"Shorty Stairs"

[Tom Price]

I'm creating a 5' high platform inside a room as part of a child's play area. (I made the platform using the soffit tool...is that right?) I want a set of stairs going to the platform that have 6" risers, but can't figure out how to get the risers at 6" and the total stair height at 60". Can do?

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[M.A. Winterton]

I copied this from a earlier posting this is Martys answer and it works

I had some problems with treads for a while but I seem to have got to grips with them lately. Its a bit like the foof dbx - you have to do things in the right order.
Set the number of treads, check the "fix no. of treads" box, set your tread width then check the box above so the width greys out.
That should do it.



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[Tom Price]

The problem seems to be in the total stair LENGTH staying put. If I set the number of treads to 9 or 10 (remember I want 6" risers and a TOTAL STAIR HEIGHT of 60"), then lock the number of treads, the program changes the total length based on what it thinks is the proper rise and run ratio. As this staircase is for little children, the risers need to remain lower than a normal staircase.

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[M.A. Winterton]

Sorry Tom it was Christmas eve here and I didn't check out your problem properly as I was just going out the door. Your right I can't get the riser angle box to change without it changing the tread width value when it's locked and greyed out (retain treads this section checked also) somethings not right and I've tried every combination I can think of. What we really need is a height value that can be locked like treads not angle, and that does lock. It seams like CA6 decides what riser height is required and then will not let you change it, only tread widths. Maybe someone else can find something I missed.

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[marty]

I think you will have to define the platform with invisible walls call it a landing and set its height then re-build. Your stairs should then work.

You can still use a soffit to form the landing

[berryvale]

Tom:

Try creating the platform out of a custom landing. Click Build > Slabs > Slab and drag a rectangle to represent the platform. Size it. Double click it and go to the Special button in the Edit Cad Item dbx. Choose landing and set its thickness and height off the floor here. Then drag a set of stairs UP to it. Drag the top tread to the landing and it will attach. Then you may have more control over setting the correct values for the stairs. Good luck!

Steve Blake
Berryvale Software Solutions
Chief Architect Dealer/Trainer www.berryvalesoftware.com

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[Jay Palmer]

I forgot to include, in my previous post, the method for building the staircase using Chief's staircase generator. It can be done but, as Tom Price is aware, Chief won't allow you complete freedom to determine both riser height AND overall length of the staircase (tread depth).

To build the platform instead of using a soffit you want to build a Second Floor room within a First Floor room, specify the Second Floor to have a floor height of 60", and then build a staircase up to it.

Assume your "First Floor" height is 120". Build a second floor, and drag its walls to be whatever size the platform should be (I used 6'0" x 6'0"). Designate its floor height as 60" and make sure its ceiling height shows as 60" ('cuz 60 + 60 = 120 and you actually want this "Second Floor" room to fit entirely within the First Floor).

Specify the walls of the platform to be railings and place an opening in the railing where you want the stairs to be.

Then, while on the first floor plan, drag your stairs. Since they're only going to a second floor at 60", it should be fairly easy to get a 6" riser (I have them at 5-7/16"; the staircase has 10 treads and is 129-3/8" long).

All in all, not so bad.

Then place soffits, or whatever, as appropriate under the "Second Floor" platform as it will appear to be unsupported. (You can build first floor walls there, too, and then drag them down in cross section, but I imagine this platform is supported by beams or some such thing.)

Sincerely,

Jay Palmer

[Jay Palmer]

Unfortunately, using a landing doesn't mitigate the hair pulling.

Chief's stair-building facility is very powerful and does a great job under standard circumstances. In a case like this, however, the stair generator simply doesn't give the user the freedom to design what he wants.

Frankly, it's why there are individual stair (and stair with handrail) symbols in the ChiefSymbols(TM) library - so that you can easily place a staircase which rises to whatever height the user wants, with whatever size risers (and treads) the user wants to specify (with pretty balusters and handrails, to boot).

If this user wants just one or two steps, he can just use slabs designed to look like stairs with treads, and use sloped soffits as handrails.

Jay Palmer