Opinion

[Anonymous]

Hi all. Just wondering what you think is the absolute best way to design stairs(AC stair tool or add-on)? I'm just looking for the quickest and easiest way to do it before I spend a lot of time with the AC stair tool. Same with wall framing, is there something better than the AC wall acessory? Just trying to save a little time as my plate is quite full!! Thanks in advance. Doug

[Anonymous]

Good question.

Generally I would regard the Stairmaker tool as "very poor". I am sure many would agree.

For many jobs I like to use ArchiStair from Cigraph. It is straight forward and reliable. It is also well concieved and logical but even this needs improvement. Cigraph are working on a new version.

For a great deal of my stairs I model them in ArchiCAD using slabs and roofs. It is slow but very accurate and it produces good sections and details.

I will post a picture:

I don't have any experience of wall framing accessories but Cad Image might be worth a look.

[Anonymous]

Hello Doug,
Just out of curiosity, in what situations would you need
to model wall framing ?
I know that several people on AC talk use the wall accessory
to model framing and I always wondered why they needed it.

As to the mater of stairs, a long time ago I abandoned Stairmaker
and made my own set of stair objects that do the job better and quicker.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
As to the mater of stairs, a long time ago I abandoned Stairmaker
and made my own set of stair objects that do the job better and quicker.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Peter are your stair objects available for buying or sharing? Could you post a picture of them?

[Anonymous]

Hi Peter, been a while. When we put a section view of the house on the plan it includes studs, headers, floor joists, etc. from the basement to the ridge. They are drawn according to common building practices. The wall framing tool does this to a point but it's kind of a pain to work with. I can tell that I'm going to have to use some old school to make them look right(lines, fills). Keep in mind that I haven't used the framing tool very much yet. Just wondering if with all of the knowledge at this site if there is a better way.

[Anonymous]

Hello Philip,
My office has been using these parts in various incarnations since
AC 6.0. They seem to work for us.
It never occurred to me to sell them but I guess if you are interested
I could send them to you to evaluate.
I have included a .jpg of the preview pictures of most of them.
see attachment.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Hello Doug,
Interesting. All of the construction documents I have ever done
did not include elevations of the framing. The information for
constructing the framing was handled in the framing plans and details.
If you were working in the old pencil and paper days, drawing all
those framing elevations must have been very time consuming.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

You're right Peter, the framing elevations come later on in the design process. I neglected to mention that. I wasn't in this business in the "Pencil & Paper Days but even with Autocad a good sized house can take a few days to "Section out". I couldn't even imagine drawing them by hand!!! AC was supposed to change all that by cutting our drawing time. I believe that it can I just want to make sure that I'm doing things as efficiently as possible. Doug