Dept of Sneaky Tricks

[Dan Park]

Here's an article on ramps that has some similar steps. It's kind of an ugly hack but the results are pretty good.

http://www.chiefarchitect.com/suppor...?faqNumber=762

[sherpa_jones]

For anyone who wants to create a deck with framing that goes past the railing (16" to 2'), here is a way to do it:

1. Begin by drawing your deck railing. Specify each railing as 'no room definition.'
2. Create a wall type and name it 'deck boundary' or something similar. Make it any thickness that works for you, and set the outer line style as dashed or solid, and the inner line style as none. Copy the material 'air gap' and adjust the transparency to full. Set this as your wall material.
3. Draw this wall around your deck, spacing it as appropriate, and connect it to the exterior walls. This should create a room definition to your new boundary wall. Specify it as 'deck.'
4. Draw your stairs down from the boundary wall. Using a poline, draw a landing between the stairs and the railing, and remove the railing at the landing edge that meets the railing. Change the landing thickness to 0, and use the new air gap material you created earlier.
5. Break the railing at each end of the landing and make it invisible. Now your railings shoudl be continuous. Some minor work may be needed to make everything line up, but you should be 99.99% there.
6. Auto frame the deck and you are done.

In my photos here, I drew in my own posts and beam for the roof, as well as all my deck framing, except for the planking which I used from the auto framing. Now the beam supporting the deck is right under the posts and beam supporting the roof, and I the deck is framed 12" past. Thanks to Allen Colburn for suggesting this to me.