Stair with 2 widths

[WendyWelton]

This is probably a very easy problem - and I'm sure people do this succesfully every day, but I'm stumped.

The problem: I need to do a straight stair that's wider on the bottom half that the top half.

What I've tried:
- When I put two straight segments against each other, they merge and give me only one width.
- When I put a little landing in between them, it doesn't recognize
the two stair segments as part of the same stair, and therefore doesn't figure the rises correctly, unless,
- I make the landing a trapezoid, so that the full width of the landing contacts the full width of each stair segment. This makes Chief recognize the stair as one, but then I get weird 3D, like the edge of the landing showing through the wall...

What's the best approach for this?

Thanks in advance,
Wendy

[Larry Kumpost]

Wendy:

I'm not sure how easy it is.

I don't have time to try this, and I'm not sure which tread is your landing, but have you tried making the landing the full width of the wide run of stairs.

If that doesn't do it then I would try adding a break point in the landing at the narrow run of stairs.

[Tim O'Donnell]

http://216.18.154.18/chieftalk/showt...&threadid=2786

[Allen42acj]

It is a lot harder than you'd think.I tryed making 2 sections,locking widths then joining.Got a message to unlock,cancelled then got error message to save and restart.
I'm lost...lol
Allen C.

[Tim O'Donnell]

here is another option...

create a thin invisivble wall and enclose the lower open area with it, make the stairs winder so they fill to the wall...attached is a sample plan

[Allen42acj]

You can strech the wall to get it under the stairs.
Glad to know how to do that,thanks.
Allen C.

[WendyWelton]

Thanks guys,

I'm just back in from an Away Mission and I still have one more meeting. I'll give these a shot later.

W

[frwillia]

Originally posted by Tim O'Donnell
here is another option...

create a thin invisivble wall and enclose the lower open area with it, make the stairs winder so they fill to the wall...attached is a sample plan

Tim,

Thanks for the approach. I also need to do this - I have a stair like this in my house - I had them build it right but the plans were not quite accurate - didn't show the stair tread extending out to (and actually about an inch past) the partial wall exterior.

I am having some trouble with the example file - it looks right in plan view which is a huge improvement over what I had originally in my plan. But I thought I'd play with the approach before attempting to edit my plan to look like I had it built using the thin invisible wall and winder stairs technique.

My problem is that the interior camera views seem to get confused. To experiment further I added a second story, created a room above that was open below and took some more camera views. Section views look correct, but in camera view (vector view?) of the interior Chief seems to be confused by the stair sections and tries to create another floor, or a break of some sort, that looks like it is about where the two sections meet.

I think this type of stair is fairly common - but it sure is hard to model!

Fitch

[WendyWelton]

Tim,

Somehow I knew you would be the one with the answer, in this case 2 answers!

Even with your directions and examples, this one is not coming easily to me. I think I like your second solution best, but it's going to take my finding some of that ever ellusive Quiet Time to really master it.

I feel a "wish" coming!

Thanks so much,
Wendy

[frwillia]

Wendy,

I too liked Tim's thin wall approach but having the troubles noted above, I tried your landing approach with a stair tread sized landing between two stair sections. The landing being the width of the wider stair section, i.e. the first "tread" of the wider width. I had to create the landing by drawing a poly line and converting it to a landing. Then I calculated the height and connected the stair sections to that.

The good news: It looks right in plan and section views.

The bad news: The stair railing gets all funky where it passes by the landing in camera views (that a client might like to see - I know my wife sure wanted to see them!) and interior camera views are all confused - at least so far.

I think its time for another cup of coffee ... then I'll try it again in a plan from scratch.

Fitch

[WendyWelton]

Fitch,

I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one struggling to implement this. This is the first time I haven't "gotten it" right away, once Tim has shown the way. I was feeling a bit s..l...o....w......

Wendy

[Allen42acj]

When I build it in real life. The short wall is 1 1/2"wide ,flush with the inside of the stairs and the full wall.Then the finish buts into the wall.You have 2" for it to die into.
When I try to draw it the lines snap together and become the same width.Might be something on the stair videos.
ALLEN C.

Every time I learn somthing new,the list of things I need to learn gets longer.

[Tim O'Donnell]

see if this helps...

[Tim O'Donnell]

and you can use an elevation polyline solid to fill the wall and a room molding pline for the base

[frwillia]

Tim,

I'm feeling pretty S L O W myself - how did you connect the stairs?

I draw two sections but they don't connect.

Thanks
Fitch