, etc.

Hope this is clear enough and not too late.

[Steve Jepson]

Sergio wrote:
Another easy way to get an unusual fill is to construct the area using any shapes you want (i.e.: 2 concentric circles) and then draw lines from the center of the circles to enclose the desired area. Then select the fill tool, hold space, and click inside the area. A fill is automatically constructed to the edges delineated by lines, circles, etc.

Hope this is clear enough and not too late.

...to late. That was illustration #1. Apparently she had some trouble doing it that way.