patricks
2006-10-06, 07:50 PM
For some reason I can't get my railings to work right on some exterior concrete steps next to a loading dock.
First consider "normal" steel or wood stairs. Those have separate treads and risers with a specified thickness for each. Normally the stair ends at the top with a riser, with the floor structure at the top. When you add a railing, it measures the vertical distance from the tread nosing to the top rail to get the railing height and make it follow the slope of the stairs. And if you edit the sketch for the railing, you can add separate segments at each end for the railing extensions, or to make them continue around a landing.
Okay now, with monolithic stairs, there is no tread or riser thickness, and you have to end with a tread instead of a riser. That top riser is going to be the same height as the floor level (sure would be nice if stairs and floors would join geometry, but I digress). So now if I draw a railing along the edge of the stairs from end to end, the railing ends up being one tread too long, and one riser too high. The baluster at the top of the railing actually floats in midair.
So I tried pulling the sketch line back to the forward edge of the top tread, and then making a separate sketch line going along that top tread, and also along the edge of my landing. Well that didn't work, now my railing continues up at the same slope as the stair, above my landing and hits my wall about 6 ft. above the landing instead of 3' - 6" above the floor level.
So what am I to do here? Do I have to calculate the height of one riser, and actually make my stair one riser short so that the floor slab can serve as the top-most tread nosing, as it would in real life? Of course, that leaves a gap between the top tread of the stair and the floor slab. Or will I have to just create separate railings for the sloped portion and the horizontal portion of the railing (really want to avoid doing that).
See the following images. The first one shows the railing with one sketch line ending at the top end of the stair, and another sketch line running along the landing. You can see how the landing railing is too high by an amount equal to one stair riser height. The second image shows the railing sketch line ending out at the nosing on the top tread, and then a separate line running along the landing and out over the top tread to meet the other line. That one just keeps sloping all the way up. The third one shows 2 separate railing elements. They're at the correct heights, but of course not connected.
I would rather have it as one element so it will connect. Am I just out of luck here?
First consider "normal" steel or wood stairs. Those have separate treads and risers with a specified thickness for each. Normally the stair ends at the top with a riser, with the floor structure at the top. When you add a railing, it measures the vertical distance from the tread nosing to the top rail to get the railing height and make it follow the slope of the stairs. And if you edit the sketch for the railing, you can add separate segments at each end for the railing extensions, or to make them continue around a landing.
Okay now, with monolithic stairs, there is no tread or riser thickness, and you have to end with a tread instead of a riser. That top riser is going to be the same height as the floor level (sure would be nice if stairs and floors would join geometry, but I digress). So now if I draw a railing along the edge of the stairs from end to end, the railing ends up being one tread too long, and one riser too high. The baluster at the top of the railing actually floats in midair.
So I tried pulling the sketch line back to the forward edge of the top tread, and then making a separate sketch line going along that top tread, and also along the edge of my landing. Well that didn't work, now my railing continues up at the same slope as the stair, above my landing and hits my wall about 6 ft. above the landing instead of 3' - 6" above the floor level.
So what am I to do here? Do I have to calculate the height of one riser, and actually make my stair one riser short so that the floor slab can serve as the top-most tread nosing, as it would in real life? Of course, that leaves a gap between the top tread of the stair and the floor slab. Or will I have to just create separate railings for the sloped portion and the horizontal portion of the railing (really want to avoid doing that).
See the following images. The first one shows the railing with one sketch line ending at the top end of the stair, and another sketch line running along the landing. You can see how the landing railing is too high by an amount equal to one stair riser height. The second image shows the railing sketch line ending out at the nosing on the top tread, and then a separate line running along the landing and out over the top tread to meet the other line. That one just keeps sloping all the way up. The third one shows 2 separate railing elements. They're at the correct heights, but of course not connected.
I would rather have it as one element so it will connect. Am I just out of luck here?