Calling all stair experts!

[Max Lloyd]

Hi guys,

this is one for the more advanced user (I think!).

I've got to model a staircase which is effectively s-shaped in plan. It is made up of 2 spiral staircases, one in the opposite direction to the other (same radius). There are many problems with this as a design, build ability and practicality, but, those issues aside.....

I can create the staircase and am 7 tenths happy, but I can't get the handrails and strings to join correctly (see attached file). Any ideas why?

Also, I would like to make the underside flat, which I can sort of do using a monolithic stair, but I can not determine the thickness of this (currently it goes right to the underside of the inner junction of the riser and tread.

This is the first 'serious' staircase I have had to deal with in Revit and am new to some of the commands there. Any help with this would be very, very welcome.

Max.

[cadkiller]

Max;

Have you tried the boundary and riser tools to create this as one complete stair instead of joining two separate ones? One problem I see in the design is the drastic change in pitch where the two stairs connect. The arc lenghts from nose to nose change from 131 to 340.

[Max Lloyd]

I've tried creating the stair using the boundary and riser tool, but same result.

I agree about the change of pitch on the inner and outer parts where the change of direction occurs. I wonder how nice it would feel to actually walk down anyway....I think it would force you to change handrail half way down.

The boss seems to like it though, I just wonder if perhaps a half landing, no matter how small may help the transition. It would break up the appearance though. Has anyone else ever attempted a stair like this? How were the results?

[ejburrell67787]

I had a play with your stair Max. I had the same problems with the stringers and handrails not joining smoothly at the transition. I also tried it with a straight tread, and with 2 straight treads, at the junction but pretty much the same result. The change in pitch is too sudden for it to come out smoothly automatically. if you play with the stringer depth / carriage depth etc you can make it just about line through on one stringer, but it creates gaps in the other stringer...!

Modelling it as two stairs doesn't seem to work either - the stringers look terrible then.

Also if you make the balustrades rods parallel to the pitch rather than vertical they look a lot better but depends on what aesthetic you want on the built stair... wouldn't want the limitations of your cad software to dictate your design! :twisted:

I couldn't get it to change to monolithic either - if you did could you post the file for me to have a look at please?

Have you made any progress with it yourself?

Elrond