Here comes another element issue dzatto

[HeribertoOlivo]

My project is a two story residence; I did the stair as an element and referenced it into the construct in the first level, nice. Then, I want to see the stair in a view drawing in the second floor, so my solution was to reference the stair directly to my view drawing in the second floor and assign elevation to it. I thought that if I had referenced the stair element to the second floor construct too, then later when I referenced all constructs to the elevation & section drawings I could have problems because the element would be referenced into the view drawing two times. My intent with this comment is to see if you guys have any other suggestion that could be a better way to do it. I’d appreciate to read some examples where it is better to use an element as part of the view rather than the construct drawing.

[dzatto]

Nice title!! :beer:

Anyway, I have 3 sets of stairs in my building. 2 go to the basement, and one goes from the finished floor to the mezzanine above. I created 3 separate stair constructs. I chose to do 3 separate ones mainly because the stairs are all different. 2 are metal but only 1 has a guardrail, the other is wood. I suppose I could have done them all on one construct, but it'll work either way. Plus I can move them all independently of each other.

So, basically, I created my stairs as constucts. I associated to my mezzanine stairs to my finished floor level, and set the vertical orientation to UP.

On the basement stairs, they are associated with the basement level. The vertical orientation for both basement stairs is UP.

On the stairs, notice that 2 new display configs are set up. Medium detail intermediate level and medium detail top level. I use these display configs for my plan views of each level. Just go to the stair construct, choose the display you want and modify it through the stair display properties to show what you want. Rails above cut plane, risers below, different cut plan level, whatever. Then, in the view file, right click on the stair Xref and choose Edit Object Display. Choose the Xref Display tab, and check "Override the display configuration set in the host drawing". Then, just pick the correct display config and it will override the display in the host drawing for that particular Xref.

When you Xref them to your model for elevations and sections, they will come in at the correct level. I learned the hard way that elements always come in at elevation 0, so you don't want to use elements for stairs. Unless you use a stair tower which will always start at elevation 0 and go through the building, but I don't have any experience with stair towers so.................

It sounds a little confusing, but it's easy once you do it. Let me know if you need me to explain it a little better. HTH. :beer:

[HeribertoOlivo]

I am realizing that you are good DZatto. Your answer was cristal clear and better than what I was expecting. Thank you for those tips, I will practice that right away. I will look forward trying to shoot to some of your questions. See you in the next episode.

[dkoch]

Sadly, we do not use Project Navigator at work, but you might want to look at modeling your stairs as part of a spanning Construct. That way you can model the entire stair, from top to bottom, in one file. That would also allow you to use the stair tower generator. You would include this spanning Construct in both your first floor and second floor views, and Project Navigator will know to set the stair Construct at the proper elevation. Or so I am told.

[dzatto]

Sadly, we do not use Project Navigator at work, but you might want to look at modeling your stairs as part of a spanning Construct. That way you can model the entire stair, from top to bottom, in one file. That would also allow you to use the stair tower generator. You would include this spanning Construct in both your first floor and second floor views, and Project Navigator will know to set the stair Construct at the proper elevation. Or so I am told.
Yep, it would. I just didn't think he would need to use a spanning construct and stair tower for just 2 levels. Now, if he was building a high rise........................;)

[dzatto]

I am realizing that you are good DZatto. Your answer was clear as water and better than what I was expecting. Thank you for those tips, I will practice that right away. I will look forward trying to shoot some of your questions. See you in the next episode.
Awww shucks, thanks for the compliment! I'm not that good, I've just had to work through all the same issues you have now. I'm sure there's TONS of stuff I have no clue about..