Stairs - are they surfaces?

[mmodernc]

Stairs - Are they solids or surfaces? If solids why can't you join them to floors?

Could someone from autodesk answer this. Sometimes the stair tool crashes and says something like "surface failed". This would indicate to me that the stairs are built as surfaces not solids. And this is why you cannot join them to other solid elements like floors.
And that's why its on my wish list to get them to join to floors at least.

[hand471037]

Stairs - Are they solids or surfaces? If solids why can't you join them to floors?

Could someone from autodesk answer this. Sometimes the stair tool crashes and says something like "surface failed". This would indicate to me that the stairs are built as surfaces not solids. And this is why you cannot join them to other solid elements like floors.
And that's why its on my wish list to get them to join to floors at least.

Revit uses it's own custom modeling kernal, so the whole 'solids vs. surfaces' of AutoCAD simply doesn't apply here.

For example, I can export a model of a stair as either a solid or a polyface mesh (surface) to AutoCAD or Max from Revit just by setting the export option. In Max or AutoCAD turning something that's a surface into a solid isn't always so trivial.

My guess is that you're getting errors because something like your riser or nosing profile is getting 'pushed' beyond resonable limits. You've got to be careful sometimes with profile families in things like Stairs, for unless you've built your families so that they can go all the way down to zero in some dimension, they can cause issues when the stair that's using them is directing them to do so. If you get my drift.

As for why you can't connect them to floors, well, that's up for someone from Revit to answer. There is a limited number of things you can join and connect within Revit. Again, it's not like solids in Max or AutoCAD, where you can Boolean anything to anything (sometimes).

Hope this helps.

[mmodernc]

Thanks Jeffrey.
Did you ever use Datacad?
Ross

[hand471037]

Did you ever use Datacad?

Nope.

ACAD12 -> ACAD14 -> ACAD 2K -> Revit 3.1 ;-)

Got to skip ADT altogether.

[lev.lipkin]

Stairs are represented by several appropriate solids and surfaces which is why joining geometry is not simple enhancement.

Please file crash cases through support. Sorry for your trouble.

[mmodernc]

Thanks Lev
How come?